How would you feel about your mum reading your Xmas cards?

[feedme]

My parents are coming to stay over Xmas and, last time they stayed, my mum wandered around reading our Xmas cards. Is this normal? I hate it, but just want a sanity check to see how other people feel before I ask her to stop doing it. We have a dodgy relationship and just want an outsider's view on this.

It bugs me when my MIL does this. She asks first but I can't really say no, can I? I know it is my issue though.

Oh my god I do this . Will stop, right now.

really that wouldn't bother me at all

We all read each other's xmas cards in this family. Actually my group of friends to do.

Sort of work your way along their windowsill going 'aw, nice one from Hilda and John.. oh lovely comments from Graham and Sue.. Nice to see Jan has had the twins...' etc.

I'm thinking that there is most likely no issue with card-reading when there are few or no major issues within the particular relationship.

In my case, only a few people do it and they are all people that 'react' or that may bitch about sentiments or people in the cards later

Having given it some thought, I can see that there are many more people in my life that I can viualise doing this very thing and it wouldn't bother me. I guess that's a good thing, but they don't so I can't be sure!

[shrugs]

Why would anyone care? they are just christmas cards from roy and beth {who are they by the way?} not bloody state secrets

What kind of personal private messages do you all get in your Christmas cards? I'd be happy for anyone to read ours - the most they say is stuff like "Joe has got a new job and Ben has started school". Genuinely it would never have occurred to me that it might offend a family member if I looked inside their Christmas cards.

I always read my Mum's, very much as someone said earlier: "Oh, I see that Pat's got married", "Oh dear, I didn't know Fred was ill".

Hmmmm - my mum does it but usually accompanies it with comments. The comments are a mixture of nice & catty which is annoying. Or daft questions like "Who are so-and-so?", then "So how do you know them then?" etc, etc. That is wearing TBH cos she really isn't that bloody interested! So that makes me arsy & then she gets arsy... Ishoos

For me it as JetLi describes. It's not the read so much as the comments and wanting to know who is who, sometimes it is too complicated to explain how I know someone, that they are never likely to meet. My mother is also deaf so never picks up the story properly, but refuses to wear the hearing aid she has been given.