Have you ever been telling a story and the listener interjects with…
Yeah, I know
Or some form such as “I saw that”?
Often the interjector is excited to connect with the story teller by letting them know they totally get it. Other times, the interjector can mean…
Please finish this story soon because you are wasting our time
Regardless of your intent, the story teller might assume the latter and register a complaint. They might keep telling their story but somewhere inside of your relationship you could be taking a micro-withdrawal from the emotional bank account.
Often the message is given by the tone of your voice while interjecting. An upbeat tone can really show solidarity with the story teller and egg them on to keep telling their awesome story while a flat or dropping tone can easily say the opposite.
If YOU are the interjector in this example, why even create that potential confusion? Why make their story about you? Why not keep the focus on whatever great thing they are explaining or showing to you*.
Let them bathe in the limelight for a while. Don’t be so quick to pre-emptively bust their bubble by implying they could be wasting your time. Let them express their unique view on the situation, even if you have heard it all before. You just might learn something new.
*btw I’m still working on this – it’s not easy. Cut yourself some slack.
hope our kids read this! 
Sometimes people want to be told right away that you already have the same baseline as them so that you can move on to higher-order discussions on a related topic. As you know, my tone is always upbeat and positive, so I guess I never have this problem 🙂
Yes great point that isa good use of that expression. It seems like I see that use case much less often than the other but perhaps that says something about me 🤣