WIBU to smirk at this display of loud parenting at school today?

[ItsSnowDarling]

Picture the scene - End of the day outside reception. Parent who is well known for parenting loudly and ensuring everyone knows how advanced her son is arrives.

Examples of loud parenting in the past include:

• her son always carries his reading book in his hand so we can all see which one it is, instead of putting it in his bag like the rest of us.
• talking loudly to the teacher daily about his achievements.
• inviting children over for "reading" dates when they were in nursery!
• singing Jolly Phonics in the playground.

Anyway tomorrow is the nativity, of course we all know that her son will be playing Joseph, so did she really need to throw her arms open as she arrived and exclaim loudly "I'm here, where's Joseph" - I managed to hold back the snort, but I really struggled with the smirk, which may have been a bit too obvious.

So was I reasonable or is the truth that I am just jealous that her DS is far superior to mine?

I'm good at loud parenting too usually

BLINKING WELL HURRY UP WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE FIVE MINUTES AGO

My personal favourite
PLEASE DO NOT WIPE YOUR NOSE ON MY COAT

I do worry about what will happen to these children when they get to secondary school and they are not necessarily the class stars any more (if they ever were?).

"Now, X, you know perfectly well not to ask me questions like that. You're supposed to go home and look it up in the encyclopedia. Once you've done that, we'll have a chat about it"

That's actually quite sad.

Also: "We're off to French tonight, aren't we?" Then, turning to me: "She showed such an aptitude for it during our vacances that we had to sign her up as soon as we got back"

My reply to that would have been
"oh yes I know exactly what you mean, DS shows an remarkable aptitute for kicking the out of his sister so we're off to Kung Fu, fencing and rifle practice tonight"

My most recent piece of Loud Parenting involved shouting 'Will you STOP licking that lamp-post!' - not a sentence I'd ever thought I'd have occasion to use!

lol i would have followed that with 'oh come here my little shephard, you,ve had a promotion this year have'nt you, from being the sheep last year' and proudly walked off [although he refused to speak so may be a sheep or tree next year]

PMSL when it was dd's nativity, Mary's mother made a big deal of being Mary's mother, hence all the sniggering when Mary walked down the road to bethlehem and mother's phone started ringing loudly.

at "We are book people"

It always makes me smile when you come across the "We're off to French tonight..." parents.

My husband is an immigrant and many of his friends are immigrants living in some of the more deprived areas of London and it is normal for their children to be bilingual or even trilingual e.g. Arabic and English or Arabic, English and Kabylie (Berber) and the parents also speak French.

I wonder if these very competative parents realise that what they think is marvelous in their child would be regarded as basic knowledge by many of the families I assume they think they are superior too.

DS (2.5) has a nursery nativity play next week. I would imagine that his gran and I will both be indulging in some nativity-play-based loud parenting.

Probably along the lines of "GET BACK ON THAT STAGE! NO YOU CAN'T HAVE A BISCUIT - I KNOW GRAN ALWAYS HAS BISCUITS BUT THE TIN IS AT HER HOUSE."

And given he has managed to learn one single line of one single carol, there will probably also be a bit of "FOR GOODNESS SAKE, IT'S 'CARRY MARY SAFELY ON HER WAY', NOT HIS WAY, AND CERTAINLY NOT FAR FAR AWAY"

I'm really looking forward to this fiasco play.

Chazs - I speak a bit of Latvian. Maybe I could trump any competitive parents I meet in the future by teaching DS to say "Bah, my Latvian beats your puny French and Spanish and I spit upon your meagre Italian" in Latvian.

Just wondering why she is so proud of him playing joseph? Does he even have any words? Generally the best few readers get to take in turn to narrate, well so i thought?

I must admit to one episode of 'loud parenting', but i was just soooo proud of dd beating usual loud parents dd in test

Just got back from Ikea, marvellous loud parenting in queue, from hippie mommy in denim dungarees with hand-knitted dungaree boy in trolley.

"Archie and Marcie are coming over to our house to play this afternoon. What will you play with Marcie?"

"Nnnngh"

How lovely, darling. They're coming to our house. Where do we live, darling, where in the world?"

"McDonalds"

(cue me shaking violently with mirth)

"No, darling, WE DO NOT live in McDonalds!"

kungfu that sounds great.

or how about you just comment in passing
"oh everyone knows French these days so we decided to teach DS Latvian, its the new Mandarin"
and proceed to have a random chat with DS in Latvian

Aaw we have one of these in my son's year. She is a source of much outraged bonding and entertainment to the other parents. I have never known anyone so widely disliked. The dad is just the same but our exposure to him is less thankfully. They think he is the next einstein/jenson button. Mum and dad even have special coats with his name embroidered on the backs in big letters. SNORT.

Mum and dad even have special coats with his name embroidered on the backs in big letters. SNORT

Clearly only the one child then.....

special coats - with sleeves that do up at the back?!

Yep I've come across many of those over the years. Worst one by far is a friend I've recently ditched for her loud parenting, and competitive passive aggressive comments about my children, said to her children very loudly when they were with us.

Things like : "Oh LOOK X, Hexagonal's DS has a BEAKER. You don't know what they are because you have a CUP don't you darling"

"Oh look X at Hegagonal's DS sitting there in his buggy. He's not as bothered about learning things or being grown up like you are, Hexagonal must find looking after him so easy"

And just general loud comments wherever we went, expecting everyone to turn round and look at her darling offspring. She was very attention-seeking. All of her facebook statuses were boasting by stealth about her children or about what material things she and her husband had. Ditching her was the best thing I ever did!

For some weird reason, DS2 has been insisting lately that he speaks English and Hungarian. The only thing even remotely related to Hungary lately has been when they did national flags and they had to dress up in the colours of the flag from Hungary in his class. But that was well over a month ago.

For the record, I don't believe him. I've never heard him speak a word of Hungarian. (to be honest, his English is a bit suspect as well some days )

I normally snort at mums like this.

Can I just add, though, that my my little DD was Mary in the school Nativity play.

I can report (from the front row of the audience, where I sat mouthing the words as she sang her solo and beaming at everybody before lingering at the end to graciously accept congratulations on her stellar performance) that it is quite fun on the other side...

Oh I am LOVING the coats with child's name on the back.

PontyM - the encyclopedia mother was also the one I've mentioned more than once on here who ditched after school tennis as it was on a Tuesday and her child had to "prepare because Wednesday is show and tell day".

Yes just the one child.

Coats are not the kind with sleeves that fasten at the back no. Good idea though.

I can't imagine the school playground without them TBH, I actively dislike them as equally as I find their their awfulness entertaining.

These are terrifying! Especially the matching coats, wtf?

Showy I love your Alpha parents.

We have a conspicuous parenting Dad, well we did, but I think they have left and I don't now why or where they have gone...probaby private sector. He used to walk into the playground with his sone, singing nursery rhymes, loudly, every morning.

I felt sorry for him as he clearly was a bit shy and trying Very Hard, probably hadn't got a clue what to do. He was nice enough I think. Just the forced singing was awful. He clearly had a thing about looking like a very good dad. But no one assumes you're not, unless you do something weird. then they wonder what you have to hide.

My DS is autistic. He hates school reading books and cries when I mention 2 times tables or homework.

I'm the parent sat in reading/maths sessions held for parents saying "yes but what if your child screams/ cries/ strops at the sight of a reading book/ the mention of timestables?" I feel a provide a nice balance to the coat wearers who are nodding along smugly at the mentions of higher level books/free reading/long division.

son, sorry. My typing is all over the place.