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I told a complete stranger a secret. From now on, I’m sticking to small talk

Hannah Vanderheide Contributor September 10, 2025 — 7.30pm

Want to play two truths and a lie ?

Of course you don’t. No one in the cursed history of workplace icebreakers ever has. So, I’ll just give you two truths: I’m a bit emotionally tapped out right now. And, paradoxically, I miss small talk.

A few weekends back, I was chatting with another mum I’d just met at a backyard get-together.

She kicked things off by announcing, “I hate small talk – let’s just get real”. And look, I’m a pretty open book. When I’m vibing with someone, I’m more than happy to get “deep”. But we’d hardly established how many kids we each had (me: one, her: three) before my

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