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Original poster

Round Robin emails......

51 replies

TimeToLose8 · 22/12/2022 21:41

I want your opinion on them

I have a friend, we worked together in the 80s, had children together in in the 90s, who then, with her family, emigrated, first to Australia, then to NZ. We met up several times, and wrote to each other regularly.

Come the 21st century, I have tried, over the years to keep contact with her. I know our lives have taken different paths, but I did think I was more than an acquaintance - and yet, I seem to have been relegated to the 'round Robin recipient'. I used to laugh at them in the past, she has written this missives for many years, and they do fall into the RR cliche of how well her, her husband and (now grown-up) children are doing.

I think I am just p-off as I wrote to her (well emailed) in November, a specific email for her and her family, and it seems she can't be bothered emailing back, but has just sent the annual 'how wonderful we are' email.

So, shall I just give up spending time writing specific letters to her, she doesn't seem to be interested enough to contact me, or....what could I say that is a polite way of telling her that this is not on, or is it really worth it? Perhaps I have answered my question.

Your thoughts/experiences of these round Robin/bloody emails please......

OP posts:
Merrilydancing · 22/12/2022 23:57

Highlight of Christmas! The one we get even refers to themselves in the third person, always good for a laugh!

mamabear715 · 23/12/2022 00:09

Oh, I HATE them.. absolutely dire.
I used to get them from some relative of sorts who shall remain nameless. Their kids were bloody geniuses, one going into law, another into medicine, etc etc.. I was SO tempted to write one back saying my DD's are hookers & DS is banged up for dealing drugs.. you know when you're actually DOING it in your head? :-)

VenusClapTrap · 23/12/2022 00:35

I get one from my intensely religious aunt every year. It used to focus on her trips abroad converting the natives, but recent years have seen some eye opening forays into the world of conspiracy theories.

Lots of anti covid vax stuff for the last couple of years, Trump is a good man doing god’s work (but slandered by the evil press) the year before, and perhaps most startling of all, at the height of the Brexit controversy, she announced that the EU is the Whore of Babylon. Next to a photo of a birthday cake she’d made for her granddaughter.

Soreandtiredandsickandcranky · 23/12/2022 00:35

We’re friends with an American family who send one every year. I love it. They’re devoutly religious and so you get things like-

“In February, God called Tim to New York where he ate bagels, saw a football game, and lifted a homeless man up with his prayers.

Little Suzie led her Kindergarten’s infant bible group in October”.

EBearhug · 23/12/2022 02:04

I like these kind of catch ups. One acquaintance has stopped doing them and I miss it.

Same here. I like knowing the kids are off to uni and so on, and that people have been swimming in the sea this summer or whatever. The year my mother didn't bother, I had a lot of people asking if she was okay, so some people do expect them.

HitMeWithAHotNoteAndWatchMeBounce · 23/12/2022 02:12

Soreandtiredandsickandcranky · 23/12/2022 00:35

We’re friends with an American family who send one every year. I love it. They’re devoutly religious and so you get things like-

“In February, God called Tim to New York where he ate bagels, saw a football game, and lifted a homeless man up with his prayers.

Little Suzie led her Kindergarten’s infant bible group in October”.

🤣🤣

Original poster
TimeToLose8 · 23/12/2022 07:38

I must admit I do like to hear how her and her family are getting on, and, yes, her daughter is pretty much a genius, but I do (did) know of the other stories, naturally ones that most people wouldn't like to share, and I did feel sad that I had been relegated.

So, after someone on here (sorry now I've started this post, I can't go back to find who, but many thanks for that) suggested that my email may have gone in her junk folder, I messaged her to ask her had she received it. Nothing ventured etc- I immediately got a long email back, prefaced by an apology - she had started it a few weeks ago and thought she had sent it, but had left it unfinished in her drafts. Now as that is the sort of thing I would do, I did believe her..so, all's well etc

But keep going with the tales of the RR......

OP posts:
PAFMO · 23/12/2022 07:41

They're awful.
Pathetic. Even the parodies have been done to death.

ShaunaTheSheep · 23/12/2022 09:28

We have relatives that have been sending one for decades. As someone said up thread, it's hilarious to spot the backtracking on a previous year's boasting. My parents sent a spoof one in return one year, no idea what they made of that!

mamabear715 · 23/12/2022 09:34

@ShaunaTheSheep Your parents sound like my kind of people.. ;-)

LadyDanburysHat · 23/12/2022 09:35

I am also not posh enough to know anyone who sends a RR. But I love the threads on MN every year, always such fun.

