Do you belong to a group of ladies that gets together?

I meet up with a group of ladies, there are 12 of us and usually there is an average of 8 at any given lunch about every three months. These ladies I worked with at a major hospital in Adelaide, Australia as far back as 1972 onwards. 

If we were ever competitive those days are certainly gone now and we talk about other things that are of interest to us. 

I also attend a craft group Tuesday mornings and again there is no competitiveness between us. I think we are all of the age where somethings are really not that important in the big picture. If something big is happening in someone's life well then that is talked about and dissected but no, no competition. 

I never have had much luck with groups of ladies. I do however, have a gaggle of gays. 😍💛

The surest way to find out if they are bragging is to share a sad but touching story of how you struggle with something. If they are braggers, they won't know how to react. Braggers can't show weakness.

You show such insight. 

I have a book club and another group I get together with regularly. I would say a couple book club members might have a tendency to brag, but most of us all just commiserate about our struggles and that we have no idea what we are doing most of the time.

Now I’m worried that the new book club I joined last month thinks I’m a braggart. 

But this is what I was thinking. If the group is new, everyone is going to introduce themselves on a superficial level. At the first book club meeting, I said my husband’s job title (we are all here in Belgium because of a spouse’s job at NATO), that I have two kids, where they went to college, that DD was studying abroad in Ireland, and that we were going to see her that month. All positive stuff and it could look like bragging. But it’s just skimming the surface. I didn’t complain that DH still has three boxes of books sitting at the top of the steps waiting to get put on empty book shelves, that I’m STILL waiting for approval for the dog to be a reading buddy on base, or that I needed to scrub the floors in the house. I saved all of that for the second meeting. 

But its great that you are are willing to keep trying. And great idea to sit near different people!  I’d give it a few more tries before I gave up. Hopefully it’s just in that awkward “getting to know you” phase.