To agree with Uber parent her kids are vastly superior.

[Joshanddonna]

Last night I went to a talk about Year 13 at my kids school and I sat next to a woman I've known since my DS started reception. Let me tell you that her children are highly superior to anyone elses. They run, they write books, they read Shakespeare for fun, they all learn multiple instruments, speak several languages and even walk in a vastly superior way to anyone else on the planet (probably even on water).
You can't have a conversation with her she just talks at you.... regaling you with their achievements. If you try to interject with anything your kids have done she will interupt and tell you hers did it so much better.
My DS is lovely and doing well. Her DS is heading for Oxford and sainthood.
So I sat and listened as she spoke about this golden child and at the end agreed he was indeed a superhero and I didn't know why I even bothered talking to my DS.
My DH - who when he saw her grabbed DS and moved to another part of the hall - said I shouldn’t have said it. But that is what she wanted to hear and now I hope she will never speak to me again.
What do people like this want you to say?!

What did she say in response?

Fabulous op. That’s the sort of reply I always wish I could make but don’t dare.

She sounds quite entertaining. I would also have been heavy on the “wow”s and “gosh- amazing!”s

Give these people 5 minutes and move on. She has something wrong with her (some insecurity- who knows) and it’s not your job to worry about it - focus on your own lovely DS.

Way to go OP! I wish I'd been a fly on the wall!

I don't think it matters how you responded,OP, she's wedged so far up her own butt she's just she'll hear what wants to hear.

Her son sounds very accomplished but I worry for children like that, that they won't be happy. At Oxford, he may well find himself an also ran beside his peers.

Bravo @Joshanddonna
How do you feel about it now?

That's hilarious. What did she do next?

👏👏great job OP

Well done

My DSis does this about her three. Problem is they really are bloody amazing, one has just one some European three day even championships and the other is on their way to Australia to compete for team GB in such and such and they are both under 19. Makes my two gamers look very pedestrian.
I generally listen open mouthed to their latest world beating achievements and sound as amaze as I actually am 😂

I know someone similar OP, she tells everyone how wonderful her DDs are (and they are high achievers) apparently in the hope that the listener will say something about their DC and she can trump it. Last time she sat next to me I refused to play that game and after every pronouncement said with a pleasant smile and a nice tone of voice "that's wonderful, what else has F been up to?". She hated it and has avoided me ever since. 😁

I have had this from yr 1 with a school gate friend. DS now 23. She is still doing it. I count how many minutes it takes for her to mention said son’s first. Last time out ten minutes! Her husband is also the new messiah. We call him ‘My Mike’.

My son is also talented, clever, an athlete (golden child) and a total pain in the arse at times! I chucked him out two years ago for being a self righteous knob. He has now returned to being the sweet lad he was before. Nobody’s that perfect OP.

laugh it off.

I am loving the replies here!

I remember this from when my kids were little but haven’t seen it since. It’s too hard to big up grumpy and unpredictable teens.

Brilliant

Some kids really are amazing but there's a guarantee there is always someone MORE amazing than you.

The mum will have a shock when her kid reaches Oxford and she discovers parents whose state-school children have self-taught themselves ancient languages because they wanted to study Classics, kids who have published books, kids who have finished school aged 15 and spent two years learning to yacht round the world, kids with significant disability who have nevertheless overcome the odds to be in the top 1%.

Kids who are, quite frankly, borderline genius and others with the confidence to know that one day they are likely to be running the country.

So karma gonna catch her.

Meantime you can smile and nod. I usually say, " all our kids are amazing, I can't wait to see what they do as adults! Yours will meet so many outstanding students at Oxford I expect, it will be great for them to be a normal-sized fish in the pond, won't it?"

I read this as your Uber driver was telling you about her children!

Doesn't matter what you say. You avoided a disagreement which would have prolonged things and know to avoid her now! You wouldn't have changed her mind with one or two comments.

Pride comes before a fall. Considering her dc are so amazing, why is she so stupid?

”Yes, I know someone very talented at X. They and their family are very humble about it, they don’t like to brag as think it’s very uncouth, you know?”.

I need to know how she responded!

This is why I don’t talk to any people.
Like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.

Plus I’m antisocial & have zero patience or fucks to give about other peoples kids. Especially tedious peoples kids.

You are the saint op for putting up with this shite so kindly.

Ah yes, I remember that parent. School governor, both children brilliant, oxbridge to same college mummy went to. Ten years on, one doesn’t speak to her and one is jobless and living at home. She still is very superior though.

I have come across similar and tend to respond by generalising about kids. So when I hear 'Tarquin started playing the violin at 2 and could recite Virgil's Aeneid - in Latin - from age 4', my response is 'Children are AMAZING, aren't they? They soak up information like sponges' or ' I KNOW, it's incredible how much they develop in those first few years'. That usually does the trick. People don't like the thought that their child might be doing something very ordinary (even when they clearly aren't.)

I like what you said though, OP!!

I just nod and smile

The only thing I would say? Is that there seems to be some complex system of rules where some people are allowed to boast about their kids, but others aren't? Like I've noticed that if your child is incredible at sport it's allowed to boast about it. But it's not allowed to boast if your child is academic, and it's not allowed to boast if they are really good at instruments - definitely not stuff like piano or instruments that would be in an orchestra, but guitar you could probably boast. Singing and Dance are permitted to boast about.

It does mean that there's a subset of people who everyone is really nasty to if they are proud of their child - a friend of mine at the school gates doesn't boast about her kids any bit more than any other parent, yet people are nasty about her. Another parent boasts constantly but her boy is a sports star so yep, that's ok, people seem to not notice the weekly brags!!!

My own kids are very normal and personally I just want them to be happy and do the best they can, but I can tell you straight up a lot of the nastiness my friend suffers is pure jealousy, and it usually comes from the parents who aspired for their own child to achieve similar stuff.

I genuinely think she won’t really have noticed. I can never decide if she is incredibly insecure or just is so convinced she and her offspring are too godlike to be impacted by the comments of any simple mortal.

I just don’t care I think my kids are fabulous and I love everything about them. I’ve never understood the need for this mad competitiveness. This is probably why they don’t play the harpsichord and converse in Mandarin as we read Latin and act out the plays of Shakespeare.