Kendodd · 23/12/2022 10:13

I remember being at a party with a group of friends taking about a RR theyd received from someone they all knew and I didn't know. RR writer had said their son had started medicine at Cambridge, friends all though that this was very showoff and not the sort of thing to put in a RR. My response was that if one of my children was doing medicine at Cambridge, everyone I'd ever met in my entire life would know about it 😁. I've never written a RR but I absolutely would that year, if fact every poster on this thread would be getting it!

VenusClapTrap · 23/12/2022 11:00

Kendodd · 23/12/2022 10:13

I remember being at a party with a group of friends taking about a RR theyd received from someone they all knew and I didn't know. RR writer had said their son had started medicine at Cambridge, friends all though that this was very showoff and not the sort of thing to put in a RR. My response was that if one of my children was doing medicine at Cambridge, everyone I'd ever met in my entire life would know about it 😁. I've never written a RR but I absolutely would that year, if fact every poster on this thread would be getting it!

😂 Me too!

ifIwerenotanandroid · 10/01/2023 15:36

Fireandflight · 22/12/2022 21:47

We got one a few years ago, telling us that their son was having a hard time choosing between Oxford and Cambridge. The following year's said that he had 'decided to choose Exeter.' We're still laughing.

Did they mean...

Round Robin emails......
hardu · 10/01/2023 16:05

I ended a long term friendship over email round robins. I suspected the old friend, known since we were children, had turned into a smug, self important twit but this confirmed it. Sad, but he did me a favour.

He started off by saying how busy and important he was, too busy to do personal, individual emails with us all so he thought this would be the easiest way for him to update us all on what he was doing. It covered an update on what he'd been doing at work, what he'd been to see at the theatre, his role in an Andean production and pubs he'd visited and how how many beers he'd consumed (teehee I'm an alcoholic sort of thing).

I think it was intended to big him up from essentially a perpetual grumbling single man late 40s (incel attitude as he grew older which should have been reason enough to end the friendship sooner), works in customer service sales, shared house with other single men same age, and a rude house guest in recent years.

Sorry for the essay OP! The round Robin was the final nail in the coffin. If things are otherwise good it might not be a big issue.

The other thing with the round Robin emails is that somebody always manages to reply to all, so lots of baffled responses to 'Craig (example name) appeared in my inbox. I don't think I was the only person who dropped contact.

hardu · 10/01/2023 16:09

My round robin author had no children, no ex wife or girlfriend, so it was all about him. Never read anything so inflated, self important and smug.

The one thing I would have been interested was in how his parents were doing as I liked them. They were decent people, but they didn't get a mention.

AffIt · 10/01/2023 16:46

We used to get a few from various far-flung family members and I bloody loved them, especially the 'choosing between Oxford and Cambridge, went to Exeter' type that a PP mentioned upthread.

Sadly, they do seem to be a dying art, which I think is a shame, because even the bad ones were an excellent source of entertainment, and some were even quite sweet and enlightening.

hardu · 10/01/2023 16:53

Andean should have been amdram- so amateur dramatics. Autocorrect didn't like that.

CruCru · 10/01/2023 16:57

In theory I am okay with RRs. In practice, they are hard work - you need to put in stuff that other people might want to know and not be braggy. What if nothing interesting this year has happened? My children have gone to school, I've done some paperwork, we had to get the washing machine fixed.

UseOfWeapons · 10/01/2023 17:16

HATE THEM! They're always massively overstated, nothing negative, or bad in them. They seem like some social media, unrealistic.

crackersforcrackers · 10/01/2023 17:42

This was the first year I got none and I miss them! When I first started getting them I'd roll my eyes and grit my teeth but now I have none I want them back! Love the examples on this thread Grin

Laquila · 10/01/2023 22:37

@hardu that's a shame, the Andean production sounded like the most interesting part 🤣

hardu · 10/01/2023 22:40

Laquila · 10/01/2023 22:37

@hardu that's a shame, the Andean production sounded like the most interesting part 🤣

🤣

FoxtrotOscarFoxtrotOscar · 10/01/2023 22:46

Fireandflight · 22/12/2022 21:47

We got one a few years ago, telling us that their son was having a hard time choosing between Oxford and Cambridge. The following year's said that he had 'decided to choose Exeter.' We're still laughing.

Love it.😂

FoxtrotOscarFoxtrotOscar · 10/01/2023 22:52

Soreandtiredandsickandcranky · 23/12/2022 00:35

We’re friends with an American family who send one every year. I love it. They’re devoutly religious and so you get things like-

“In February, God called Tim to New York where he ate bagels, saw a football game, and lifted a homeless man up with his prayers.

Little Suzie led her Kindergarten’s infant bible group in October”.

Pure gold!

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