
Last week I had a hospital appointment. They hospital uses an electronic booking in service, a machine that then gives you a receipt. Only last week it didn’t. There was no one at the reception desk so, assuming I was checked in we just sat down and waited. And waited. When we had been waiting for an hour past the appointment time I went to the desk. It turned out that because I hadn’t been to the dest, even though I had booked in via the machine I was assumed not to be there.
Thankfully I got to see the doctor who apologised and complained at the stupidity of the system. The nurse also apologised. But, do you know what I found myself saying how sorry I was that I hadn’t realised and how sorry I was I hadn’t gone to the desk. They, of course, told me to stop apologising.
The trouble is I often can’t help apologising for things that aren’t actually my fault. For some unknown reason the word sorry slips out of my mouth too often. I don’t mean when I’ve done or said something wrong and need to apologise. But when someone else has done something to me – walked into me, stood on my foot or accused me of something I haven’t actually done.
I’ve been wondering if any of this has to do with my naturally submissive personality. My desire to please to make people happy? And, I think it might. No one has told me I should apologise more, but plenty of people have told me to stop.
I’d say that since I’ve been putting myself and us first, it has happened less. I do still say sorry to my mum when I can’t visit as much as sh wants. But other than that there is no one close to me that I need to apologise to. That means that when I find myself saying sorry to someone who has wronged me, they are likely to be unimportant in my life. Not to say that seeing the doctor last week wasn’t something that needed to happen. There is something about those kinds of situations that can make us feel socially inferior. However I have been to that clinic and seen that doctor a few times. What’s more I have been in professional meetings with him (though he doesn’t remember me). So it really isn’t that.
Writing this post has caused me to reflect on my propensity to apologise and I am going to try to do it less. To reserve my apologies for times when I really do need to say sorry.

This is one of the most British posts I’ve read for a while 😂. Face it we can’t help apologising, I say sorry when somebody hits me with their shopping trolley.
That said I hope everything went well at the hospital.
Canadians are similar. But I also think it is a sadly female trait.
I remember years ago thinking the same about the word SORRY and consciously made an effort to stop using it – it worked – for a while lol
One of my characters I created for a Bellesa story said sorry all the time – it was one of her traits – and her guy would chastise her for it
xx
Sometimes it helps to write something like this to be aware of what you want to change. That said, I now wonder whether I apologize a lot when I don’t need to. I think I will start paying more attention to this…
Rebel xox
Yeah – I do this and I am wondering are you right? Is it because we like to please? I think you may be on there, Julie x
Saying ‘sorry’ is a common Canadian trait … I’m aware I do it and like you, try to do it less often. I think it becomes ingrained in our speech patterns … so can be a hard habit to break … nj … xx
Nora and Brigit, I’m interested that this is also a Canadian thing. It’s not that we shouldn’t apologise, but really we do it too much. PS, you are so right. But also, yes, maybe an s thing.