Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate smug round robins at this time of year

221 replies

lastqueenofscotland · 14/12/2017 13:45

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?

OP posts:
KurriKurri · 14/12/2017 17:21

My Mother gets one each year from some distant family member
She barely knows these people but met them at a massive family reunion things years ago, and was instantly added to the round robin list.

She narrates them to me and says things like 'Ooh Bertram has passed his grade four harpsichord' and I say 'who's Bertram' and she looks at me like I'm bonkers and says 'I don't know' - she's delighted with the news though Grin

ParadiseCity · 14/12/2017 17:23

OMG I want to receive a rr this time last year calendar. Priceless Grin

AcrossthePond55 · 14/12/2017 17:25

Oh, I just remembered that DH does get one from a former workmate. Last year it was full of the Glories of Trump™. God only knows what DH is in store for this year!

BalloonSlayer · 14/12/2017 17:25

Roar at we have got a new mattress for the front garden. (I was sorry to see the old one go, but we are really happy with this new one and some of the springs are already bursting through)

jennymac · 14/12/2017 17:26

I have never seen one, nor do I know anyone who sends them or has received them. Maybe they just aren't a thing in this part of the world.

shrunkenhead · 14/12/2017 17:30

Have we left it too late to send out some Janet and Roys????

MsHarry · 14/12/2017 17:30

I'm surprised they still exist now that people can brag all year round on social media! No different to FB imo!

sonjadog · 14/12/2017 17:31

These letters were one of the highlights of the Christmas season when I was growing up. Surely the writers must know that they are going to be roundly mocked by recipients.

I wish I still got them now.

WellAlwaysHaveParis · 14/12/2017 17:36

@MargaretCavendish Grin love the article!

Ivehadtonamechangeforthis · 14/12/2017 17:36

I've received one!

And it stars "what a year!" :)

and goes on..."we've been so busy moving to our new fuck off house because we've made so much money on our last home because we were so frigging lucky to buy when the prices crashed......gloat gloat gloat. We've had all the amazing holidays this year....gloat gloat gloat. Are you still living in your tiny cheap flat, have you been on holiday this year or could you not afford one like last year? Anyhoo hope you enjoy reading how great our year has been.....love to you all"

Oh sod off!!!!

venusandmars · 14/12/2017 17:37

I got one from my cousin which included website links to the marble he'd used to tile his bathroom - just in case we wouldn't be visiting soon and wanted to know how it would look. I kid you not!

Giraffey1 · 14/12/2017 17:37

I used to enjoy getting them as most of them were actually not smug, pretty short and had nice newsy snippets in them. And they were tailored to me (ie once didn’t fit all!)

I only get one or two of them these days and one of them is just a list of all the holidays they’ve been on and written in a sort of third person, which makes it really impersonal! The writers also think I’m interested in their diy projects and problems, which I’m not. And it is never tailored to me so they obviously have just one letter which they send to everyone.

Grrrr.

CaptainChristmas · 14/12/2017 17:38

No different to FB imo!

Another excellent reason not to be on Facebook!

Giraffey1 · 14/12/2017 17:39

Oh, and they try and squeeze it all in one side of A4 with hs.f a dozen photos .... this means everything is really small, impossible to read, and the photos are a size of a postage stamp!

Ursaminor · 14/12/2017 17:41

Love a chitty- chatty!

But they are thin on the ground now, as people do their self-congratulating via Facebook all year long.

opinionatedfreak · 14/12/2017 17:41

I love them - my parents keep them so I can read them. I like them both for the news sharing element and for the joy of decoding between the lines.

I bumped into one of my Dad's friend's daughters at work. My family moved away from the area her family lived in when I was about 6. My Dad still saw her father at work and social stuff so the friendship was maintained but the families stopped meeting up.

It was only during that conversation at work (about 20 years later) that we realised that due to the Christmas letters (my family never sent a RR but my mother used to hand write everyone a personal letter - including my Dad's friends) we knew exactly what the other had been up to including what we got for our A-Levels, where we went to University etc. It caused much hilarity!

I hardly get any in my own right - my generation are too busy FBing.

iboughtsnowboots · 14/12/2017 17:43

My dm's family and friends used to send these out, the family loved them actually crying with laughter at some of them, we used to score them. One year I wrote a piss taking one and sent it to family. Honestly OP YABVVU, if you are lucky enough to get one treasure it, they are comedy gold.

Ideserveaholiday · 14/12/2017 17:45

Small voice: was I the only one who thought this was about over confident, fat red-breasted birds in our gardens at this time of year?

Threehoursfromhome · 14/12/2017 17:47

It's strange, I've been under the impression that they've been around forever but realistically they probably only became popular once windows-based word processing packages and home PCs became more common in the 90s and people could scan and attach photos; and they'd had their day once social media took off in a big way about ten years ago. So the heyday of round robins only lasted 12-15 years.

Pop24 · 14/12/2017 17:48

They’re hilarious. We only get a couple sadly.

iboughtsnowboots · 14/12/2017 17:51

I have also remembered we could track how pleased our DM was with us both before and after we left home by how much space we would get in our round robin letter, one year I got half a sentence.

Toddlerteaplease · 14/12/2017 17:53

I get one from a friend. I love it because it's so pretentious!

OhBeggerItsMorning · 14/12/2017 17:55

Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate them with a passion.

When my BIL met his now wife, her parents would send them out. Somehow my MIL and FIL, her future ILs, ended up on their mailing list. They never asked to get them. ILs mentioned it to us, wondering why they would get them from someone they barely knew.

Now BIL and SIL send them out (since having a child) and we ended up on their mailing list. For the last few years we have had a round robin written by them, but as if it's been done by their child. As if they could write one at a few months old. It is totally cringe worthy, unsolicited, and we generally hated them (round robins, not necessarily the BIL and SIL) before this anyway. No, we don't want to know what you had for lunch every day last year. No, we don't want to know about your holiday in the summer; we saw you not long after and heard all about it. No, we don't want to know... . (You've probably already told us anyway, or we've seen your updates on fb.)

Please, please, please stop sending them to us.

On the other hand, there is one friend of many years who keeps in touch using a round robin that we like receiving. It is well written, informative and just generally like a letter sent at Christmas rather than a list of achievements. So they can continue sending that.

GingerbreadMa · 14/12/2017 17:56

Threehours photocopiers have been around for ages. My parents both had use of photocopiers at work in the early 80s (and no e log-ins to monitor use back then!)

Greenteandchives · 14/12/2017 17:56

We used to get one which went into all sorts of details about any medical complaint which had cropped up during the year; who had a bad back, what surgery they had had etc etc. We shouldn't have laughed but we used to try and guess the ailments which would be listed before we opened it.
We don't get it any more. Think word got back.....!