I only get the bragging letters/e-mails from 2 friends-and they’ve been sending them for over 18 years, apparently never getting a hint from the fact that they don’t get a reply. Maybe I should start sending them an answer that says that’s just lovely, or how nice for you-either way, it means the same thing...
I think you are handling their rudeness admirably. No response is sometimes the best response.
i don’t take personally my friends foibles i guess. i don’t consider their bragging about their kids to be an affront or rude in any way. people always have reasons for the way they are. one of my best friends grew up in Guyana SA, is now an atty married to another atty, and has the daughter who graduated from Harvard who is now over at Oxford. Do you think that coming from the Third World might in some way have something to do with the bragging? i do. and i also know she is a wonderfully kind and generous friend who would do anything for me or my family. when my father died, her husband drove their daughter, who is one of xsteen’s best friends, 5 hours each way in one day, so they could pay their respects at the funeral home.