Recently I was at a wedding.
In my culture it is normal to congratulate the parents of the bride. I am from a different culture than the bride's family.
I went to the bride's mother and said congratulations.
The bride's mother was very surprised and annoyed. She asked why was I congratulating her ? That I had to congratulate the bride not her. And looked at the other people with a face saying something like "why is this guy telling me this ?".
Latter I found out that in the bride's culture this is not normal to congratulate the bride's parents.
Frankly, she was unnecessarily rude. Even if it is not normal in your culture to be congratulated for your daughters marriage you can be graceful and just say thank you.
But the truth is that this ruined the rest of my day. I get very sensitive about feeling I am not doing the right thing. How can I get over that more easily ?
I am not asking for an answer like "just do not be so sensitive about what other people think" . I would like to have practical answers, books to read etc … on the topic of being sensitive to our feelings of social inadequacy.