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.

Ahem perhaps it's your photo that er deters him

You can play MN 'Stealth Boast Bingo' - guaranteed on any holiday or disposable income thread - there are the same old names biggin' themselves up!

Christina but it was taken by Mario Testino, how could anybody be put off?

Reported myself as wrong thread!

She will sigh and say "the bloody Range Rover is in for service, which means I have to pick up the horses' hay in DH's Porsche and it is just not built for that sort of thing".

I almost always disagree when someone is accused of stealth boasting, and this is another example. I wouldn't see that as stealth boasting. I'd entirely agree that a Porsche is not an ideal car for picking up hay. This seems a perfectly legitimate moan to me.

99% of people who actually own a Range Rover and a Porsche will take them for granted, it's only people who don't have them, want them, and can't afford them whose brains will give much head-space to any mention of them.

Gifted children threads never end well do they?

I'll never forget a long time 'friend' of mine ringing me on A level results day years ago, saying 'go on then, how did she do?' I wouldn't have rung to tell her in a million years. (she has a son the same age)
Funnily enough, said friend has emailed today with a brilliant stealth boast. She's high end or so she thinks

I always think of stealth boasting as being when you moan about something obviously positive. Talking about DC is particularly fertile ground for this. Half the people I know apparently have babies who are just about ready to write a novel they're so advanced and it's SO TRYING don't you know. The absolute fucking drama people make about having an early walker.

I think this is the general pattern with wrongful stealth-boasting accusations. Because something is extraordinary in the hearers world, they think someone for whom it is ordinary is boasting, when they're merely talking about their life.

Gifted children threads never end well do they?

Never! I've never seen a thread on here involving 'bright' children that didn't also involve some mega stealth boasts.

Truly, until I began teaching I had no idea so many parents were convinced their child was gifted. It's like a whole set of parents who believe their child is top of the class; they can't all be the brightest.

99% of people who actually own a Range Rover and a Porsche will take them for granted, it's only people who don't have them, want them, and can't afford them whose brains will give much head-space to any mention of them.

But it's weird to call them by brand name. It's like people who say 'my iPhone' in a context where it's weird not to just say 'my phone'. There's no reason not to say in that scenario, 'argh, my car's in the garage so I have to use DH's to pick up the hay and I don't think it'll all fit so it's going to be a nightmare'. Brand name dropping is like any other form of name dropping - people think they're being oh so subtle but it's really glaring and jarring because it's just not natural speech to refer to everything by brand name.