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Original poster

Round Robins - yes or no?

139 replies

morningpaper · 05/12/2006 21:28

I think Round Robins are massively under-rated!

I USED to do them but I don't anymore because they are The Height Of Naff.

Instead I send a photo of the children.

I have 120 cards to write and I can't possibly write a note in each one.

What is the solution?

OP posts:
tribpot · 06/12/2006 17:46

I only get one. And it's actually really nice, a round-up of what's happened in my friend's life (poss an over-emphasis on the cat's achievements to date but you have to make allowances for the childfree) and definitely no boasting or graphic tales of operations, as my parents get on some of the Xmas cards they receive.

I should probably do one, but it would be too depressing! "This year was sh!t, hey ho". So I send a pic of ds as well. I assume they mostly end up in the bin, but as he is the only thing to be cheerful about, it saves me from having to invent anything else.

WhenSantaWentQuietlyMad · 06/12/2006 17:48

I love this thread.

I do have to say that I would be gutted if people stopped writing round robins. I have honestly found myself crying with laughter at some of the ones we get, especially for previous occupants.

It's like "You cared so much about this person that you don't even know they have moved, but you have sent them a detailed list of events for them to peruse." The ones with photos are the best, especially when the mugshots are really ugly.

I wish there was an internet site where people could post round robins and have a competition for the funniest one.

Having said all this, I think it shows a touchingly naive faith in human nature, which I have to admire, because I am much too cynical.

moondog · 06/12/2006 18:14

Am wheezing with laughter at this thread.
Some absolute gems,namely overachieving cats,taciturn teenaged boy and photograph sans ex boyfriend.

Superb!

Whizzz · 06/12/2006 18:16

I'd post the 'highlights' from the one I got on here......but the sender may be a MNetter ......

bundle · 06/12/2006 18:17

you know you want to

moondog · 06/12/2006 18:22

Oh go on Whizz.

Whizzz · 06/12/2006 18:23

but what happens if she is a MNetter !!!

bundle · 06/12/2006 18:24

she should know better, whizzy....

tribpot · 06/12/2006 19:50

In defence of my friend's cat, she was not overachieving but merely nailing those milestones one would expect of a cat, e.g. sleeping, rolling over, running the household, etc

Original poster
morningpaper · 06/12/2006 20:31

I have one friend who always sends one detailing her search for Mr Right over the last year. She's been writing it for about ten years, bless her. I LOVE reading it!

We have another set of friends who are a (male) gay couple and write THE campest round robin imaginable with pictures of them on beaches drinking cocktails and kissing their cats. It's FABULOUS!

OP posts:
Marina · 06/12/2006 20:36

Whizz, I wonder if you got one from the same person I did this morning
I nearly had to be hospitalised with a ruptured diaphragm it was so in-your-face boastful and crass...
Best part being the section supposedly written by their child. If this is true, the child needs to get out more...
I am very grateful they sent it though. It just would not be Christmas for us without this outpouring of insensitive self-absorbtion.

Stockingsofdinosaurs · 06/12/2006 20:38

I wanna do a camp one now. How can I make my boringly average little family come across as totally gay?

BonyM · 06/12/2006 20:43

Hate them.

The ones we get are always so dull.

What is the point anyway? If you want to know about your friends' lives you stay in touch throughout the year anyway ime. If you couldn't care less, you don't stay in touch and therefore aren't really that interested in anything they could say in a round robin.

Stockingsofdinosaurs · 06/12/2006 20:45

I disagree. I may not be bothered to keep in touch the rest of the year but I am nosey and still want to know people are ok, it's nice to have an image in your head (even if it's awful thanks to the RR).

JanH · 06/12/2006 20:47

I think since S Hoggart's hatchet job on them they have become, in a weird way, almost acceptable. Well I hope so because I am planning to do one this year - in a becomingly modest fashion of course, and subject to our computer recovering from its major viral attack in time - mostly because for the last 2 years I have done cards so late I didn't have time to do the brief personal scrawl I always used to do and I know my audience is desperate to hear what we are all up to

Incidentally does anybody know who gets the money from the S Hoggart books? I do hope it isn't him!

wickedwinterwitch · 06/12/2006 20:53

People send rr DVDS? Blimey. I don't like them either, either write me a note or don't bother with any of it.

heavenlyghosty · 06/12/2006 20:53

I don't like them.
Every year we get one in VERSE [vomit] from my mother's cousin on gaudy pre printed christmassy paper ...
Last year I got one (via email - which is worse still) from a woman I used to have coffee with when I first became a SAHM ... she has gone up in the world and doesn't call me anymore ... Anyway, she sent us a RR and it went on and on and on and on and on about Nigel's motorbike, their holiday home, their 16 skiing holidays, Tarquin's first day at Prep School ... in teeny tiny font size too.
At the end they wrote, "This is what we have been doing, we'd love to know what you have been up to ..."
So, I dropped her an email in reply, thanking her for her letter. I told her I would love to catch up in person and when would she be free? Did she reply? No ... she had NO interest in what we were doing ... only totally into telling us what SHE was doing ....
So she is off the xmas card list I am afraid ...

I think we should do a Mumsnet Round Robin though ...

Waswondering · 06/12/2006 20:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tassis · 06/12/2006 20:58

Hi WW!

Was about to post to say that I love getting them and make mum keep hers in a big pile to read hers too.

Even wondered about doing one this year...

Waswondering · 06/12/2006 21:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Whizzz · 06/12/2006 21:03

I think MorningPaper shoud write a MN one !!

Mirage · 06/12/2006 21:07

I have never had one..

Maybe it is something to do with the fact that 99% of my friends & relations live in a 6 mile radius of our house.

Cue sound of duelling banjos.

RosaLuxembourg · 06/12/2006 21:18

I am looking forward to DH's godmother's RR this year. She is retired and does a hilarious (in an entirely unintentional manner) account of her annual travels around faraway countries of which we would otherwise know far too little. We always wanted to send them to Simon Hoggart but decided we would be the obviously suspects as the only Guardian readers in the family. Imagine my joy when I opened last year's book and found a classic extract from the year before. Can't wait to see what she does this year.

Original poster
morningpaper · 06/12/2006 21:20

Rosa how FUNNY!

OP posts:
moondog · 06/12/2006 21:24

WW,that sounds utterly bizarre and totally fascinating.
For publication?