one of those annoyance things that I don't usually post about

mainly because I can't quite articulate why it's an annoyance. Thankfully I've come across others that have managed to describe it for me. For starters Neptunus Lex. and from the comments in particular:

I don’t have trouble with her having an opinion, but it’s about airing it in a world-wide forum, where, between the lines, a mother... makes the conscious effort to say her son is, well, an idiot.

I had read a column in the May issue of Real Simple that was along similar lines. This woman was talking about how she'd raised her son to be a good person and he'd gone and joined the Army. How ever could she explain it to her friends?

as Jules Crittenden puts it:

In any case, he’s a grown man who made his own decision about what to do with his life. He signed up with the military to serve his country. That’s what he’s going to do in Iraq.

Reason to be proud, Mother Cooney, not spiteful.

I know, I know, moms, they worry. But to me it's a matter best kept private.