Stealth boasting?

[CruCru]

I wonder if we could have a "definition" of stealth boasting. I keep seeing accusations of it which I think are unwarranted.

My interpretation is, "while sitting on a gold chair in my luxury apartment in number one Hyde Park, my husband said he wanted to watch a different channel on the telly" is stealth boasting because it isn't relevant to the issue.

However, "as my house is very slightly larger, my I laws have decided that they are going to sell their house and move in with us" would not be stealth boasting as the size of house is relevant.

I think it's mentioning inconsequential details that make no difference to the story but the person wants you to know.

'I was driving to the supermarket for some supplies and I saw someone parking in a P&C space with no children=fine.

I was driving in my brand new Aston Martin to Waitrose to pick up some Cherry Bakewell Vodka and I saw some one parking in a P&C space with no children=Stealth Boast.

Although the P&C thing not a great subject obvs.

'This morning as I was hanging from the ceiling making love to Alexander Skarsgard I noticed the window cleaner had left streaks on the bedroom window'.

I see it as complaining about something that most people covet. For example, I've lost weight and now my jeans don't fit.
Or I've reached the limit on the good rate on my savings account.
Or my house is large so costs a lot to heat.

I did just call someone up on it I don't usually but someone had responded pretty viciously on a thread due to the op supposedly stealth boasting (I dont really think they did) while adding a blatant stealth boast. So I wasn't annoyed by the stealth boast more the hypocrisy.

I guess a stealth boast is someone who either adds irrelevant information as you said, or someone who, under the guise of playing themselves down, or complaining about something, talks about how great them or their life is, eg;

"Aibu to be so far and short
Am so depressed about my weight and height, I'm 6 feet tall and 8 stone, have no gum motivation...why has life been so cruel '

(Either stealth boast or I guess someone with an eatingn disorder....worst example ever)

Yeah, it's either dropping inconsequential info or complaining about things most people would want (a first world problem/stealth bast combo, if you will).

Can someone recommend a good Swiss or off-shore bank? I just can't fit all my money in my current UK bank accounts.

I think it also depends. E.g. someone posted a body shot of themselves on a thread a few days ago asking people to comment on her shape and one poster accused her of stealth boasting because as it happens she has a pretty good body.
The other stuff r.e. whilst in my hyde park apartment doing xyz is blatant boasting, not even an attempt at stealth.

Any post which has a photo of the op, and is asking "how old do I look" or "oh god, I look awful".

Without exception, they are all of amazing looking women who look years younger than they actually are. I always want to point out that if they looked as rough as they claimed, they wouldn't post a picture in a million years! I personally would crack screens everywhere.

No, but I know a marvellous place to buy diamonds.

Hold up a minute, cherry bakewell vodka??!! Does this exist?

X-post Inthebox - I hadn't even seen that post! Bet she looked gorgeous though?

OMG it does exist. I am sending my driver straight to Waitrose before my chef makes dinner.

YY it really does Arendelle. I am saving up.

www.waitrosecellar.com/spirits/spirit-type/vodka/waitrose-heston-cherry-bakewell-vodka-585954

There was a great 'How old do I look?' thread a while ago that got deleted because people were poking fun. Not poking fun in a malicious way, but in an amusing way.

Well, amusing to everyone but the OP!

I'm so worried about Crispen - is it possible he's eating too much kale?

The butler is serving me a glass of cherry bakewell vodka right now, I sent him down in the chauffeur drive Morgan just as soon as I saw it mentioned. Oh, and Jeeves, don't forget the caviar, there's a good chap.

Stealth boasting??? Never heard of it, what is it?

I see it as being when people are supposedly moaning about something but using it as an excuse to show off - like 'I don't know what to do about my two year old - he has mastered all of Beethoven's work and can speak 15 languages fluently - and the nearest Montesorri won't take him because he is too advanced'

LeChien she did. But another poster asked the same question and not one single poster accused her of the stealth boasting. Difference between the OPs was staggering. In fact I recall a poster once posted a pic of her pre weightloss and everyone was very supportive, months later when she posted her weightloss it was funny to see how many accused her of stealth boasting.

What is this Waitrose you speak of?

Does anyone else get fed up being compared to Cindy Crawford???? I am getting bored with it now. One of the air hostess on my private jet mentioned it again the other day, the poor darling could barely take her eyes off me when she was loading all my Louis Vuitton, of course that's when she wasn't trying to sneak a peek at my new 20000 carat engagement

I as so surprised when Chris (helmsworth) proposed on his private, tropical island

Christina Waitrose, oh darling, nothing to get excited about, it's just the little corner shop. You really should follow my example and shop at Fortnum and Mason, Waitrose doesn't really have the range of goods you know.

Perhaps your people could contact my people?

I do hope everything is artisan?

I'll have them call you on my Faberge telephone.

Artisan? But of course, well apart from the milk that is, I have my own artisan herd for that.

A few weeks ago there was a thread about something like "do you get negative reactions from other parents if your dc are privately educated". One poster said "why would you? Where i live every body has been privately educated for at least 2 generations, in fact i dont think i know anybody who sends their kids to state school except my decorator, so why would you get a negative reaction unless you live in a council house?". When someone pointed out that if her kids go to such an excellent school they may compete with state educated kids in sports and such, so they may have mert state educated kids at some point the reply was "actually the school has a very nice sport club, they got to meet david beckham the other day, he was quite nice i understand". (For the record i am paraphrasing but not much).

Now that is what i call a stealth boasting.

I tend to think that stealth boasting is pretending something is worrying/not good enough when the entire aim is to tell everyone about it. The "Is a level 6 at KS1 above average?" posts are the prime example of that.
My dm had the real life example of that when I was little. A teacher brought a parent over to talk because they were "worried about their dc as they could read before starting school". Dm said it was very quickly evident that they were most put out to find at they weren't the only one. She never worked out whether the teacher did that in good faith or was trying to shut them up.

It's like name dropping. You can mention people in context and it's just information. But saying what a wonderful friend they are and how they said you can come and use their private swimming pool any time when the conversation is about children's swimming lessons is name dropping.

Boasting is irritating in almost all contexts. BIL doesn't bother with the stealth bits.

I saw a lovely bit of boasting get well and truly squashed a while back, DS was in an inter-schools football match and the other schools were all private, one of the boys from another school walked past them on the way to the pitch and said that they had no hope of winning because they had a far superior team but that DS's school didn't stand a chance because they were a state school. Guess which team got knocked out at the end of the first round