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?!

This happened in the late 1980s but has gone down in my family lore.

My Dad was giving my brother and some boys from cubs a lift.

One little boy piped up

'Do you know, I'm only 6 but I've already been in 5 volvos!'

He MUST have heard this from his parents

And what, my Dad wondered, was so special about a Volvo!?

I think the most awful thing I've seen is a Mum sharing (with photos) their child's first potty wee and/or poo. More exciting is the same child transitioning to using the loo with a child adapted seat. 🙄

@ChessIsASport

It is difficult. Sometimes you are just so proud of them it’s hard to keep it in! Maybe there should be an anonymous thread in Mumsnet where you can just post about how proud you are.

One of my children recently won a national award and I have only told my closest friend because I know it would sound like I was showing off if I put it on Facebook. Really wish I could tell the world though. Oh dear, maybe I just did.

That’s an impressive achievement that people would be happy to see (if they are truly your friends) I think this is more about lies or bragging about parents evenings etc. Well done to your DC

The mother of one of my sons friends (both year 5) boasts constantly on FB that he still climbs into bed with her and that he'll always be a mummy's boy. She'll post a photo of them in bed together with a caption along the lines of "Oh look who's hopped into bed with me again, mummy's little baby" and She'll never refer to him just by his first name, its always his first, middle and surname 😖

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.

Sorry but my foodie son would always ask for sushi over pizza and has eaten the same food as us since he first ate at 6 months. Unlike his fussy brother who won't eat anything but pizza and chicken without holding an inquest first.

@lboogy

Sounds like a bit of a bitter post tbh. Some parents put in a lot of work into developing their kids and are proud when they see the hard work paying off. Sorry that upsets you.

😂😂😂 Touched a nerve

We have a family friend who's child does a sport at National level.
Yes the child can do the sport, and regulary is in the top 20, but this sport is mega expensive and there is no funding, so the child gets the game points because the parents pay £100,000 a year in travel and for equipment.

Reading the room, as referenced above, is exactly what needs to be done so that the line between simply being proud, and then boasting, isn’t crossed.

I have, countless times, heard of my friend’s 3yo who is very very advanced don’t you know (she probably is) and how well she is reading, doing phonics, talking, making jokes, showing remarkable insight etc. The list goes on.

Meanwhile my DS who has ASD plus learning difficulties and other co-morbidities and huge, huge issues around rigidity and control which severely limit his ability to access learning is never ever acknowledged by her, whatever I say.

A clear example of limited social intelligence.

Why does it matter that the DDs are Adopted?

Because that's how she describes them.
"My adopted daughters do this"
"Lucy and gem my adopted daughters"

Surely adopted dc need safe guarding more? And being on tictok at 9&10 is not great parenting at all. It's not for kids. Ss had to pay them a couple of visits after that too.

@Goldenbear

Feeling a bit embarrassed as I think I've been guilty of the parents' evening pride. My DD was only 7 and had a tiger picture displayed in the school hallway that was truly impressive, she was awarded an art certificate for it, I think we were both loudly complimenting our DD but mostly as we thought she deserved the praise, equally, I don't think I was aware of anyone nearby. My natural personality is enthusiastic with my children and fairly smiley but I do curtail it as I know some people think you are fake.

This post is exactly why these sort of threads are hideous. A parent shamed out of complimenting their child.

Vile thread.

@HereComesYourMam; And I wonder if the kids were actually consulted as to whether they wanted to donate their pocket money to charity too.

I’m genuinely pleased to hear of my friends kids achievements, it’s one of the nicer things about social media but posting about parents evening etc seems so unnecessary and some of the brags mentioned on here have been unpleasant and inferred other kids weren’t as special.

Oh god we have one of these in DDs year.

The kid does the same sport as dd and we are all treated to 20+ photos and videos every single time the kid trains (3+ times a week) its bloody exhausting I've had to mute her...

Her kid is by all accounts the best ever, which she can't possibly be as my kid is better than hers....

She also comments on the class pages when people are moaning about homework or about home educating over lockdown and she will interject with 'oh well my DD just thoroughly enjoys it and can't get enough

Oh do fuck off dear

@Bluntness100

Is it a boast if it’s true though?

My daughter is as smart as they come, first class law degree, passed her Lpc with distinction and is a trainee commercial lawyer with one of the biggest law firms globally. She is also the nicest person I’ve ever met in my life. She literally doesn’t have a bad bone in her body.

Is this boastful or just truthful?

Cos if it’s boasting, colour me boasted, I’ll be singing that girls praises for ever more. Is it truthful. Yup one hundred percent.

I think it’s different if you’re bullshitting. But if it’s actually factual then crack on.

See that is boasty to me. Both my children are successful in their fields, I only mention it to people if asked as I know most people's children haven't done as well, so I don't want to make them feel bad.

