To ask what’s the most toe curling OTT boast/showing off you’ve heard from a parent about their child?

[Rainbowb]

Just seen a FB post from a mum friend boasting about her 9yo daughter doing online dance and gym sessions via zoom and practising for her 11 plus complete with picture of said child sat at her desk and smiling for the camera. Hope the child gets time to chill out now and then! Mum obviously needs us all to believe her daughter is a high achiever! It was so cringy though and I wondered if anyone else out there was biting their lip at stuff like this?!

@Munchkin08 🤢🤢🤢

I have a smart kid (not genius level, he is only into what he likes, but what he likes he knows absolutely everything about) My God we must sound so wanky when you hear us talking about Pachycephalosaurus' and Parasaurolophus' (dinosaurs I'd never, ever heard of before DS developed such an interest in this area.... and yes I had to Google the spellings )

I always worry we'll end up mentioned on thread like this

Same kid could name the four Gallelian moons of Jupiter when he was two.... Injad to learn them as to not be upstaged

Not a Facebook post but a round robin from DH's cousins. Her grandchild who's the same age as as our grandson boasted that they'd been invited to attend a very posh prep school. At the same time our DGS was being frisked to make sure he wasn't taking toys between floors in nursery school.

Yes, thankfully. I think I would rather be in school now than in the 50s plus. My school days were not happy ones.

I absolutely cackled when DS got given a gold award certificate for sports day. He was so inept, so ungainly, so unco-ordinated (no physical problems, he's just not naturally sporty at all). But he laughed the whole way through it, wasn't at all bothered that he was being beaten by kids four years younger, and just carried on.

I treasure the certificate that says 'Awarded to DS for his achievements in Sports Day 2016.' Then in much, much smaller writing 'in keeping a positive attitude'

Yep, had one of these when my eldest children were at primary school (around 5 years of age). The mother used to tell me stories about her little darling that she must have dreamt up.

According to her, not only could he explain Pythagoras' theorem, he could also spell it

Her (every day): "Oh, he's so bright and intelligent, he's got such an imaginative mind, it takes him to far off places" (while said child is sat there playing with Thomas the fkn tank)

The little shit is now in prison, after doing some not so clever shit..

[quote GlummyMcGlummerson]**@OrigamiPenguinArmy* and @olbndanszombie* - in short, unless there's very bad teachers these people are either
A. Lying, or
B. Wilfully or unconsciously misinterpreting the teacher's words.

It's a very bad teacher indeed who openly compares children to other children in the class to parents[/quote]
Things may have changed since I was in school, but we used to mark each other’s work and shout the marks out to the teacher. So the entire class knew what mark you’d got (also meant that your mark was dependent on the maths skills of your colleagues, which frankly was not a safe bet ).

But yes we did all know who had come first, second etc in each test. If somebody came top all the time, we noticed (I always came top in spelling, a boy called Michael always came top in maths).

Shameless placemark

No kid will ask for sushi over pizza

Yep.

Unless they've not been taught their manners. Or parent wants to bask in embarassing host as it's bloody unlikely sushi will be on the menu at at child's birthday party.

However I find parents who over-gush about their children are like unstoppable machines. At all costs they'll carry on and try to justify it too. Resistance is futile. Just run. They're doing their children no good, in terms of finding their place in this world. It doesn't end well.

Oh god is everyone without a sense of humour on this thread. I love threads like this - apart from posts stating the obvious. We all need a laugh these days - don’t read the thread if you have to be so pedantic that you’re incredibly boring. Leave them to people WITH a sense of humour. I can’t think of any occasion I’ve wanted to post my sons successes on Facebook. That’s because I know no one is interested.

After accidentally letting slip that her 6-year-old daughter had never slept through the night and was actually being a bit of a bloody nightmare, a mum friend (she's actually a nice person, just horrifically blunt and a bit too keen to have a gifted child) told me - when I expressed sympathy - that it was "...only because she has the example of TWO loving parents just upstairs and she understandably wants to be with us, that might be hard for you to understand."

My partner was no longer living with us full time (while we awaited treatment for him) because his mental health issues were making life too unstable for my dd

I have a friend who years ago told me that her "mum chums" 🤮 thought it was utterly hilarious that her baby sons first word was croissant.

I’ve definitely had the ‘Oh little Jimmy is sooooooo much taller than little tacos - and being younger too!’ several times, even by family members. Yes, my child is slightly below average height - but why is this something to be competitive about??? And why say it out loud??

@CoffeeAndEnnui

What an absolute bitch. I'm sorry you had to hear that.

