Nosy people and AS

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Does anyone else have a problem with nosy people always in your business? Or is it our perception that they are nosy when they are just showing interest/being polite?

Example: The relative or co-worker who is always in your face asking questions like "How was your birthday/Christmas/Thanksgiving/holiday? Did you get any presents? Did you get anything nice?" or "Ooooh, you're having a cheeseburger from Burgermeistertownland for lunch. Is it good?"

I find this seriously annoying. Is it just me, or is it Asperger's???

Small talk. It's so annoying. Like when I buy something and then the cashier gets nosy and asks about what I'm buying. Or makes comments that I find annoying. One time I was buying kitty litter that said "for people with more than one cat" on the bag, and the cashier goes, "Holy god, how many cats do you have!?!" I only had two. Two is definitely more than one cat, but you'd think I was a crazy cat lady with 20 of them the way she reacted.

How many cats do you have to own before you become a crazy cat lady, anyway? Would three make me a somewhat sane cat lady? But I digress.

I don't think of small talk as being nosy. I'm not good at small talk chitchat but I try a little when I'm supposed to. I worked retail for about 28 months doing custodial stuff while the stores were open & I was quiet & focused on my work but I did talk a little. I never had any complaints thou some coworkers joked about me being quiet. I guess I'm used to NTs making small talk even if I don't really care about it.

Generic questions like "How was your holiday?" or "Is your burger good?" are not nosy, because they are not prying for details about you that you might not want to divulge. They are just pleasant (or unpleasant, if you don't like it) banter. Given that you can just answer "It was fine" and it would be a perfectly acceptable answer, it's not nosy.

Asking about someone's life in an unintrusive way like that is actually showing interest and is pretty much the only way to interact.

Nosy questions would be something like "Did you argue with your mother at Thanksgiving?" or "Is that burger going to make you feel bloated?" because they are asking things that are too personal and are none of their business.

I hate small talk. It's an idle waste of time and I have better things to do with my time.

I enjoy these questions, but I may be alone in this.

I enjoy it because it makes conversations easier, while I may not have the best conversational skills, I can certainly answer a question such as "did you have a nice Christmas?" Small talk is a lot easier to engage in, especially with someone I don't know much about.

Its just you...not understanding or wishing to engage in "Small Talk" (a lot of people on the spetrum have a hard time with or just don't like it.)

My mother is one of those people. It's a non-stop barrage of questions not only about myself, but about other people. She should have been employed as a police interrogator. It's even worse that I'm mute or monosyllabic when responding. I've been known to just grunt, shrug, inhale while rolling my eyes, or say "I don't know" to every single question, yet she persists.

How is your daughter?
Is she still working?
What does she want for Christmas?
What does she think about _____ ?
Does she like ______ (type of food) ?
Has she ever had _______ (restaurant)?
What would she order there?
How much would it cost her?
Does she finish it all or have leftovers?
When was her last haircut?
Have you walked the dog?
Did you know dogs need water?
(We once told her we gave him petrol to drink because we didn't know)
Have you seen _______ vet TV show?
Did you know your dog is likely going to die because _________?
Did you change the batteries in your smoke alarms?
When?
What brand of batteries do you use?
Where do you buy them?
How much do they cost?
What do you do all day?
Why do your strokes affect you, if mine didn't affect me?
What did your doctor say about your strokes?
Are they going to do something to fix them?
What kind of toothpaste do you use?
What are you making for tea?
Do you eat vegetables?

I should count sometime, but I'd say in a one hour visit there are probably 250-300 questions.
I'm not exaggerating.

Here are my personal favourites:

Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
Do you have sex?
Do you wear pull-ups?
Oh, really? When I tell people I have a British last name.
Do you do drugs?
Do you shower?
Where are you really from?
Are you R-tded?
Are you slow?
Are you Austrian?
Are you German?

I take the last two questions as compliments.