PassiveAggressiveNotes.com » guilt trip

Daddy dearest

Kerry — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:56:53 +0000

Writes Virginia in Sumner, Washington: “Going through a box of old photographs in the attic, I found this birthday card I gave my father when I was five or six. I was a terrible child.”

related: Some daughterly wisdom for Dad

Tangled

Kerry — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:44:50 +0000

Julie in Milwaukee has been trying to drag her nine-year-old daughter to get a haircut for ages. The day of the planned trim, Mom found this prize bit of melodrama waiting on her bed.

related: A Mother’s Day Report Card

Sunday night laundry room showdown

Kerry — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:00:25 +0000

Emily in Michigan happens to go to the university with the largest residence hall system in the U.S., and the Sunday-night scene in the dorm laundry room can be, well, a bit of a shit show.

This is the scene Emily came across one such Sunday:

And underneath…

(Adds Emily: “The laundry room is very clean, but I guess some people need a little extra.”)

The saga continues when an innocent bystander jumps in to make nice…

Meanwhile, the instigator of all this is not the smiley face type.

(just click the image above to enlarge it)

So…atheists shop for free?

Kerry — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:55:27 +0000

Spotted by Analee at Houston’s annual Nutcracker Market, “a holiday shopping wonderland“…

related: No, He uses Vaseline.

Eat it; love it. Got it?

Kerry — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:50:45 +0000

According to our submitter, Jason and his cake-baking wife are newlyweds. So…I guess the honeymoon’s over?

extra credit: Bruce Bogtrotter’s chocolate cake

Mellon Collie and the Seasonal Sadness

Kerry — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:36:18 +0000

Halloween: smashing children’s dreams, one pumpkin at a time. (Sigh)

(Spotted by Toby in the U.K.)

Today’s lesson: not-so-friendly letters

Kerry — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:35:35 +0000

As part of a lesson about civic responsibility, many teachers encourage their students to participate in letter-writing campaigns to Congress, the school board, the Mayor, or other public figures. (Thanks to the efforts of second-graders in Mission, Texas, for example, Texans can now proudly refer to tortilla chips and salsa as their official “state snack.”)

Meanwhile, this teacher in Ypsilanti, Michigan enlisted her 18 middle-school students in a cause even closer to home — her home, that is — by getting them each to write a persuasive letter asking her noisy neighbor to curb his all-night partying.

Our Lady of Passive-Aggression

Kerry — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:07:03 +0000

“My friend and her mother have little exchanges like this via Facebook all the time,” says our anonymous submitter. “It’s always lovely to get these little peeks into their relationship.”

related: Best wishes, godless heathens!

Grandpas can guilt-trip, too!

Kerry — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:05:31 +0000

Dara’s birthday is coming up, and her grandpa sent her this card. (Explains Dara: “He calls birthdays ‘anniversaries’ because ‘you only have one birth day.’) Nice, huh? And we haven’t even gotten to the guilt-trippy part yet.

“He lives in Florida and I live in upstate New York.” Dara says. “I went to visit my parents in NYC a few weeks ago and he chose to visit them the day after I left. Somehow that’s my fault.”

It’s like an entire episode of Seinfeld on one door

Kerry — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:00:05 +0000

From the NON-public restroom inside a deli in Bishop, California:

“I’m not keeping track or anything, but you are being written out of the will.”

Kerry — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:38:25 +0000

Grandmas: they can kiss you on the cheek while punching you in the gut, and you’ll still write a thank-you note…or wish you had. BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE.

related: But…but…I didn’t forget!

P.S. By the way, Grandma Cookie, I did call you at Palm Garden on Mother’s Day — three times — but you didn’t answer. But, um, Happy Mother’s Day?

Oh Grandpa, you tell the funniest bedtime stories!

Kerry — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:18:55 +0000

Hannah spotted this gem above the sink of dirty dishes in her San Francisco office.

Feel free to express yourselves, breastfeeding working moms! (But maybe not quite so passive-aggressively?)

Kerry — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:13:20 +0000

First off: I’m 100% in favor of breastfeeding. A designated pumping room at the office? Awesome! (And in fact, federally mandated.) Pictures of cute babies? Love those, too!

But you know — and let’s just play devil’s advocate here for a moment — I’m guessing some of the non-lactating folks you work with would be a bit more receptive to your message if you saved the guilt-tripping for your kiddos back home. Because, as the sign reads now, says one of your coworkers: “All it does is make me want to use THAT room for every phone call.”

The Orchid (and Daffodil and Begonia) Thief

Kerry — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:43:51 +0000

Maya in the U.K. spotted this magnanimous display on a garden wall on her way home, in a neighborhood “that must be simply full of hundreds of passive-aggressive middle class Brits.” Says Maya: ”I was tempted to steal the daffodils myself, but refrained.”

Meanwhile, Greg’s neighbor in Washington, D.C. decided to go with even an more straight-ahead guilt-trippy approach.

Lastly, Fern spotted this scarily upbeat FYI while vacationing in Key West, Florida. (Adds Fern: “We think the flower just died.”)

P.S. Before settling for a ho-hum Susan Orleans reference, I must admit that when writing this post, I tried — and failed — to come up with an worthy Wordworths-riffing title. In light of my lack of inspiration, I was especially delighted by this bit of brilliance from shwo! in the comments section:

I wandered slyly as a thief
Who flows on low o’er gutter spills,
When all at once I saw a leaf,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the porch, beneath the trees,
I think I will be stealing these.