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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Humble bragging

290 replies

Feckingfeck · 03/05/2022 10:45

I have only come across this term on MN but i think I wintessed it first hand... whats it all about?

Family in lemur enclosure at zoo talking to keeper.

Keeper "you can get a little closer if you want"

Woman "we don't need too thanks we honey mooned in Madagascar so we have seen so many lemurs up close"

Keeper "oh okay, bet that was great"

Woman "it was amaaaazing... we could hear them all around our cabin at night aaaaahahahahhaha" (not sure why this was funny- but apparently it was hilarious)

Don't get me wrong I wasn't jealous in the slightest... nothing i would be creeped out by more than animals at night...

It just felt like one up man ship at its finest. I mean why go in there if you only want to belittle the experience Confused

Whats the worst humble brag you have witnessed?

OP posts:
Zerrin13 · 04/05/2022 22:52

A friend was looking for a new expensive villa abroad. Apparently many people had told her she should apply to go on tge programme A Place In The Sun. Her reply
"With all the stress we are under atm the last thing we need is the tv cameras there "

Feckingfeck · 04/05/2022 23:44

Hmm1234 · 04/05/2022 22:52

That is not humble bragging and you sound bitter. Maybe she found the lemurs noises hilarious and the zoo keeper gets it- being an animal person. You taking offence to this is hmmmmm

Would barely say I took offence.

As you will see by the rest of this thread you are the minority.

Perhaps try being less up tight.... Wink

OP posts:
123ROLO · 04/05/2022 23:53

@Octomore

I honestly don't know what I expected 😆

To be fair, there's a big proportion of people who are just super chuffed with their outfits and are showing them off, which I like seeing.

There's just so much cringy stealth or humble bragging that I can't tear myself away from.

Twelveisthebestnumber · 04/05/2022 23:55

A friend told my DH he couldn't pay him the £30 he owed him for parts as he only had a wadge of £50's. Which he then showed my DH. Who told him to go to the shop and change one of them!

wentworthinmate · 05/05/2022 00:19

Valentine’s Day on any social
media site, brag brag brag 🤮

mnnewbie111 · 05/05/2022 05:57

Feckingfeck · 04/05/2022 21:56

@newnamenellie

Thats kind of slagging yourself off a bit to not brag ....

Could be being humble but I think I prefer the term humble slag 😂

😂😂

Lovinglife45 · 05/05/2022 06:58

Wentworth
Posting photographs of your gifts on social media whether birthday, Christmas, Valentines is bragging of the highest order.

eastegg · 05/05/2022 07:36

No-one on here is ‘taking offence’. They’re spotting bragging, sometimes of the humble variety, where it clearly exists and finding it for the most part amusing.

PaddlingLikeADuck · 05/05/2022 09:59

I know a humble bragger and she’s annoying as fuck!

After 3 years of tolerating it at the school gates and on play dates for our children, I’ve finally had enough and I now purposefully avoid her. She has noticed that I no longer include her or her child in my life and that I no longer make the effort to talk to her….but I just can’t take it anymore. She’s so smug and self absorbed.

Being a Humble Bragger has to be one of the top 5 worse personality traits.

Flossatops · 05/05/2022 10:03

PeacockPartyTime
The ones I hate the most are people on FB going ‘so blessed to be able to donate to the food bank today. It’s the little things‘

Then you get all the adoring comments from their mates because they’ve donated a packet of 29p pasta and they’re loving it. People who genuinely want to help don’t brag about it.

This is so true. I remember so many of these worthy types outside the school gates. Makes me cringe.

Ddot · 05/05/2022 10:29

My temporary neighbour who apologised for the dog barking, it's because he is used to living in a detached house! Renting while new extension being built.

Iknowthisdickhead · 05/05/2022 11:37

Flossatops · 05/05/2022 10:03

PeacockPartyTime
The ones I hate the most are people on FB going ‘so blessed to be able to donate to the food bank today. It’s the little things‘

Then you get all the adoring comments from their mates because they’ve donated a packet of 29p pasta and they’re loving it. People who genuinely want to help don’t brag about it.

This is so true. I remember so many of these worthy types outside the school gates. Makes me cringe.

