During one of our countless discussions while deciding if we could really live together, our daughter-in-law suggested that we have an Annoyance Jar.
“Annoyance Jar?” Jeff said, “that sounds great! We’ll make a lot of money!!’
Annoyance Jar? I thought, that’s not going to work. I’ll be broke!! It’s not that I’m really annoying, I just live with someone who is easily annoyed and we may have successful raised one kid to be as well.
I hate this idea, it’s never going to work. This is only going to give the annoyed the right to be more annoying…
“No,” Megan clarified, “you don’t put money in if you annoy someone, that wouldn’t work.” Megan is very endearing when telling us that we may be wrong. “You put money in if you allow someone to annoy you.”
Jeff was silent and I began to laugh. That would be perfect! I thought. We are going to make a ton of money!!
I told our friends about the Annoyance Jar during dinner that night. They had the same first response we had but after more explanation, the idea sunk in. During the rest of the evening we all pointed out moments we would have to pay into the jar because someone in the restaurant was annoying us, and these weren’t even people we knew.
We don’t actually have an Annoyance Jar, but I’ve thought a lot about it. Closing on a house creates anxiety for two people, having six adults required to sign off on every detail is mind boggling. Moving is stressful, moving three households in the same week boarders on insane.
There have been plenty of opportunity to get up-set, to allow someone else’s actions to frustrate and annoy. There are also the same amount of opportunity to decide not to allow annoyance to be the reaction. It really is that simple.