Sometimes we just don’t want to deal with the stupid comments. But how do you prevent them or stop the conversation in its tracks without seeming rude?  I’m all about being proactive, so I thought of some tips that might help.

Don’t make eye contact. Say you’re on the train, Starbucks or maybe on the sidewalk somewhere and you see someone out the corner of your eye looking at you. The best thing to do is to not make eye contact. If you don’t acknowledge that you see them then they can’t start a conversation. Whatever they do to try to get your attention, hand signals, excessive winking, setting themselves on fire, don’t look.

Put your headphones in. This one is perfect if you’re on the train or at your laptop in Starbucks. It’s the perfect excuse. Just pop them in even if you’re not listening to anything. Even if they’re not connected to anything. You can just stuff the jack out of sight in your pocket or purse. And don’t take them out of your ears. You can’t possibly hold a conversation with someone who has their headphones on. Hopefully they’ll take the hint.

Pretend you don’t speak English. Reach back into your high school foreign language classes and just spew out the first thing that comes to your head. Start making up words if you have to. Be convincing. Use a weird accent. They can’t really hold a proper conversation with you if they think you can’t speak English. And it’s added amusement for you to watch them go through all these gyrations to help you understand what they’re talking about. Now if they actually speak another language…I don’t know how to help you. Maybe you can run away or faint?

Or you can pretend that you are deaf. Make sure you brush up on your sign language to really “sell it”. Again, you might be in trouble if they actually know sign language.

Walk fast. So you’re walking on the sidewalk going wherever and this person is walking towards you looking to start a conversation. What you can do when you see this is try to outwalk/run them. We have the legs we can do it. They will never be able to catch up and hound you about your height.

Pretend that you simply can’t hear them from way up here. Okay score one for them and they actually cornered you. Act like that they are so low to the ground that you can’t hear them. “Huh? What’d you say? I can’t hear you! Stop mumbling!” Get increasingly louder and more frustrated and then storm away.

Put on your best crazy face. You have to commit to this one. (I would suck at this because I would probably start laughing immediately) Bug out your eyes. Put on a crooked smile and just stare at them without blinking. Conversation over.

Hold a full-on conversation with yourself. “Did he just ask if we’re tall? Doesn’t he know it’s rude? I know, I know but calm down. You remember what happened last time? You don’t want to go back to jail do you? You just got out!” Watch them run away real fast.

So hopefully these tips prove helpful. Do you have any other tips on how to stop the comment before it happens? Share them below! Ever tried any of these? How’d it work out?

Until next time,

Elayna