I think this is virtue signalling rather than humble bragging. Either way, it is as annoying as fuck. I am friends with a friend’s husband on FB (God knows why I ever accepted the friend request but I keep him on there now for the comedy factor) who LIVES for posting his virtue signalling twattery. Actual photos of him handing a homeless guy a bag of food from a pound shop (followed by photos of each individual item) and a description of why he was ace for doing it. Fine - buy some bits and pieces for a homeless person to help them out but if you were really doing it because you cared and for no other reason you wouldn’t need to tell everyone about it would you?

Feckingfeck · 05/05/2022 22:23

Ddot · 05/05/2022 10:29

My temporary neighbour who apologised for the dog barking, it's because he is used to living in a detached house! Renting while new extension being built.

Wow...

Thats kind of a put down and a brag all at once. Ouch. Perhaps having the doors widened to fit his head through?

Response... "yeah, we are not really use to having dick heads next door 🙂"

OP posts:
Pyri · 05/05/2022 22:33

Feckingfeck · 05/05/2022 22:23

Wow...

Thats kind of a put down and a brag all at once. Ouch. Perhaps having the doors widened to fit his head through?

Response... "yeah, we are not really use to having dick heads next door 🙂"

I don’t think this is bad at all. We live in a detached house and our dog goes bananas when we visit my parents who live in a semi. It’s just because she’s not used to the noise of people running up and down stairs / tvs / general house noise and surprises when she can’t see where they’re coming from. As a result, she’s a complete irritant and barks a lot. I think the neighbour is just explaining the same issue surely?

Feckingfeck · 05/05/2022 22:40

But sounds like it could have been put much more subtlety... just how you explained it. Not making someone feel inferior as they don't have a detached house and the house they do have is for this person temporary while they improve their already superior house.

Lacking tact really.

OP posts:
Pyri · 05/05/2022 22:43

Feckingfeck · 05/05/2022 22:40

But sounds like it could have been put much more subtlety... just how you explained it. Not making someone feel inferior as they don't have a detached house and the house they do have is for this person temporary while they improve their already superior house.

Lacking tact really.

I would have thought his explanation was clear enough but then I wouldn’t assume the worst of someone or think they were trying to belittle me like that. Certainly wouldn’t retort that they were a dick

Coolminty · 05/05/2022 22:50

This is why I am no longer on shitbook!

I feel so much better not seeing stupid people lie about their lives and make me feel shit about mine when in reality theirs is just a load of bollocks. Try it, in 2 weeks you will be a free bird 🤣

Ellen2shoes · 05/05/2022 22:54

E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady is the epitome of humble brag - the entire book is based on that conceit and check out every paragraph for evidence:
Vicky looks nice on pony, and I receive compliments about her, which I accept in an off-hand manner, tinged with incredulity, in order to show that I am a modern mother and should scorn to be foolish about my children.

Dahliasandtea · 06/05/2022 09:59

Mum at school
‘How do your DC like the canteen food at school? Mine absolutely hate it. I mean, it’s probably all my own fault rolls eyes self deprecatingly because you know DH owns ‘names two exceedingly expensive, fancy restaurants in the area’ so…. well, they know good food!’

whereas I feed my kids dog food on a nightly basis and therefore they think every school lunchtime is like Jamie Oliver cooked their meals personally. 🙄

ELM8 · 06/05/2022 10:06

Just a warning this is now on daily Mail 🙄

Feckingfeck · 06/05/2022 10:17

I couldn't find it?

I had to look through the whole home page 😭 🤮

OP posts:
Feckingfeck · 06/05/2022 10:27

Oh god!

Found it... how is recycling my Opening journalism 🤔

Feel like I need paying for doing their job for them. This is exactly how it felt to be copied at school 🥲 (intentional grumble brag)

How rude 🧐

OP posts:
medicmummm · 06/05/2022 10:32

Makes me so glad this is anonymous 😂 not like we have given them our names and addresses 🙄

ELM8 · 06/05/2022 12:12

@Feckingfeck you could definitely humble brag if it hadn't been Daily Mail... "oh my amazing idea for a thread went national, so annoying I didn't get a cut of the profits" 😂🙈

MisterLogic · 06/05/2022 12:38

FangsForTheMemory · 04/05/2022 07:15

‘Oh what a pity you didn’t know there are different types of rice,’ would be my reply to that one.

Ha ha... I was going to say essentially the same thing - either they were using the wrong type of rice or didn't read the instructions. However, I think it more likely that they never actually had this experience, but needed to invent a way to boast about their rice cooking skills!