Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask the most annoying/bizarre flex/boast you've heard?

701 replies

phonemouse · 31/03/2023 20:19

One that gets me is people boasting about how 'tiny' they are, but one that always makes me laugh is my MIL proudly mentioning on way more than one occasion how narrow SIL'a feet are like it's something really special 🤣🤣

OP posts:
OoooohMatron · 01/04/2023 08:52

My mum always mentions how she and my dad hardly ever watch TV, like it makes them superior.

BeverForget · 01/04/2023 08:53

Competitive veganism.
I worked in an office where there were two people that were enthusiastically vegan.
Were they friends? Did they get along and share recipes?
No.
They would snipe about each others dietary choices, and once had an amusingly pass-ag discussion over which of them had been veggie/vegan first...

CoalCraft · 01/04/2023 08:53

I have a friend who regularly boasts about his mother's perceived failings. Goes on at length about all the ways age inadvertently damaged him and his brother 😬

EekGoesTheBaby · 01/04/2023 08:54

FangsForTheMemory · 31/03/2023 22:29

Best reply to that is ‘Wow! That’s 100 women who weren’t fussy, then!’

Show quote history

🤣🤣🤣 I'm definitely using this!

yogaretreat · 01/04/2023 08:55

I think anyone who attributes something that's mostly genetic, to imply it's a result of their actions....

If you've never had skin troubles and a 10p soap is all you need, great! But that's just luck.

If you're tiny 🤷‍♀️ I don't know what to say to that, me and DH are really tall... Does that make me less feminine than you?

itsabigtree · 01/04/2023 09:00

Tophy124 · 31/03/2023 23:15

‘I never go to the Dr, I never take medicine’ is my MIL. Who every time she comes to stay with us ends up making us all unwell!! Last time she brought a bad cold with her.

The big baby brags are also really weird and tiresome!! Especially when it’s ‘look what my breast milk did’ stealth boasts.

I think it's women being proud of themselves for doing something challenging, rather than a boast in this case.

rattlinbog · 01/04/2023 09:09

People who use terms to describe their parenting that make it sound superior and somehow special. "Oh we do baby wearing/baby led weaning" - I find it really irritating!

BraveGoldie · 01/04/2023 09:19

Coffeetree · 31/03/2023 20:45

As a young uni student I worked as an admin for two male professors who were both up for tenure. Both insufferably pompous. One of them returned from the gym and was quickly heading off to teach. The other made snotty comments about how nice it must be to have a light research schedule with time for the gym.

The gym-going professor said, "Well I'm competitive and compulsive and so I always make time for it". And then strode off.

The other professor, realising he'd been bested, leaned out the door and called after him, "I'm compulsive tooooo"

I was trying hard not to laugh. I'm compulsive too oooo!

GrinGrinGrin

ipswichwitch · 01/04/2023 09:32

My grandma would tell everyone in earshot she had gout. She was massively proud of this achievement, because Henry VIII apparently had it, so that meant she was akin to royalty.

ReneBumsWombats · 01/04/2023 09:35

ipswichwitch · 01/04/2023 09:32

My grandma would tell everyone in earshot she had gout. She was massively proud of this achievement, because Henry VIII apparently had it, so that meant she was akin to royalty.

He had quite a few things.

AbreathofFrenchair · 01/04/2023 09:38

RashOfBees · 31/03/2023 20:39

Talking about books and plays we’d studied at school once I mentioned that I’d read a particular Shakespeare play for my English Lit A level. Friend smugly announced that THEY had done it at GCSE like this meant they were more advanced.

Im a huge reader but I've never read a "classic". We had to do the hobbit at school for two years and it killed the book for me. I've then avoided anything that needs pulling apart and meanings looked for, including book clubs!!!

I read to escape and very much judge book by its cover! I have though over a thousand books and about half again ony kindle.

