Anyone have friends like this -

[poohmickey]

Yes we have a friend like this! She found out we were going to WDW and she invited herself. She's never been before, and doesn't even like DL vacations (we live on the west coast). Originally, she had reservations offsite and we thought that would be great - we would meet up most days for a while and have fun. Now she insist on flying the same flights, staying at the same onsite resort, and telling me how we should tour the parks, and which parks we should go to on certain days. There are times I wished they had never found out we were going, but now we will just make the most of because at least we will be at DISNEY!

 

[jjarman]

I sure know the type. When you get back you can just mention how you were able to see more than one park each day (park hopper that she does not have), free transportation when and where you want it (off site she does not have this), extra time in the parks because you stayed on site (she doesn't get this either). You don't have to brag or be ugly just mention how on such and such night you got to stay in the parks until midnight after the parks were closed. She may wonder why and you can say oh it is something you get when you stay onsite.

How she thinks she can see all she plans to see in 4 days though is a disaster waiting to happen. Please post a follow up on this.

 

[karajeboo]

Is you FIL my dad, by chance? My dad competes with all of his kids, my siblings, on EVERYTHING from homes to money to even illness....if you have a cold, he has pneumonia, etc. When we moved into our home which is about the same size as his, he wipped out a tape measure and measured our rooms! He's actually not speaking with me right now because he found out my FICO score is higher than his! Crazy! He does not compete with Disney stuff, though, because he hates to travel...but everything, and I mean everything else, he does!

OK, if this is your dad, that would make us in-laws cause this is my FIL! Too funny reading all these posts b/c this is ALL my inlaws and I could write a book! Let's just suffice it to say we did the grand gathering thing last year and NEVER AGAIN!!! DH and I just moved to FL so we have passes, and we are made to feel guilty about this.... We are able to go for weekends and stay in deluxe resorts and SIL said that is "stupid." We don't compete - just don't see the need for it - but when others want to compete and can't so they just talk down about our plans/purchases/etc, then the little monster in me comes out and eggs them on!

 

[Tomh]

Last summer, a buddy of mine was planning on going to Florida with his family, right around the same time we were going. His daughter is good friends with my daughter, and so I tried to convince him to go the same week as me. He couldn't possibly do that, he had to about a week and a half before us, and he wasn't going to spend all his time in Disney, and he was staying off site for real cheap etc. etc.

Well, as it turned out, his van started overheating on the way down from New York. He pulled over, and used the code scanner on it, which told him there was a problem with the fans. He then went to a repair shop, where they soaked him for a water pump, and new hoses, and a radiator. He wasted a full day there, and spent a big chunk of his money. He got on the road the following morning, and just a couple of hours later was overheating again.

He eventually managed to limp it into Florida, where he took it to another shop. They at least found the real problem, which was a shorted fan motor, however instead of just replacing the one bad fan motor, they told him that it was only available as an assembly with both fans and the shroud.

By the time he was finished getting the van fixed, and paying for the repairs, he had wasted three days of his five day vacation, and spent most of his money on repairs. They got some discount tickets to the Alligator place, and Wet N Wild, and then drove back home. He told me it was no big deal, his kids weren't really interested in Disney anyway

His daughter just about BEGGED our daughter to take her with us this summer, but he won't let her go, because his mother will be visiting, and they are going to go to Disney together. I hope for is daughters sake that this trip turns out better for them than the last one did.

 

[TRICKY_TINK]

my sister is like this. she traded her engagement ring in to get one with a bigger stone then mine, her dh was sooo pissed when he found out. then in front of him i told her mine was fake anyway . my dh and i laughed so hard when they left. people like that annoy everyone but they end up being the ones unhappy at the end.

 

[Judy Judy Judy]

My Sister-i-l and her dh is the same way, we have got many a laugh though the years at them buying things thay don't really want just to " one up" with everyone. We got a pool, they got a pool AND spa....we went and got a doggie from the pound, they paid 700.00 for theirs two days later....I could go on and on these are just a small examples, we were at a family dinner and my dh stated that we wanted a Wii and the very next day low and behold they had one...hehehe...we get such a laugh from it. I once told her I was going to get my hair cut very short ( just to see if she would go cut hers...ha) and the next time I seen her...her hair was short....she got mad whenever she seem I didn't cut mine short but just had it layered...hehe. The only thing that use to really bug me is whenever they would use the kids to do small petty things, such as, my dd wanted a yellow easter dress so bad one year and we couldn't find one for her so I had people keeping their eyes open for me well she shows up at church with both her girls in yellow dresses..yeah I know, silly, but that really bugged me....but it was also over 10 years ago, so I'm over it now...hehehe

I'm telling you we could write a book, we don't run in the same circle anymore so it's not as common now.

 

[MentalVacation]

my sister is like this. she traded her engagement ring in to get one with a bigger stone then mine, her dh was sooo pissed when he found out. then in front of him i told her mine was fake anyway . my dh and i laughed so hard when they left. people like that annoy everyone but they end up being the ones unhappy at the end.

So now, at the last PTO meeting, I walk in with my very fake designer purse and she makes a comment about how she does not understand how people could spend a months worth a groceries on purses...

OMG. I am just thoroughly enjoying these examples. Seriously, I think I may know all of these people. It really IS a small world after all.

