Is this considered humble-bragging?

[City-Kid88]

My friend, once in a blue moon, would talk about how her husband is so popular at work and such a good boss that people are willing to take pay cuts just to work with him. She says his colleagues tell her how lucky they are to have him as a manager and they'd do anything to stay on board with him. She then tells me she doesn't get it because her husband is a different way at home.

 

She then talks about her son, how her daughter's friends all have a crush on him, how they think he's hot and attracts a lot of attention. She then tells me she doesn't get it cause she thinks her son is "ugly" in a joking way.

 

My question is this considered humble-bragging? She brings this up once in a blue moon but when she does, she goes on and on about it. I've told her this is slightly annoying and she's upset and says this is considered "normal conversation" and brings up my insecurities as to why I'm annoyed. She claims then if this is humble-bragging then everyone does it so my criticism is stupid. Thoughts?

[preraph]

You're making way too much of it. She's not bragging about herself at all. She's kind of making a joke about her own family, like, I don't see it. It's kind of funny.

[City-Kid88]

Ok...since she repeats this same thing every few months and goes on about this for maybe a good 15-20 minutes, I guess I'm a bad friend for being slightly annoyed.

[preraph]

She's just making conversation. But if she is repetitive, well, I guess most of us are and that does get annoying, but a real friend understands that goes both ways.

[Foxhall]

humble bragging is a good description of it,

 

she does as you say like to indulge about how great her family is but qualifies it then with a few balancing remarks so to speak,

 

lol she secretly loves spouting about how good her family is though,

 

this can annoy people so I understand why it irks you a little,

 

personally I think Im humble most of the time, however I do like to brag on occasion and perhaps can overstep the mark,

 

I have no problem listening to other people bragging though so I am not being hypocritical or anything,

 

another way to look at it is, one may as well promote themselves,why should they put themselves down, there will always be someone else to do that for them.

 

so I am saying bragging is fine but I know it does annoy some people.

[anika99]

Bragging about her family every few months doesn't sound excessive to me. I could see why you'd be annoyed if everytime you spoke to her all she does is go on and on about how great her family if she's only boasting about them from time to time what's the problem? I'd much rather hear someone brag about their family instead of putting them down.

[City-Kid88]

Bragging of any sort is just a pet-peeve of mine. I thought it wasn't a big deal until she got defensive about it and made it serious. I only said it in passing that hers is a mild annoyance compared to some of the real bragging that I'd get from others. Figured it wasn't a big deal to give her some criticism since she criticizes her friends.

[basil67]

She says his colleagues tell her how lucky they are to have him as a manager and they'd do anything to stay on board with him. She then tells me she doesn't get it because her husband is a different way at home

 

Her husband is a great guy at work but a different guy at home. What is she actually telling you? I get the feeling that all isn't well for her and you're not hearing her.

[confusedInDenver]

That's just plain bragging. With a little deflection thrown in (a version of 'aww shucks').

 

Here is a version of a humble-brag for your reference, my favorite to date, and said to me (repeatedly) by a "smart" friend:

 

"I can't take credit for being smart anymore than Yao Ming can take credit for being tall" (Yao Ming being 7 foot 6 inches i.e. one of the tallest people EVER to live).