???

My mum just told me off for not knowing how much a close friend earns..
"You must ask these kind of questions; it's stuff you should know."

What???
Do I really need to know how much X is earning? Isn't it too personal? And if my mum was referring to the market rate for engineers, wouldn't online job websites be a better resource especially considering my friend is not even working in that field? Or even in the same country?

And clearly my mum doesn't realise one of my weird quirks is that I don't like prying into people's lives. It's not that I don't care, I just don't like intruding into people's personal stuff unless they don't mind. And that's kinda hard for me to tell. I guess I find it scary to ask questions when I'm not sure if I'm crossing some boundary.

So, if I see someone crying, instead of asking them what's wrong, I usually end up digging for tissues, patting them and offering them silent comfort until I gather up the courage to ask them to share if they're comfortable. Or I give them the chance not to answer by saying stuff like "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to".

Or maybe I'm just badly equipped when it comes to asking questions. Sometimes when people tell me over the phone that they are coming over, I just say ok and hang up. Then I'll realise I don't know when or where or even why haha. So I have to call back and ask for those details...

Anyway, in regards to the whole income thing, I prefer to learn about personal stuff like that when people mention them in conversations on related topics. Which I hope goes to show that they're comfortable enough with me to casually say such stuff. Unless they're showing off la which doesn't make sense because it's usually preceded/followed by "I'm so broke"..