How to politely ask a non-family member to do me a favor?

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Do you think it's wrong to politely ask non-family members who you are close to for favors?
Yes 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
No 100%  100%  [ 4 ]
Total votes : 4

Jenny Marslow
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Joined: 28 Aug 2019
Age: 25
Gender: Female
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28 Aug 2019, 3:02 pm

I'm making a cake for my cousin's birthday party this weekend. The thing is, I have everything I need to make the cake except vanilla extract. We ran out of vanilla extract, and I can't make the cake without it! I have nothing I can use in it's place either. I would just go to the supermarket to get vanilla extract, but I can't drive, and my parents won't drive me. There's a Shop Rite very close to where I live, but it's not walking distance from my house. You have to drive in order to get there, but I don't have a ride. The only places that are walking distance from my house are 7 Eleven and CVS, but neither of those places have vanilla extract. We're not friends with ANY of our neighbors, so I can't borrow vanilla extract from a neighbor. There's no public transportation in my town either. I have Uber installed on my phone, but NOBODY calls an Uber JUST to go grocery shopping. I have no relatives nearby who can drive me to the supermarket. All of my relatives live an hour away from where I live(I have to transport the cake all the way to where they live this weekend). I, however, have a close friend who lives in my town. Unlike me, she can drive because she has her driver's license and a car, so she can EASILY drive wherever she needs to, including the supermarket. Because she and I are close friends AND she loves me, i'd like to ask her to give me a quick ride to the very close Shop Rite so that I can get the vanilla extract. The thing is, my parents think it's "rude" to ask people outside of your family to do you favors and say that i'm being "silly" when I come up with the idea of asking someone outside of my family for a favor. Not only that, but i've asked my close friend to drive me places in the past and she never replied. I would understand her not wanting to do it if I asked her to drive me FAR distances, like to another state, but i've only ever asked her to drive me to LOCAL places that are very close but not walking distance. I also ALWAYS say "please" and "thank you" when asking people for favors, so I don't see why what i'm doing is considered "rude". I thought close friends were supposed to always be there for each other. Hanging out isn't the ONLY part of friendship. The most important part of friendship is to always be there for your friends when they need you, and that includes when you can drive and your friend who can't drive needs a ride somewhere. If I could drive and one of my friends who couldn't drive needed a ride somewhere, I would be very happy the drive them IF i'm available. My close friend doesn't even let me know whether she's available or not. She doesn't even invite me anywhere and she excludes me from everything, but she and I are still close friends because she ALWAYS calls me her "best friend". I just need a way to POLITELY ask her to drive me to the supermarket without being "silly" or "rude", and I need to do it in a way where she'll actually reply to me. If she's a real friend, she'll drive me to the REALLY CLOSE supermarket! Thank you for all your help!



magz
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28 Aug 2019, 3:15 pm

Jenny Marslow wrote:
The thing is, my parents think it's "rude" to ask people outside of your family to do you favors and say that i'm being "silly" when I come up with the idea of asking someone outside of my family for a favor.
I find your parents totally wrong, I would even find this claim dangerous, borderline isolation pattern.
Friendship is all about helping each other.


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kraftiekortie
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28 Aug 2019, 3:17 pm

You can ask for a favor without seeming to be impolite.

If the other person refuses the favor, THEN it would be impolite if you got upset about the fact that the other person refused the favor.