Sibyl wrote:
nerdygirl wrote:
The problem with this is that how am I supposed to know that I am asking a question someone doesn't want to answer before asking it? Then I am rude by asking? I think that it is rude if I *continue* to ask when it is clear someone doesn't want to answer. But how can I be rude just by asking the first time? I find being ignored with no explanation rude. If someone says, "I don't want to say", alright - I know it's their issue. But just to be silent communicates that there *might* be a problem with me, and then leaving me in the dark about what it is.
One gets to know another by asking questions. It's kind of hard to know ahead of time when one might step over the line into asking something that the other finds offensive, especially if the other is particularly closed.
If they're just walking by your house on the sidewalk and you collar them and ask where they're going, and they say "Out" then it should be fairly clear that they don't want to answer with specifics, or have this "conversation" with you, or grilling by you (that was the original situation complained about. Anyway, did you ever hear of "Invasion of Privacy"? Or the social rule (if you're already in the conversation with them), "Don't ask personal questions"? That's something you don't even need to have "Social Skills Training" to get: your mother should have told you. It's not subtle. The only exception would be a parent asking a child (or teenager) who's leaving the house, since the parent is responsible for the "child"'s behavior.
If I had all the rules of social etiquette figured out, I wouldn't be here on this site. I would have just "picked them up." And, if it is *possible* that one grew up in a family where AS traits reigned, it is *possible* that one DID NOT get all the necessary social training.
And everyone has different levels of privacy. What is a "personal question" to one is not to another. If I ask one acquaintance if he/she has a sister, that's OK. If I ask another, I get silence. That's not about my question - that's about the person answering (or not) - and something I can't know ahead of time.
Questions indicate I am interested in getting to know a person. If someone doesn't want to answer, I let it go. Sometimes I ask a wrong question. Most of the time, I do not. But someone who doesn't want to answer *any* questions doesn't want to be known. I can't help that.