What a total bitch that “friend” is Coffee. Jesus you wouldn’t say that to someone you couldn’t stand let alone a “friend”. Cruel and utter bollocks too.

@OutOntheTilez

Oh geez, yes. My SIL, especially on Facebook. I’m not on FB, but DH is. Years ago, when my nephew was 7 or 8, he was invited to a friend’s birthday party at one of those indoor play places.

When the kids sat down for lunch and pizza was served, nephew announced that he wanted sushi instead. SIL posted this proudly on FB, a one-liner like, “Little Johnny was at a friend’s birthday party today and when they served pizza, he said he wanted sushi.”

Clearly she was looking for accolades like, “Oh, what mature taste for such a young boy!” “Good for you for introducing him to new foods” etc. etc. But people were onto her, and what she got was, “Well, that was rude of him.” “So did the poor mom of the birthday boy have to run out and get him his sushi then?” and “He sounds high maintenance” (to which SIL’s mother responded, “You have no idea!”).

No kid will ask for sushi over pizza, so this means SIL clearly planned this and pulled nephew aside beforehand and told him what to say. Pathetic, really.

My friends child, who is lovely and adorable, not spoiled will always ask for sushi over everything. Because they like it, grew up eating it and haven’t been told to say it.

A long time ago there was an article in The Times magazine
It was about a family who were off travelling round the world with their children.
They had deregistered the children from school to do this but said they had to do the travelling for their son who at age 6 had memorised all the countries on the Indian continent and that school couldn't keep up with him anyway.
Made me chuckle as they mentioned not only this but their huge home in some leafy London suburb and their cleaner plus the Nanny who sobbed because they were leaving.

Nowt like a boast.

@GlummyMcGlummerson

why shouldn't we boast about our kids? They're amazing little people.

As I said earlier, actual significant milestones (Uni, grammar school acceptance, driving tests, overcoming illness etc) - fine. Everyone does that. Brag away.

Reasons why it's not a good idea to boast about mundane things like how many little Timmy can count to or that they can divide big numbers in their head-

1. No one cares - if you want to make friends and keep people on side, don't bore them half to death (especially with school parents, as wrong as it is, I've found working in a school the kids of odd or annoying parents don't get play date invitations).
2. As someone else up thread put far more eloquently than I'm about to - sending the message that their value is placed on their status with others is more damaging than you'd like to believe. Inspire them, boast to your kids, don't let them think that they're a prize that needs to keep up with your expectations.
3. If they think they have to do very little to be seen as the best kids in the world in your eyes you may find they end up actually achieving very little

I think @GlummyMcGlummerson has made some v good points on this thread

I just don't get this boasting about a child choosing Sushi over whatever else, sushi is plain rice and a bit of fish on most occasions! I have come across this so many times on FB and real life! so what, your kid likes rice wow

I think @GlummyMcGlummerson has made some v good points on this thread

Thank you @notanothertakeaway - I've actually made very valuable contributions to 2,345 thread with over 600 posters personally praising me. I'm at level 32 for posting, which is 10 levels up form the norm, and MNHQ says I'm top of the forum. if only the rest of MN could keep up with my astuteness and witty repartee

@Banj0girl

The fact is that the older among us will recognise being top of the class was judged on exam results. Since they were all posted on the wall it was not difficult to judge who was top of the class. We did not need a teacher to tell us, although it was usually quite obvious who was getting the most praise.

I remember that so well.

There was also a red line drawn after the pass mark, so it was very clear who had failed the exam in that particular subject....

The history exam one year was quite amusing as that red line was quite high up as only 3 of us had passed ! That was out of about 35. Now I think that's a reflection of the poor teaching standard.

At a toddler group a good few years ago little ones from age 1-2 years a mum piped up that her little darling will only ever wear next clothes, god forbid she bought him something from asda.
I just had to say something so said "well thank goodness its so cheap in next" her face was a picture.
Just for reference i do not think next is cheap just had to get something in there.

@GlummyMcGlummerson

I think @GlummyMcGlummerson has made some v good points on this thread

Thank you @notanothertakeaway - I've actually made very valuable contributions to 2,345 thread with over 600 posters personally praising me. I'm at level 32 for posting, which is 10 levels up form the norm, and MNHQ says I'm top of the forum. if only the rest of MN could keep up with my astuteness and witty repartee

🤣

FIL once showed me an old photograph of DH and went on about how proud he was of him and wasn't he amazing, look at him there, standing up and walking and at only a year old! DH in the photograph was over half the height of FIL in the photograph and blatantly eight. I take the piss out of DH now and again about how he was a four foot tall mutant one year old.