Anyway, I have a friend who is a "proper" reader and a couple of years ago, invited me to see her "library" it was a Billy bookcase with added lights and doors (very nice btw) and she had 3 shelves on it with books on, all classics and that's all she reads. She has this strong belief that a proper reader only reads classics and challenging books else there is little point in reading. She also believes there is no place in society for kindled, we clash quite a bit, I'm surprised we are still friends 😂

Footgoose · 01/04/2023 09:38

Someone told me their DD had past their first eye test with flying colours. 😂

Galatine · 01/04/2023 09:39

warmmfeet · 31/03/2023 21:54

@RashOfBees my friend literally messaged me today to tell me her son had done midsummer nights dream in reception assembly today "didn't you do that for GCSE?"

Did he play the Ass?

KnitFastDieWarm1 · 01/04/2023 09:40

God my ex and his kids used to constantly, and I mean constantly, brag about their heights. They're all tall, and it was literally mentioned daily. His son once walked into my sisters house at a family party and starting demanding everyone in the room guessed his height. I've got my kids heights marked on a door frame and hed always grab a pen and mark his own height to let us know he was still much taller. Ugh.
the ex used to weigh them and measure them regularly. Thered be family weighing sessions in the bathroom!
There was an obsession with having big feet too. I don't understand how being tall and having feet like canoes is a sign of superiority!

kilos · 01/04/2023 09:40

Probably been said, but people who don't have sick days. My previous line manager was always saying she couldn't remember the last time she called in sick, no she'd just come to work sick and be an absolute fucking martyr about it. Fuck off home Kim, if you're sick you're sick!!
Oh and it's not a sign of weakness to be sick, sorry I didn't explain to my appendix not to rupture 🙄

Galatine · 01/04/2023 09:43

ipswichwitch · 01/04/2023 09:32

My grandma would tell everyone in earshot she had gout. She was massively proud of this achievement, because Henry VIII apparently had it, so that meant she was akin to royalty.

Did she also have Syphilis, Henry did!

KimberleyClark · 01/04/2023 09:43

3littlebeans · 31/03/2023 21:14

Oh so many.

A relative who criticises everything as "ooh a bit too sweet". Or "it was nice at such and such - not too sweet.." as if she's some special case.

On mumsnet - the willowy stick thin children. And the competitive undereating.

And the tall sons too.

Beaverbridge · 01/04/2023 09:45

The feet one made laugh. My late Mother used to bang on about how she had such narrow feet. She took a size 7 and they were just normal feet!.

Yogazmum · 01/04/2023 09:49

A friend who constantly bangs on about how many hours she works daily 🙄 (she works from home so basically she’s sitting at a computer all day!) and mums who tell you ‘he/she crawled at 3 months and were walking by 6!’
Massive eye roll 🙄

ReneBumsWombats · 01/04/2023 09:49

A friend who constantly bangs on about how many hours she works daily 🙄 (she works from home so basically she’s sitting at a computer all day!)

Like a lot of jobs then, home or office.

CherryCokeFanatic · 01/04/2023 09:50

The roast chicken that can feed the five thousand… for a week!

KimberleyClark · 01/04/2023 09:52

Someone I know boasted that her super exclusive and expensive hair stylist vetted his clients and if he didn’t like your style/fashion sense he wouldn’t “do” you.

ReneBumsWombats · 01/04/2023 09:56

KimberleyClark · 01/04/2023 09:52

Someone I know boasted that her super exclusive and expensive hair stylist vetted his clients and if he didn’t like your style/fashion sense he wouldn’t “do” you.

Even if that were true, all it would prove is that he can't style people.

Cornchip · 01/04/2023 10:01

Moaning5 · 31/03/2023 23:56

Anyone that moans about any aspect of their job/career. Either t&cs, pay, hours, location, workload, or anything else that can easily be resolved by them getting a different job.

Absolutely this.

Had this so many times over the years from many people and I’ve always just been thinking “leave then”. I don’t get why you’d make yourself absolutely miserable over it when it’s a fairly simple fix.

I think they just like having to be sad about. It gives them some weird purpose in life. Very strange.

Barbecuebeans · 01/04/2023 10:01

Mercurial123 · 01/04/2023 06:12

The posters who honestly believe they look 10 or even 20 years younger than they actually are.

I know someone like this. She actually told us that when she was out with her grown up children someone thought she was a friend of a friend of theirs (her child is 19 and she's in her mid-50s!). Admittedly she looks very good for her age but not like a teenager! She also has teeny tiny feet that she tells you about regularly...