How many times have we found ourselves in the sticky situation- rude if you decline, regret if you accept! There is no way we get to be nice and avoid the circumstance no matter how hard we try. Or, Do we? We have experts answer us in the politest way to wriggle or way out of these social obligations.
When someone home cooks a meal for you but you don’t prefer the taste of it
If you are one of the several guests at a dinner party at a house you may never again be invited to for a meal, then the best way to handle that is to “tag on” to someone else’s compliment.
Wait for someone near you to say their genuine compliment, such as “Mary; I just LOVE this! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to prepare this for us!” and you very quickly jump in when she is finished and say “YES! Thank you so much!” This is the best way to handle it.
If it is a family member- Do not under any circumstances tell someone you care about that the meal was “wonderful” or “great” or “delicious” if that is completely insincere. If it ever gets back to the person that you really did not like it, they will never trust your word at anything ever again. Even worse is when they take you at your word and make sure to have that same thing you raved about every time you come, and then they find out you really don’t like it at all!
RSVP-ing to an event
“Thank you for inviting me to (name event). I will be unable to attend, but I hope all goes well with your event.”(You can give the reason you won’t be attending unless it’s simply because you don’t want to. Telling them you aren’t coming because you aren’t interested is in bad form.)This should do it.
If you have a guest over at your flat or house, and they are trying to watch a favourite film of theirs, what should you do to be respectful to them?
Once you get inside, and see your friend has paused his/her favourite movie to greet you, just tell them you’ll get yourself a nice cup of tea and join them. Let them go back to their movie, make yourself tea or a snack and then come back in and sit quietly while they finish watching.
If the inviter is courteous enough to stop watching the movie altogether so you can visit with him/her, that’s great. But if they don’t, then you be the courteous one. I’d consider that a respectful thing to do in this situation.
How can one send a cancellation letter for a wedding invitation?
Do not wait to mail a letter, call the bride or groom immediately when you realize you cannot attend. Give a clear, simple valid reason- and express your regret that you cannot attend.
Hopefully, there is enough time for them to lower the head count, or possibly invite someone in your place. You might also give them a little bit nicer gift than you had planned, to make up for the inconvenience of cancelling.
How can you deal with rude, insensitive and criticising people?
There are two ways.
- Ignore them. Make them an invisible part of your life, as if they don’t exist at all and whatever they do or speak doesn’t really matter.
- Behave the same way if you can. Let them know by your actions that its not done on their part to speak or behave that way.
Giving a counter reaction should my last resort. I usually ignore for a few times, then try politely let them know that its not fair to behave rudely. Last is, giving them taste their own piece of cake(if the first two ways don’t work).
There are all sorts of people out there. Either we’ve got to accept them as a part of our ecosystem or give them back their own piece of crap!
Is there a polite way to request cash instead of more traditional gifts at a wedding?
The best way of getting the word out that you would prefer cash gifts is to let your parents, wedding party, close relatives and friends spread the news for you. Let them know that when guests ask they can tell them that you would prefer cash as a wedding gift. Don’t be embarrassed to ask them to pass on this information – you know them well enough, so they will understand your decision to ask for money over traditional wedding gifts.
It is advisable to decide in advance what your cash wedding gifts are going to be spent on. While your wedding guests are not likely to go so far as to ask to see receipts to make sure that you spent their wedding cash gift on your honeymoon as promised.
Some companies allow you to create a wedding website for free and they are a great idea for efficiently communicating, not just gift details, but also other wedding related information. Most wedding websites have a gift registry section where you can add in some wording such as: “Whatever you would like to give us is wonderful, the choice is yours, we are registered at XXX but money is at the top of our wedding wish list to help pay for ………….”.
Source – Quora