Round Robins. Love 'em or Hate 'em?

But most round robins aren't that annoying, are they? speaking just for myself.... no.

Not real friends then, when . In which case, I wonder why they bother. I'd be inclined to stop being in touch with such then, with any luck, the annoying round robins will fizzle out.

No Bags criticism for being rather snooty. Success and travels are great to hear about (see the appreciation of Greatnan's lovely travel blogettes), and an email replied to when I have made the effort would be nice, or even an enquiry after my wellbeing after losing my sister would be thoughtful, but a round robin telling me that the new driveway paving blocks cost £10,000, and the new baby is just soooo beautiful that she is bound to win a competition they have entered her in just pisses me off when they know damn well that this time last year my beautiful grandchildren were in incubators in intensive care.......and relax

So:

Criticism for telling of family successes
Criticism for telling of travels
Criticism for telling of mihaps/ailments

No appreciation for the effort of writing and posting just to try and keep in touch.

Charming, aren't we?

Travelogues from friends and relatives are irritating, especially the ones with photographs taken in exotic locations. I'm sure they are intended to make the recipients envious! Almost as bad is a catalogue of ailments, quite an easy trap to fall into at my age. If you have no good news, don't bother writing a Christmas letter!

I have just printed 20 to send to relatives overseas/ friends who have moved further afield/ old friends from school/uni who would love to see more of but circumstances prevent. I include lots of pics of us & grandkids with captions of what we have been up to! I find it odd to get cards from people I have not seen that just have a signature & no message!

I get a few. In the past a friend used to send a 'boasting' round robin, all about how wonderful her children were and how successful they were in school etc etc. She also used to put down things like 'Erica and Tony paid us a visit' - who the hell were they?
Another friend sends a robin about their activites through the year, new babies and whose reached 90 years old.However, she does tell us that they have had such and such problem but 'God' spoke to them and all their troubles were resolved.
In the US we got similar cards with a Xmas family photo too. Must have cost a fortune.

I enjoy receiving them and send one out, although selectively to family and friends who I know are interested. I do get a few of the self congratulatary ones, which are tedious. I hope mine arent. My father was one of oldest of 11 children so I do have a lot of family members from several generations spread around the country, since the aunt who used to be the source of all family information died these round robins are the best way to get news around the family

It depends on the quality of the writing. A well-written letter is always worth receiving. Bit like blogs, really.

I got one today. Peppered with pretentious information designed for oneupmanship. As it goes to several different familes, I assume they're not trying to impress me

Unless they're sent to relatives who like to be kept up to date, I do think most some Round Robins are breathtakingly arrogant. People actually photocopy them and shove them in with all their Christmas cards, even if you only met them once on holiday 20 years ago....

We get them also , to be truthful I find them most of the boring , especially when you haven"t seen the people for ages .