To hate smug round robins at this time of year

[lastqueenofscotland]

Seriously, do people really think I give a shit if their insufferable teenager passed their GSCEs, their vile adult children haven't been fired from their jobs or their toddlers have successfully mastered the art of occasionally shitting in a potty.

Why do people send these? Does anyone care? Surely they are only the object of ridicule?

Bad day ?

I can't stand these letters. They're usually accompanied by a nauseating photo of them all in 'hilarious' Christmas jumpers.

I used to love reading the round robins that arrived in all my parents’ Christmas cards. Even the insufferable ones were usually a bit amusing. I’ve never received one myself, there’s no need for the Facebook generation to send a round robin is there. Half my friends don’t even bother sending cards full stop which I think is a shame.

Name I've got one today in which they are literally bragging about nothing. It is two sides of A4 about absolutely fuck all.

I love reading the ones my parents get. But no one has ever mentioned potty training in them.

Me264 my mum used to get one ever year fr this AWFUL woman she worked with.
Then about two years ago her perfect teenage daughter got kicked out of her posh school for bringing weed in and her son got fired from his job in the city for gross misconduct...
Shes not send one since

I'm jealous. I've never encountered one of these except on MN and they sound brilliant

We get one from a cousin. Blah blah blah pony, blah blah skiing in the French Alps, blah blah building a school in The Gambia.

They are lovely lovely people but the RR makes them sound like pretentious twats. Like everything they do is a performance so they’ll have stuff to tell people about.

OH MY GOD. I thought you meant actual fat robins. As in birds. I was thinking "Actually, I did see a really fat robin in the garden earlier and come to think of it, he did look rather smug!"

James o brien used to let people read their round robins on his LBC radio show., they were usually hilarious!

Sadly we don't get them anymore because we are all on social media, innit.

Argh...we get one from an old school friend of mine every year. Last year I ripped it up unread and my DH (who has never met any of this family) insisted on putting it together again so her could read of the skiing and boating exploits of a bunch of self-satisfied strangers.

I LOATHE them.

I'm only jealous because I've never had one and they sound like a great source of laughs and much pisstaking...

Yanbu

Be aware round Robin senders. Every letter you send will be mocked. They're the worst.

Awful.

I can't stress this enough.

Horrible impersonal letters that start "gosh, what a busy year the Smith family have had"

A letter is supposed to be personalised and include some specific questions for the reader about they're situation and health. Not a barrage of information about Jemima's gap year and how Derek has taken up cycling and lost half a stone!

By all means write a diary for yourself, but don't subject others to it.

YANBU OP! My parents get them from their friends every year, and I'm torn between thinking of them as a guilty pleasure and utterly despising them I read them every year anyway, I can't stop myself

I can’t believe they are real. Anyone with a modicum of self awareness knows that round robin letters have the piss taken out of them mercilessly for the twee self aggrandising nonsense that they are.

“Huckleberry has mastered his Level 9 piano and Lulu has passed her ‘A’ Level Swahili four years early.......as for me I have only mastered how to make rosemary and sun dried tomato bread in the aga...ha ha ha .”

JUST FUCK OFF YOU PRETENTIOUS BORING CUNTS

Although, having ranted away, one of my friends sends out cards and then a link to their blog/round Robin letter, so you can look if you're interested which I actually think is OK.

They're great! I love hearing what people have been up to and that they've taken the time to write a letter. Doesn't matter that it's the same one sent to lots of us - would be the same news in it if they rewrote it every time!
How is it any more smug than plastering everything you do across social media #makingmemories #blessed #domeafuckingfavour ?

Pan I'm howling, that's is exactly the tone of the one I have got

To be fair, the smug ones are infinitely preferable to the ones from people whose offspring appear to be crushing disappointments to them.

Oh, I love them!

I love them purely for the amusement factor! We get one from DH's friend every year, its so embarrassingly smug and cringeworthy that I actually look forward to it!

We get one from my husbands friends. This year was about their three amazing weddings 2 uk based one abroad. So he wasn't good enough a mate to be invited to the weddings but was to get the card and printed a4 pics bragging about it ! 😬

Pan, I am laughing so hard that is too accurate.

We have one from a family who started writing it from their sons perspective, 'mummy and daddy say that..' and he is now 15 and I am pretty sure he has no idea they are still sent out like this - he would be mortified.

I feel bad for him because everyone I know who receives it is ridiculing it. Totally unneccessary

I LOVE them. Usually only get one in our house —FB generation— but I do love it a little too much.

Don’t send one myself, for all the obvious upthread reasons, but if people want to send them to us they are very welcome 😃

One of my husband's old school friends is now super-rich and has an annoying wife who used to send smug round robins every year all about their kids winning gold Duke of Edinburgh awards, climbing Kilimanjaro for charity, being selected for British junior triathlon teams, etc. We used to enjoy taking the mickey out of them every year. We never had to see this obnoxious family (except for when we got invited to their massively extravagant silver wedding celebrations which were swiftly followed by husband running off with OW...) Now the kids are grown up there are no more smug round robins, we quite miss them really!