Passing along Pet Peeves

In the course of my new son's life... whenever that may begin... he will undoubtedly pick up on any pet peeves I or his mother have.

How does one internalize what ticks them off? Do you pick it up from your parents? There are a few of mine but I don't exactly know why they irritate me, only that they do.

Here are some of my more notable, or at least more frequent, things in the world that irritate:


1) Bad drivers and insensitive 'mergers' - I'll admit it, I'm a talker when I drive. People going too slow, slow down for no apparent reason, speed up when I move out to pass and then slow down... and those bad mergers, you know who you are... when the two-lane road you're on will be merging into one... but you... you have to race ahead to the very end and then cut in which then slows down the whole process. Cell phone and Blackberry users... c'mon, try to remember you're driving.


2) Elevator & escalator 'bunchers' - For the elevators, especially buildings where there are multiple banks of elevators... people that stand in front of their 'bank', suddenly completely oblivious to the possibility that there are people coming in behind them... thus blocking access to the rest of the hallway and other elevators.

Escalator people are another thing... related (maybe even the same) to the elevator bunchers. Arriving at the top, or bottom, of the escalator and stopping to look around, check their watch, scratch something inappropriate, whatever... suddenly oblivious to the magical moving staircase that brought them there and completely forgetting the fact that the magic stairs might be doing the same for other people right behind you who have no-where to go but right into you. C'mon now, a little human decency!

3) Grocery carters - while it would be truly nice if they'd let one person at a time in to the grocery store to shop, it just doesn't work that way. There are many. Chances are, shopping for items in the same row. The people that, while browsing (which is totally fine), leave their cart in the middle of the aisle or otherwise block a busy laneway seem to forget that sadly, other people are there that day. Grocery carts are not what one would call nimble and agile and to try and get around...

It all comes down to respect really. So will my son pick up on my exhales of breath when encountering one of the above situations? Will he know why? Will it drive him nuts too or will he think I'm too uptight? If I figure out how to teach respect for others, will he internalise that?

Wait... does this mean I have to stop the irritated exhales of breath to try and set an example?