To bring this up with the parents - my daughter's cousins told them they were thicker and not as good because they don't go to a private school (or should /I just lol and leave it alone!)

[HacketteofHacks]

We had a family 'get together' around Christmas.
My daughters are 12 and 8, their cousins are 7 and 4.
The 7 year old told my 12 year old that she was 'brighter and better' than her because she went to private school.
She also later said to my 8 year old who was struggling to tie up shoe laces (trainers so they could go out to the park) and say 'I can do that I'm cleverer than you'. I've no reason to think my children are lying - I know these children have said other stuff in the past to me.
Now if my DC said that to another child (in an immediate family) I would want to know.
My DH (it's his DB whose children made the comments) thinks it's 'just people isn't it'. And thinks I should avoid...
And before you flame me.. I haven't really got a problem with private schooling - we are lucky enough to live in an area where all the schools are good. But DH and his brother went to a public school and hated it (in fact DH was surprised with DH sent his children to private school as they too live in an area with some good schools).
There also the issue that DB is paid via a limited company so while DH ( and I)pay tax via PAYE we know DB puts a lot of things through his limited company. So he doesn't pay the same amount of tax and maybe can afford to do the private school thing.
Neither DB or his wife went to university. His wife doesn't work (lucky her as her mum gave her shed loads of cash to buy their house) both DH and I do work long hours and we. both have masters degrees. But I would never think I was better than anyone else.
My question is - should I bring this up?

“The OP said she laughed at that comment from the four year old. She wasn’t offended.”

Yes but even remembering it enough to mention is peculiar.

@Sloughsabigplace well done your DS for doing such a demanding and worthwhile job. You need brains, grit and huge dollops of character and empathy to be a paramedic.

Don't worry OP. My privately educated brat of a niece once referred to my children as her "peasant" cousins. She was about 6 at the time so must have heard the term from her parents. Mine were slightly older and asked me what she meant. She lived in London and we lived very rurally. I passed it off by telling mine that it was because they lived in the countryside.

My son is a new teacher who did some teaching placements in very good private schools ( he was state educated).
He found that the kids weren't snobs, nor the teachers, just about all the snobby entitled behaviour ( like that displayed by that child) is what you hear from parents.

I was privately educated all the way through and I'm trying to remember when I was first aware of the concept that my parents paid for school but others didn't. I think it must have been around age 12? Until then school was just school. Everyone goes to school. There are teachers and playgrounds and blackboards and pegs with your name on. Your parents chequebook doesn't come into it.

I really doubt the 7 year old is coming out with this without any sort of adult influence. I'd bet money she's learning that from her parents. Your issue is with them, not the 7 year old who's being badly taught.

@ana1s

“The OP said she laughed at that comment from the four year old. She wasn’t offended.”

Yes but even remembering it enough to mention is peculiar.

I don’t think it was. It’s reflective.

Remembering a similar incident and how she dealt with it differently.

Everyone remembers off details.

Tell your children that it doesn't men their cousins are more clever than them , it just means that the parents have more money.
Your children have to believe the school the other children go to won't increase their chances of doing better academically, your children can and will do just as good in their exams etc . You need them to work hard and not give up just because of a nasty comment by their little cousin .

OP from some of your responses it sounds like you too look down on them and consider yourself to be superior. I’m guessing that there’s a lot of underlying competition and comparing between your families.

@stuntbubbles

Just lol and leave it. The private school is doing its job to turn the cousins into little shits, isn’t it?

Horrible and unnecessary.

When I was wee one of my friends in the street who i played with went to a private school and I went to state school. Their uniform was brown. One day my friend told me that she was smarter than me and went to a better school because it cost her parents lots of money. I replied with 'At least my school uniform doesn't make me look like a turd' which made her cry and fall out with me but as wee girls do we quickly made up but she never said anything like that to me again.

Give your kids a stock response that they can hit out with if their cousins say anything to them again in future.

Just wanted to counter the generalisation that all private school kids are taught that they're superior and look down on state school kids.

From my experience of the three private schools my kids have attended, this is not the case. My teenagers won't mention they're at a private school if at all possible and their head/teachers would be appalled to hear comments along those lines. Not all private school kids are entitled, arrogant horrors.

This is also my experience @newyear1 There are nice, well mannered children and unpleasant and rude ones at all schools.

I went to a state school so have a foot in both camps.

I find some of the generalisations about private school kids on MN threads quite offensive at times; there would (quite rightly) be an uproar if similarly negative sweeping statements were made about state school pupils.