Do you 'like' all your friends?

Yes I do and as I have got older I realise how sad it is that (a) people have to get their status through their children's achievements and (b) they must feel very insecure to keep telling everyone how wonderful their children are. That is not to say that we all like a wee boast about our children and so we should but I don't think that is the kind of thing you are talking about. If she is a good friend otherwise then I guess you just put up with it or maybe make a wee joke about it, eg "I wish my children were as perfect as yours".

I've just seen a neighbour post on Facebook how well her children and step-daughters have done at school, the eldest becoming a prefect in her last year. Facebook is a good place to boast, perhaps.
No-one's life is all roses, and there's often an undercurrent of something that the boaster would like to see different, especially with their children. I know a few like that....'my son has just bought a BMW and his wife has got a new mini', (do I think of much debt involved here?) 'and little Peregrine has come top in his maths test again'....yawn! wisewoman's comment's a good one.

Appropriate to the title but not exactly relevant to the OP.
I have a friend who drives me mad sometimes. I have been known to throw the phone down after reading a text from her (she never rings me).

Yes I sympathize with the fact that both her and her DH have become registered disabled since I have known them. I wouldn't want want her life. But surely she has another topic of conversation !!

When SIL first met her he said 'I would never have imagined you two as friends'

I have a friend who talks about her wonderful grandchildren, to the exclusion of anything else. Her teenage grandson is apparently the star of the local silver band, and outside that plays every instrument known to man. His younger sister joined the band last year and is already the best player for her age of her instrument they've ever had. They are academically gifted.. etc etc. I am naturally proud of my grandchildren and sometimes mention the odd thing they've done, but this is never commented on, just topped by her lot's latest achievements. I actually realise that I am seeing less of her that I did a year ago, and this may be why.

I do like my friends but that doesn't mean that one or two make me feel uncomfortable sometimes. My closest friend holds some funny views, such as that she thinks there is no such thing as cancer and that it is an illness caused by doctors worrying you. I need hardly add that she doesn't visit doctors and throws invitations to have mammograms and smears in the bin.

That said she is kind and thoughtful and good fun.

Oh how I sympathise and agree!! I get so sick of their perfect lives, ths sort of thing that used to feature in those Christmas letters about Tarquin's rugger blue or Araminta's school choir trip to Macchu Pichu !!
I would not wish real misfortune on any of them (well, maybe just a tiny banana skin moment) and actually GN is the place where I have realised that there are many of us with assorted crosses to bear, many of them heart-breaking,but I am constantly encouraged by all of you who can still share a laugh* and who care about others.

And sometimes when you know the full facts, their children are not quite as perfect as they make out!

Tarquin and Araminta gracesmum!
Your friends are obviously a lot posher than mine
<cue Monty Python-type conversation>

Most of my friends I've had for a long time, and occasionally there are 'moments of irritation', but on the whole they are a great bunch.
However, I have 'culled' a couple, one of whom moaned incessantly for 2 years without actually doing anything about her problems.

I am quite lucky I think as I don't think I have any close friends like that but I do have the kind who moan a lot on Fb when I'm sure their lives are not that bad!

When something of particular note happens to one of my family I do tell others but it tends to be just as a fact rather than a boast (I hope it comes across like that!) On the odd occasion when I moan it is face to face only.

I have chosen not to tell all about my family's successes on GN because I don't know you all personally and, for me, it would feel like boasting if I did. So you can take it as read that my grandchildren are the best in the world and that my DSs and their OHs are better looking, better educated, kinder, more saintly and more successful than everyone else!

I paraphrase in the interests of anonymity!!

I'm very grateful for my friends, who of course have their faults and failings, but as I'm not perfect either, I just try to take the rough with the smooth.

Yes. I've a long standing friend that I really dislike sometimes purely for the negative, one-sided and obsessed conversations that we have. But when it gets too much I tell her and she does change. My mum, on the other hand, has a friend who rings her out of the blue, spends the next 59 minutes telling how wonderful everything is and swanking like crazy then rings off without asking mum anything or letting her respond! It'd be funny if it wasn't annoying.

Friends are very special people to me. We've been through so much together. But not all friendships can or should last. There are 'friends for a reason, friends for a season and friends for life'.

Yes I know someone like that. Perfect marriage, perfect home, grown up kids who have never given her a minute's trouble. My own life has been far from perfect ! There is a saying my (very cynical) husband uses when I tell him about people like this 'believe none of what you hear and half of what you see'. And Mollie I find a lot of people I know these days are like your mum's friend. I seem to know all about their lives, families etc but they know very little about mine, because they never ask.

Oh yes - I have one who springs to mind instantly. Her children were always cleverer, prettier etc etc. We did loose touch for some years when our DC were toddlers as I found the whole conversations extremely boring. Her children had always walked, talked and teethed earlier and had mumps or measles far worse than mine.
But we recently got back in touch now are children are in their late 30's - 40's but now it's the DGC competition. Must admit to mentally switching off over lunch quite often

This doesn't really make sense to me. If I didn't like my friends, they wouldn't be my friends - just acquaintances, neighbours, people that I know. Having said that, I think I have been extraordinarily lucky as my friends are a wonderful bunch of kind, loving, generous, funny, helpful, interesting people. It's always been a pleasure to see them and I profoundly hope some will travel halfway round the world for a holiday in the next few years.

It's not so much close friends who are like this but friends who "pop up" at Christmas and send those dreadful,impersonal round robin things which are an excuse to boast about their families and the wonderful holidays they have all had. We give them a quick read and then tear them up.

My son used to say of one particular friend "Mum, if she knew what her sons were really like she wouldn't be saying all that stuff."

Actually most of the friends I have have a very balanced opinion of their children and grandchildren otherwise they wouldn't be my friends as "absent" says.

But we do sometimes have to meet up with these "friends " through other mutual friends and yes, they do "get up one's nose".

They do say that to have good friends you must be a good friend - so that should guarantee us the best possible!

I agree with Aka That there are 'friends for a reason, friends for a season and friends for life' and I've been incredibly lucky with the diverse bunch who are my 'friends for life'.

I like all my friends because I am not a person who remains friends with everybody, the braggers are a pain in the neck and I usually drop them.

its sad but they just developed that way. A former friend told me they had bought their son a white BMW, but only second hand as the boy was just 18. Before his birthday they parked it 2 streets away as a surprise.
The whole story made me realise I couldn't stand her any longer since she had married this terrible snob.

My best friend had 7 grandchildren before i had even one and that was a hard going for me trying to cope with being envious! She did not mention them too much or parade them in front of me. that was real friendship and now I have mine, we try not to talk too much about them. It is boring for others.
A few really good friends are all I really need.

I had a friend who would ask you how your children were getting on and as you opened your mouth to reply was already into a lengthy description of the doings of her amazing children.

I Have friend who have known since our children were young but my interests are so different but we still share our s a views together and have coffee together but she drives me crackers with her mobile texting all the time to Oh and daughte rI took a photo of her sitting on the steps whilst having lunch and she just laughed, for all her little ways I would miss her so if were not friends