s/o Christmas Letters....

[maddykate]

I received a Christmas letter this year from a family that seems so "perfect". The entire letter was about how wonderful their lives are and how smart the kids are. I really grated on my nerves. The one sentence that got me the most was this: " *The Mom* is working full-time as ever, as she home-schools our wonderful kiddos and keeps an immaculate and beautiful home for us all." GAG ME WITH A SPOON!!!!! Seriously, why would she feel the need to brag about keeping an immaculate home in her Christmas letter?

 

OK, my rant is over :)

 

Maddy

[maddykate]

Oh, and I wanted to add that she is the one that wrote this letter. It isn't as if her husband was writing this letter and was bragging about her. That might have been different. There were paragraphs devoted to each family member and his paragraph was equally sickening :).

 

Why does this grate on my nerves?

[Tree House Academy]

Because it is a reminder of how self-absorbed some people can be. However, I am inclined not to believe one bit of that crap. When you have to put it in a letter, it is probably because you are feeling the need for a boost. As she was writing, her house was probably a wreck, the kids were a month behind on school, the dog had just peed on the floor, the stove was burning dinner, and laundry was forming a mountain next to the washer. ;) LOL At least, that can be your mental picture such that it doesn't grate on your nerves quite so bad.

[vonfirmath]

Is it possible that the husband and wife each wrote different parts of the letter, because the person on their own would never do themselves justice? The husband may truly feel that about his wife. It's a sweet thing to say.

[mcconnellboys]

And it is that sort of thing that makes me just shake my head about Christmas letters. They don't make me jealous in the least, so don't get me wrong about that, they just seem artificial and unreal. I know that we should accentuate the positive in our lives, but when we lump every single positive we can think of into a single letter and gush it just seems like frivolous bragging.....

[fairytalemama]

Life isn't perfect, but most people don't want to put their woes in a Christmas letter so they just write the positive. I usually try to keep ours upbeat but humorous. Even though I spent half the year with horrible health issues, I didn't mention them.

 

The passage I wrote about myself this year was:

 

"I’m just busy being super mom (ha ha) by being a homeroom mother at Red’s school, volunteering for the neighborhood association, baking cookies, chauffeuring children, doing laundry, cooking dinner, and collapsing on the sofa with a book (or more recently Dancing with the Stars---why didn’t Kyle win?) at the end of another crazy day."

 

So I called myself super mom...because I am. :tongue_smilie:

[OnTheBrink]

It's annoying because it's baloney.

[Dobela]

That line sounds just like something my mother would write. But for her it would be true - an immaculate home is probably the most important thing to her. Seriously, It always looks like something in a magazine. And it did when we were kids. To my mom a home that is not immaculate at all times is a sign of laziness, a lack of self discipline, and only happens to those with low self esteem or respect for those with whom they live. Seriously. Would a line like that grate on my nerves? Some probably because my house never meets the approval of my mother. But then OTOH, I feel sorry for my mom because she is so compulsive about the house that she doesn't have friends and I rarely visit now.

[Farrar]

Thank you for using the phrase, "Gag me with a spoon." That needs to re-enter common usage.

 

And, uh, yeah. The holiday letter can be a time to present your best moments for sure, but that's a little much.