1 grates for me. If a friend goes to me in tears more than a couple of times demanding that I fix their bicycle/grades/relationship/emotional problems, I will no longer consider them a friend.
I guess being a PC in that sense sucks.
Going to your friend in tears before even trying to come up with a solution yourself is not a good behavior to encourage (I’ve been on both sides of this, and it’s not good for anyone).
I try not to do this. When I go to my parents in tears, it’s because I’ve tried all the usual solutions and they aren’t working and I don’t know why, and/or because everything else possible is going wrong at the same time and I don’t have the mental energy to deal with my broken bike on top of disasters at work and my best friend having a meltdown.
Likewise, being the one who takes heroic responsibility for someone isn’t necessarily a healthy role to take, as I’ve realized.
I guess being a PC in that sense sucks.
I try not to do this. When I go to my parents in tears, it’s because I’ve tried all the usual solutions and they aren’t working and I don’t know why, and/or because everything else possible is going wrong at the same time and I don’t have the mental energy to deal with my broken bike on top of disasters at work and my best friend having a meltdown.
Likewise, being the one who takes heroic responsibility for someone isn’t necessarily a healthy role to take, as I’ve realized.
Sometimes heroic responsibility requires metaphorically throwing a guide to fishing at someone.
Sometimes it requires the metametaphor (metwophor?) of telling them where the library is that contains that kind of book.
And sometimes it requires giving them a literal fish.