To think that mothers should realise that other people do not see their sprogs as the most important people on earth!

[Reallytired]

lol... my son is the centre of universe. Physics has yet to prove it though.

But seriously, I am interested in friends'/ relatives children, but my interest is only so much. I do not want to read tedious long letters on the details of little of Jonny's potty training. I do not want to watch a two hour DVD of Prunella's school play.

Why can't people sense when I am bored
sh!tless about being shown all of three year old Lucinda's art. I don't mind the odd picture, but why not leave it up to me to ask to see the whole art gallery.

My good manners are being strained. I have a stinking cold and feel like telling all the yummy mummies to pi$$ of.

YANBU.

It is annoying and dull to have it inflicted upon you.

YANBU. I often wonder how big a shock these kids get when they get older and go to school, and discover that, contrary to everything they have been led to believe, they are NOT the centre of the Universe

YABU - my ds (aged 1 tomorrow) is a feckign genius!

I DEMAND you pay homage to his incredible talent

Of course YANBU!!

Yanbu I have no patience for other peoples children I don't know how to relate to them and I certainly don't want to hear about them for hours on end.
I have to say everyone seems very interested in my ds though as I would expect!

Am thinking of sending a round-robin boastathon letter with next year's Christmas cards, so that I can take my revenge for all the years I have had to hear that someone's sprog is school chess champion and football captain, the lead in the school play, has passed grade 23 clarinet and is still the most popular child in the county. Bizarrely, nobody ever writes to tell the world that their child is bobbing along nicely and averagely.

sorry use of "sprogs" invalidates any tittering point you make.rough as a dog colloquialism.i don't have sprogs i have multi-talented gifted and stellar (at least that's what nanny,drama coach,fencing tutor tell me)

I with carrot, I'm not that bothered about other people's kids!

My DH on the other hand seems to think that our DD literally brings joy into everyone else's lives and that our friends would be disappointed if they came round and she was in bed

Oh dear. My (online) dictionary says:

sprog [countable]
British English informal a child or baby - used humorously.

Methought this was a humorous thread but I'll sling my rough and uncouth hook now.

yanbu

sprog usually derogatory term,now possibly popular with the chatterati (trying to be down wiv the kids)

YANBU I completely agree.

Err, look at meaning 2 there: once disparaging term for a child, now often used affectionately. I don't imagine that anyone under the age of 40 uses the term, so notions of being (or wanting to be) down wiv the kids are completely misplaced here.

is knees-den nice then?lots of sprogs?

I heard sprog used a lot when I was at university in the 1980s, it didnt imply anything bad.

I don't think sprog is a derogatory term. Others apparently do. There's little to be gained from further debate about it.

I am, though, intrigued by the phenomenon of the Christmas round-robin letter and how writing such missives seems to bring out the boastful in even the most mild-mannered parent. I was brought up with the idea that it is rude to trumpet your (or, by extension, your children's) achievements, as anyone who really needs to know will already and others who are not so gifted, fortunate or lucky may be made to feel uncomfortable. Most (although certainly not all) conversations in real life seem to run on much those lines. Yet these letters often document the child's achievements in minute and, as OP said, tedious detail. Why? What do these letters mean?

I spent and afternoon with some relatives who spent the entire time talking about their children. I could not get a word in edge ways. They didn't even take "polite" interest in my son. Prehaps I should have quietly told them that my son who is younger than their child is higher up the Oxford Reading Tree than their child, when they boast how good their child is at reading.

For a christmas present I have been given two mugs which their kids have scribbled on and being fired. Why would I want some other kids art work, as far as I am concerned its just unnecessary junk to fill my very small house. Why not give me something useful or nothing at all.

What annoys me is the assumption that the children of more modest parents don't have a achievements.

I like sprogs but only mine

Oh God, I have just remembered having to sit through the video of my cousin playing bugle in the sea cadet band.

Reallytired - exactly! And how odd about the mugs: we are guilty of giving pottery adorned with our beloved offspring's artwork, but only to grandparents.

Ha - you think sitting through 4 hours of Lucinda's nativity play video is bad? We had to sit through watching my brother and SIL's cat opening her Christmas present on video today.

It was a catnip mouse.

I told DW's SIL today that I did not really enjoy going to the nativity play and only did so out of duty.

She looked at me in horror.

I enjoyed the moment.

LOL suburbandryad

hope you had a drink for that one!

Bless them though.

They sent their gifts from "Brother, SIL and

That reminds me that Simon Hoggart's anthology of the most egregious examples of boastful and tedious Christmas letters was called The Cat Who Could Open The Fridge.

tSD, was the cat pleased with the catnip mouse, or had it been secretly hoping for a Wii?