Would it be offensive & rude to ask a family member to stop sending me pics of their dc?

[FabulousFlowerpots]

I just want to check if I'm being rude here. I want to ask (nicely) a family member not to send me pics of their kids. I'm not interested in a 100 pics of what Johnny ate for breakfast, Johnny getting the bus, Johnny eating his ice cream, Johnny at soft play, Johnny having his afternoon nap etc. You get the idea. I told a friend I want to stop the pics and she said there's nothing I can say that won't cause offence. What d'you think? Aibu? How can I handle this better?

People might ‘care’ a bit, but please tell me you don’t go through life thinking everyone needs or wants hundreds of photos of your child on their social media? People like you scare me - totally self obsessed and think that everyone else’s world revolves around you

People's own social media feed is theirs to do what they want with. I'd rather pics of kids than someone moaning about life in every post or something.

I do have one FB friend who posts the same pics again and again, that we've all seen before. I think its her reposting all her FB memories IDK. That does get odd and boring. But she has issues and/or some sort of learning disability or something. I still wouldn't ask her to not do it- I just don't look at her wall much.

I’ve been in a very similar position. I had my best friend constantly send me multiple Snapchat’s a day of her almost 2 year old son while I was grieving losing my own child. I ended up telling her straight out to please not send me anymore snaps of her kid at the time. I didn’t get a response but haven’t received anymore snaps really at all since then and that was about a year ago. We still speak through text but not as much as every time I ask how she is, I get a response of how her child is. Not her. And it upsets me as I wish I had the chance to say how my child is too, and I would also like to know how she is as she had mental health issues before having hers. I’ve just taken it as a semi-loss of a friendship at this point but I’m still grateful that she’s still apart of my life in some way and I hope to repair our friendship & be an “Aunty” when I’m feeling okay being around children again. I even turned my Snapchat notifications off for a time but doing that started to affect my other friendships & my relationship.
But sometimes, you just have to say or do something so your mental health doesn’t get affected. It sounds like it’s bothering you to a point where you need to talk to someone that understands or it could go an argumentative way if you try to handle it yourself & it goes bad. That could be by saying something about it (hopefully in a better way than I did. Maybe say it’s distracting you from studying or along those lines?), doing something about it like deleting, muting or blocking or straight out ignoring it. Some people usually get the hint if you don’t open messages for a few weeks but that could also come with an argument too, depending on the person you’re talking about. I hope you come to a solution because I do know how annoying it can get having this stuff in your face when you either have no interest or it literally upsets you to even look at.

You will 100% cause offence. I have zero interest in picture of BILs holiday, MILs garden and FILs pub lunch and am soo tempted to delete myself from the family WhatsApp group. I am aware though that this would make me look like a miserable twat so instead I have the group on mute and rarely contribute.

Just thank your lucky stars this wasn't before smartphone/social media was invented. An ex friend of mine had 3 kids and used to let them take pictures on her camera. Rolls and rolls of them. She would bring round her latest 4 films worth of photos , pictures of someones foot, the sky, the wheel of a bike and so on and so on. Having to smile politely and comment how wonderful they were.
I was so thankful when she fell out with me!!

I agree that asking not to get the photos will 100% cause offence and I don’t think it’s worth the candle. I think you have to suck it up and respond minimally

I have to say, though, that I marvel at the lack of self awareness of thinking everyone wants to see multiple pictures of your children every day. Even when my DD was a new baby I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing this. I would never assume anyone wanted to see pictures of my kids. It’s grotesquely self centred.

No way to say without upsetting your relative.

Just delete the messages unread.