I do boast about them to my mum though, who loves it and goes off to brag to her granny friends. I think grannies are allowed bragging rights

Oh and my kid is decidedly average at her sport... certainly nothing special

I was standing outside a primary school the other day and heard a dad unselfconsciously say to another parent 'rufus has started to learn Russian on duolingo, he's really rather good at it'. It's totally the sort of thing I would have said about dd1 (the riverford box arrived and she said oh good I Iove red Russian curly Kale) or dd2 (she loves making PowerPoint presentations about the Egyptians). Because kids are amazing and fascinating and parents who love them are doing something right but can get rather carried away! But I was also quite impressed that dds first sentence, after being exposed to my dsis was 'were they just pissing about?'

@nokidshere

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.

Sorry but my foodie son would always ask for sushi over pizza and has eaten the same food as us since he first ate at 6 months. Unlike his fussy brother who won't eat anything but pizza and chicken without holding an inquest first.

Why are people still not getting that the sushi loving party guest hadn't been asked what he'd like to eat; he (like all the other guests) had actually been served pizza? It doesn't bloody matter what he'd have preferred and he was bloody rude to demand something else, even if the something else had been baked beans

I don’t think it’s about being true.

It’s being done to purposely belittle another child’s accomplishments or to make their own seem more important or more worthy than anyone else.

I know a well off family who purposely put their kids in a failing school so they would be top of every class. Picked for every team they had extra lessons at and generally feel special.

Kids are obnoxious and can’t deal with any minor ‘failure’ or anyone else getting a trophy or award.

Just going to leave this here…

@zatarontoast

It's the stealth, faux concern boasts that I enjoy the most. Eg. Facebook status:

"Does anyone else's toddler cry endlessly before bed if they don't get a chapter read from War and Peace? I'm just so exhausted from these meltdowns, starting to think some thing's wrong 😭 #imexhausted"

Of course everyone else chips in to say their dc are exactly the same, which makes it even better 😂

I hope at least one person claims that her child insists on it being read in the original Russian,because "even a good translator loses the depth of emotion, Mummy"

Why do people even brag? Its pointless, it honestly baffles me.
DH and I will of course harp on to each other about what lovely little people we made etc but I would never boast to friends or aquaintances. What exactly would I be hoping to acheive?

A child's achievements are their own, not the parent's.
Ditto if your kids fuck up. You aren't culpable, unless you were abusive/neglectful of course.

It smacks of having rather given up on oneself to live vicariously through and even embellish your child's achievements.

I've just "dumped" (for reasons that will become clear) a friend who doesn't boast about how smart her DD (7) is (even though she is actually smart) but how nice she is. Ha - She's a little rotter, and the reason I've phased my friend out is because her DD picks on my 4yo son something rotten, she's really nasty, and fuck all gets said by my friend. Oh but woe betide anyone who speaks to Precious in a way she doesn't like. My (ex)friend has accused a poor girl at her DD's school of bullying (she's actually said it to her face!) despite the fact her horrible DD sounds like she's much worse - such as laughing at this girl in swimming lessons because she still wears arm bands and constantly telling her that she's a better speller/writer/reader/drawer than the girl she claims to be a bully.

I've seen exfriend watch as her DD throws her little sister's toys across the room and says nothing. But if little sister so much as touches Precious's toys Merry hell breaks loose. Precious calls my son awful names, screams in his face if he touches her toys, tells him she doesn't like him, excludes him. Last time I saw them, exFriend gave Precious sweets to pass round everyone. She didn't give one to DS as "I don't like you so you're not having one" then ate it herself. Exfriend just kind of simpers and says "oh dear". I have absolutely no problem telling her to stop being awful though and behave herself, how would she like it if someone treated her like that...both her and exFriend look horrified. She is not a child who's used to being told off. And if anyone so much as disagrees with Precious, there's tears, demands of an apology, exFriend goes and fights her battles for her no matter how ridiculous - once she said to my DD "Precious is very upset because she wanted to be the pink mermaid in your game, but you said you wanted to be the pink mermaid. That's not very nice MiniGlummy" it just got so fraught with me stepping in and pointing out how ridiculous it all was and we don't need to police the playtime of 7yo's.

Anyway, exFriend constantly posts on SM about her sweet DD, can't believe how kind she is, what a good sister she is and she only wishes she was as kind as her DD (🤮). We were once playing a board game that had a symbol on the dice where, if you rolled it, you could push someone back to the start. Precious rolled that symbol and exFriend was all "Now Precious please don't feel you have to push someone back, I know how kind of a person you are and that it would break your heart to do that.". Precious of course immediately pushed her mum's piece back to the start

The sad thing is her youngest is absolutely adorable and the sweetest little thing with the biggest heart - nothing ever gets put about her on SM and exFriend treats her completely differently. I predict she's going to have hell with her oldest when she's a teenager.

It's also sad because exFriend was actually an amazing friend and person pre-children, we've been through a lot together, and I held on to our friendship because we had such a great history. But I've realised I can't be friends with someone who infuriates me that much and who allows my DS to be picked on so much.

@MustardMitt. That could possibly have been me. My son was (actually still is) a wee bit behind his peers at most things. Except growing teeth! So I used to joke that what he was advanced at was growing teeth and hair!!