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How do I get this guy to keep his mouth shut???

Here's the problem: a sibling.

He has the "town crier" syndrome ---  he has a history of repeating business of mine -- and a lot of it confidential -- and he has repeatedly done so. I have also told him time and again to cut it out.

It coninues; the last episode was a couple weeks ago. I had surgery and he went and told one this woman he is sort of dating. I am not crazy about her and I sure don't want her knowing my business.

I got "oh but everybody is so worried about you."

"Look," I said to him, "this is NOT for her to know --- why did you tell her anything???"

He could be telling the man in the moon or putting on a sandwichboard and broadcasting my info in Timbuktu for what it's worth: the point is he can't keep his mouth shut and he persists in telling my sensitive business to other people.

How do I get him to stop doing it? ANy suggestions?

Re: How do I get this guy to keep his mouth shut???

  • Sibling or not- Why do you tell this person anything?
  • How did he know that you had surgery? Cut off his source of information and then he can't blab.
    image
  • imagembcdefg:
    How did he know that you had surgery? Cut off his source of information and then he can't blab.

    He knows because he is my next of kin and he had to be there that day.

  • imageTarponMonoxide:
    the point is he can't keep his mouth shut and he persists in telling my sensitive business to other people.

    How do I get him to stop doing it?
    Really? You're here asking this?  Come on... you HAVE to know what we're going to say.  You HAVE to.
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  • imageEastCoastBride:
    imageTarponMonoxide:
    the point is he can't keep his mouth shut and he persists in telling my sensitive business to other people.

    How do I get him to stop doing it?
    Really? You're here asking this?  Come on... you HAVE to know what we're going to say.  You HAVE to.

    oh yeah, I do...but it's just so frustrating.  isn't it common sense that some things should be left unsaid?

  • Did you ask him ahead of time not to say anything to anyone?  There's a huge difference between asking beforehand and getting bent out of shape about it after the fact.
    image
  • imageTarponMonoxide:

    imageEastCoastBride:
    imageTarponMonoxide:
    the point is he can't keep his mouth shut and he persists in telling my sensitive business to other people.

    How do I get him to stop doing it?
    Really? You're here asking this?  Come on... you HAVE to know what we're going to say.  You HAVE to.

    oh yeah, I do...but it's just so frustrating.  isn't it common sense that some things should be left unsaid?

    Obviously not to your brother!!!

    He's your "next of kin...." but not really someone you can trust.  You could get a close friend or even a hired employee to "be there" to pick you up if there was a problem.  Or you can make up something, or even ask him to pick you up, but tell him you won't tell him why.

    You KNOW he blabs, so don't tell him anything! 

  • Quit telling him things! 
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  • imageTarponMonoxide:
    imagembcdefg:
    How did he know that you had surgery? Cut off his source of information and then he can't blab.

    He knows because he is my next of kin and he had to be there that day.

    Find another next of kin. Or designate a close, trustworthy friend. If you tell him anything ever again, you'll be asking for the whole town to know.

    You can't change him. You can only change yourself.

  • Treat him like an public facebook page that you cannot delete posted comments on. Do you really want your sister's hairdresser's dentist's cousin knowing something about you from 2009? If not, you don't tell him, because eventually he will tell them.

    A blabber mouth is a blabber mouth and always will be a blabber mouth.

  • I am FAR from a blabber mouth or gossip. But if a sibling or loved one had surgery, I'd tell the person I was dating. I would want to talk to someone about it. In fact, I always assume people share info with their SO unless I specifically tell them otherwise. Did you tell him not to tell her?
  • imageTarponMonoxide:

    imageEastCoastBride:
    imageTarponMonoxide:
    the point is he can't keep his mouth shut and he persists in telling my sensitive business to other people.

    How do I get him to stop doing it?
    Really? You're here asking this?  Come on... you HAVE to know what we're going to say.  You HAVE to.

    oh yeah, I do...but it's just so frustrating.  isn't it common sense that some things should be left unsaid?