 

[buffettgirl]

The only thing that use to really bug me is whenever they would use the kids to do small petty things, such as, my dd wanted a yellow easter dress so bad one year and we couldn't find one for her so I had people keeping their eyes open for me well she shows up at church with both her girls in yellow dresses..yeah I know, silly, but that really bugged me....but it was also over 10 years ago, so I'm over it now...hehehe

I'm telling you we could write a book, we don't run in the same circle anymore so it's not as common now.

Oh yes, this is my friend exactly! Luckily I have a son and she has a daughter, so I don't see it firsthand with my kids, but she's done this very thing to others- last year at first communion time it was so bad....one mom was looking for a certain pair of gloves and the friend ended up buying them for her daughter and not telling the other mom. it was a silly pair of gloves. A real friend would have bought two and said "here, I knew you wanted these".

 

[Poprivet]

HA, HA, HA sounds like my SIL. she knows all the driving shortcuts. We let her drive into Boston to a concert once and she got lost. we ended up at the airport.. We all had a good laugh at her expense..

Pop

 

[DaveStroem]

I know people like this. Not so much trying to 1 up someone but they have to have the latest greatest of everything. They are good friends and I have purchased many of their last years model for pennies on what they spent. Another mutual friend got their 3 year old pool table for $200. I know they spent 20x that much when they purchased it.

 

[Trinka]

Can you just imagine for a second how unbelievably stressful these people's lives are? This competitiveness takes a lot of time and effort on their part. It is a lot to keep track of: who has what that I have to have a better one of? who is doing what that I have to do better? and so on... People like this used to really get to me until it just clicked in my head one day that they are just really sad people who can only be superficially and temporarily satisfied with themselves under the false pretense of being better than others. Poor them! Better to feel bad for them than let them get to you. And I agree- these types of people are not friends. They don't know how to be true friends. And they don't know how to really enjoy WDW so too bad for them!!!!!

 

[zuly]

This is so funny as the OP talks about Sea World I get the mental picture of the "friend" trying to swim with the dolphins ... some tantrum shes gonna do ahhhh

 

[Jamie77]

I don't have a friend like that, unfortunately I have a sister, "Kay" who has been doing this since we were teenagers. We bought a new van, she had to have a new one, my other sister bought a new car, "Kay's" husband had to have a new car, I got a new laptop, she got a new laptop, we are going to Disney, she's planning a fancier trip to Disney, etc. The problem is that is they do not have the money to afford all of this. Now both their vehicles have been repossessed and they are behind on their house payments. My sister and her husband both have full time jobs but they are so busy competing with everyone in the family they are going to end up with nothing.

Oh snap!

 

[bumbershoot]

does kristin wiig play her on a saturday night live skit?

 

[surfergirl602]

Yeah, I "had" a friend like that. I drew the line when I got pregnant, so she did too. Yeah..... exactly. Don't talk to her much anymore, and that was eight years ago.

 

[surfergirl602]

My mother in law must copy me on everything - right down to the fabric softener and dryer sheets that I use. Whenever she comes to vist, or vice versa, the next time I see her she has something else that we have. I try not to let it bother me, but she needs to be her own person, you know? I have an ipod and then she got one, the next model up. I got DH a Wii for and early Christmas present - MIL got one for FIL for Christmas. (He didn't even know what it was!) I got netflix, she did, too. It doesn't end. There are sooooo many more things that I could list, it's just annoying. I just don't show her or tell her about anything anymore, because she'll go out and get one! Shhh... I shouldn't tell her about the itouch I just bought.... she'll be 300 in the hole!

 

[Interpol]

I avoid situations like these by being the first to buy the best of everything, every time. My motto: destroy the competition before it begins.

 

[avic77]

Yes I know someone like that. The thing is she has alot more income then us and I never understood why she needed to prove it so much.
Shortly after DH and I got married we started looking for our first home. We were young had no credit and decided since I owned family land we would just get a New Double Wide mobile home. My SIL who had up until that point bragged about living in a highclass part of town (we live out in the country) in an apartment suddenly needed to have a house built.
Several years later after my crappy van died DH found me a very nice used van my SIL who always said she would never drive a van suddenly bought herself a custom ordered minivan with the Tv's and everything. When Dh and I got a free above ground pool from my uncle my SIL sold her custom built house to move to a house with an in ground pool!
We quite going to the same church and inviting them to our children's birthdays. Now we only see then at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I never talk about anything we have recentl gotten or plan to get.

 

[Trinka]

I avoid situations like these by being the first to buy the best of everything, every time. My motto: destroy the competition before it begins.

Excellent. Well done.

 

[cindycastle30]

My husbands exwife tried to one up us with our Disney trip. As soon as our daughter told her we were going to Disney all of a sudden "mom" is taking her first. She had two months to plan this dream trip! Yeah right! They ended up staying offsite, went to the parks for only two days. My favorite part was when I told my stepdaughter that we were going to eat in the castle, of course the next time I picked her up she told me that her mom was taking her to eat in the castle. When they came back from their trip we asked her how it was, and she told us that they had to rush around and missed a lot of the stuff that they wanted to see. I asked how the castle was and she said "oh we didn't get to eat there you needed reservations"

Our trip went perfect though, 8 days on property, dining plan, park hopping and water parks. This year we are going again, and the other mom isn't planning to go that we know of yet!