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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the Facebook 'feeling blessed' status should be renamed 'feeling smug'

126 replies

TwentyOneGuns · 21/04/2016 13:34

I know I don't have to go on there but I like it generally for keeping in touch with friends I don't see that much. But why does it turn nice pleasant people into smug idiots? If I read one more 'feeling blessed' status, (usually either about something very mundane that happens to everyone like spending time with your kids or incredibly boasty) I will not be responsible for my actions well I'll probably just moan a lot and post on here.

OP posts:
treaclesoda · 22/04/2016 07:25

Actually that's not fair of me. I don't actually mind people feeling grateful and counting their blessings. It's just that I find it strange to post on facebook that you feel blessed for going on a foreign holiday or whatever, because it seems a wee bit 'look at me'. Whereas feeling blessed like the poster further up who had lost family members and was enjoying spending time with remaining family isn't smug at all, it's reclaiming some happiness after a horrible time.

I retract my 'it's always smug' accusation, I was being grumpy.

littledrummergirl · 22/04/2016 07:29

Ovary- I think we may have a mutual friend. Grin

I use blessed sometimes, usually when the dc have managed to be nice to each other and I haven't spent the whole day managing a war zone.
Smug- no, just trying to put something nice on for a change.

OneMagnumisneverenough · 22/04/2016 07:36

I never use feeling blessed as i'm an atheist. I'd quite like a feeling smug status.

AliceScarlett · 22/04/2016 07:40

You may consider spending time with family and children mundane, but I assure you it means a great deal to me. Five family bereavements in a short period and a complicated custody battle to return my daughter to my care means every single nice time I have with any family is a blessing.

Urgh. Put the violin away.

YANBU OP.

AppleSetsSail · 22/04/2016 09:46

I've just seen the first ever feeling blessed post that didn't come across as smug. It was posted by the parent of a child who almost died in an accident and it was touch and go if the child would survive. When the child came off the ventilator and started breathing on his own, the parents posted an update on facebook to save them having to text everyone individually. They were feeling blessed. I'm willing to accept that they were feeling very blessed indeed at that point in time.

Only a true misanthrope could take umbrage at this.

SoupDragon 'blessed' is not a synonym for 'happy'.

Moistly · 22/04/2016 09:54

Yup. Feeling Smug.

Anyone who feels the need to state this on fb is doing it to show off or to get one up on someone. No genuinely happy/blessed person feels the need to write this sort of thing on social media for a load of acquaintances to read. I left fb 2 years ago after learning that the most insecure people make themselves look the happiest/luckiest/most "blessed" on that daft site to keep up appearances.

Moistly · 22/04/2016 09:56

....just to add, I am referring to the generic run of the mill "feeling blessed" statuses with the little halo emoji.

ColinFirthsGirth · 22/04/2016 09:58

YABU sometimes people that put this are feeling grateful for what they yave and NOT being smug

leelu66 · 22/04/2016 10:06

YANBU. It does sound insufferably smug.

If they said they felt blessed to have enough money to put food on the table and to have a roof over their heads, then I think it would be different.

MoonriseKingdom · 22/04/2016 10:11

I have a friend on Facebook who is lovely but has a tendency towards drama. 'Feeling blessed' is a sure sign she has fallen out with someone and is usually accompanied by passive aggressive memes about knowing who your true friends are.

SoupDragon · 22/04/2016 10:27

SoupDragon 'blessed' is not a synonym for 'happy

I suggest you contact Chambers and tell them then.

To think the Facebook 'feeling blessed' status should be renamed 'feeling smug'
GlitterGlassEye · 22/04/2016 10:29

I gave up Facebook a few years back due to the passive aggressive crap on it. I do use Instagram though and #feelingblessed is fucking rife on that as well. Also #takemeback as an excuse to post old half naked pics of yourself in Magaluf Hmm. My friends list is getter smaller as the weeks pass.

SoupDragon · 22/04/2016 10:30

Urgh. Put the violin away.

don't be so bloody nasty.

AppleSetsSail · 22/04/2016 10:37

I sincerely could not care if the good people at Chambers think that 'blessed' is a synonym for 'happy' - they are wrong. And Oxford disagrees. Wink

Tanith · 22/04/2016 10:39

You beat me to it, Soupdragon!

I confess to feeling irritated by the "feeling blessed" people - and then I read cruel, dismissive comments like Alicescarlet's and know which I'd rather see.

Charitygirl1 · 22/04/2016 10:45

But who are you being 'blessed' by. A blessing is bestowed by someone. It's a religious term, and it makes you sound like the kind of Christian/other who believes good things have been bestowed on you by God because you're so deserving. The corollary being that those who haven't...are not. Bleurgh, why would you want to suggest that?

GraysAnalogy · 22/04/2016 14:33

People just can't bear other people being happy can they Confused so what if they're happy and want to share it.

Chinesealan · 22/04/2016 14:34

It's a fad due to Facebook and things we hear American stars say. No one ever said they were blessed before and if they had done so in public, people would have thought they were a bit God squad.

Chinesealan · 22/04/2016 14:35

Grays it's not the being happy, it's expressing it in a way that doesn't sit right with the reader. If you're happy, say you're happy, not that you're blessed.

GraysAnalogy · 22/04/2016 14:35

And yano what, I went through a shit time. A shit time when I had nothing happy to write about, nothing nice to share. Just shit shit shit and more shit in my life. Then things got better. And I got that overwhelming feeling of happiness and contentment for the first time in years. And I wanted to share it. And my friends were happy for me. Because they're not arseholes who think someone being happy is a personal slight against them.

GraysAnalogy · 22/04/2016 14:37

Well tough shit if it doesn't sit right with you, if someone feels blessed, someones feels lucky to be alive, if thats how they feel then good on them. It's not a term I've used but if that term describes their feelings then so what.

m0therofdragons · 22/04/2016 14:41

Have gone through two miscarriages and nearly losing my prem dd2 within the first week of her life, I will always feel blessed when I'm thinking about my dc and if occasionally I want to express that on fb I will. What a bizarre thing to get annoyed about. How is it smug that I feel lucky to have my dc? I really think the easily offended should step away from fb.

Miffyandme · 22/04/2016 14:41

I'd love someone who types "feeling blessed" to one day just admit that they are "feeling smug and why the hell not".

This also probably already been pointed out but I find that the more glossy and "blessed" someone's Facebook life appears, the more cracks there are underneath.

redexpat · 22/04/2016 14:48

I've never seen this on my FB news feed. Nor passive aggressive statuses. Nor public laundry washing.