    Sadly, no.  My MIL is your brother.  The check-out clerk at the grocery store probably knows all of DH and my business.  I found out the Admiral of the local Coast Guard has seen my wedding photos and the Admiral is not a close friend of the family.  

    She will start a conversation with "let me tell you a secret...".  DH and I have learned to ask "whose secret" because they are not always her secrets to tell.  Most of the family knows my SIL is in trouble of failing out of university from my MIL.  Not sure if SIL wants this to be such common knowledge.

    We don't tell her much of anything important.  Because she'll tell private information to family (nuclear, extended, and extended-extended) and close friends (and somewhat close friends).  Bothers the heck out of DH because he feels like we're cutting out his Mom.  My response is if MIL didn't share private information with every Tom-***-and-Harry we wouldn't have to be so close lipped.  Anything we do tell her that is vaguely private we have to preface with "this is not public knowledge, do not share it with SIL, aunt, etc". 

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  • Find a new person who can be there for you - someone that you can trust with yourself and your information. I would suggest you stop telling your brother anything about yourself until he can display that he is trustworthy, which may never happen.
  • Super easy solution.  This goes back to you.Stop the information flow *to* your brother.  

    You are part of his life, and being worried for you about your surgery is something I think is going to be normal, and I think it is normal to chat about those things to your friends and relatives.  However, despite the example you gave, you share that this goes beyond small talk to private business that you've specifically asked him (I'm assuming prior to his sharing the business) to keep things on the "down-low" - 

    The way I see it, he's not going to be any more dedicated to keeping your affairs private than you yourself are.  If you want to dedicate yourself to keeping your private life private, then don't make it public to someone you know has shown ineptness in that area.   

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  • imageGreenMonkey1:

    We don't tell her much of anything important.  Because she'll tell private information to family (nuclear, extended, and extended-extended) and close friends (and somewhat close friends).  Bothers the heck out of DH because he feels like we're cutting out his Mom.  My response is if MIL didn't share private information with every Tom-***-and-Harry we wouldn't have to be so close lipped.  Anything we do tell her that is vaguely private we have to preface with "this is not public knowledge, do not share it with SIL, aunt, etc". 

    Just a question - - did you **** out the name D!ck, or did thenest star it out for you?  Amazing if you can't print a name!

     

  • and you keep telling him things because why?
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  • My mom is like that.  So, I don't tell her confidential things and I limit what she knows about.  There are a lot of things she doesn't know about her children because she can't keep them to herself.  Problem solved.
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  • If you want to keep telling him things, you could always get a taser and set it on low, and give him a mild shock every time he tells someone your business.
    image
  • Do you specifically ask him not to tell other people? If you do, does he still blab or keep it to himself?

    If he has ignored your specific requests not to repeat information in the past, you need to figure out a way to cut off the information to him. Designate someone else to be your next of kin.

    But if you don't specifically tell him "Please don't repeat this to other people," give that a try. Obviously, he has a different standard of what privacy means than you do. It's not fair to have expectations of people and expect them to live up to those expectations if you don't tell them specifically what they are. Don't expect people to be mindreaders - it just sets them up for failure and you up for disappointment. Tell him before you give him information that you expect it to remain between the two of you.

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  • Please take this in the spirit intended:

     

    Shoot him. Dead men tell no tales.

  • Do not tell him anything you do not wish to have repeated.
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  • imageSueBear:
    imageGreenMonkey1:

    We don't tell her much of anything important.  Because she'll tell private information to family (nuclear, extended, and extended-extended) and close friends (and somewhat close friends).  Bothers the heck out of DH because he feels like we're cutting out his Mom.  My response is if MIL didn't share private information with every Tom-***-and-Harry we wouldn't have to be so close lipped.  Anything we do tell her that is vaguely private we have to preface with "this is not public knowledge, do not share it with SIL, aunt, etc". 

    Just a question - - did you **** out the name D!ck, or did thenest star it out for you?  Amazing if you can't print a name!

     

    The Nest blocked it out - I did not even think about censors when I was writing the post!

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  • Stop telling him things and get a new next of kin? Anyone else must be better!
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