DEAR MISS MANNERS: Every day, my elderly mother-in-law texts me about the weather in Florida. “It’s 80 degrees here, yay!” etc. It sounds like bragging, because why else would you text someone in a cold climate and boast about the heat?

I am a 67-year-old woman who lives in the beautiful Midwest. I lived in Florida for 20 years before moving here. I love it here and have since Day 1. I don’t tolerate heat well at all (I have gotten heat exhaustion several times in hot weather) and love the cooler temps here.

Yet I get irritated at the bragging tone of my MIL’s daily weather reports. Does Miss Manners have any suggestions for politely getting her to stop these annoying text messages?

GENTLE READER: “It’s minus-20 degrees here. Yay!”

Miss Manners has noticed, however, that Midwesterners and other cold-weather inhabitants are equally prone to bragging about their own extreme weather. As in, “15 degrees? That’s nothing. Our schools don’t shut down unless the dogs are sticking to the sidewalks.”

So if you can find it in yourself not to look at this as a competition or bragging — especially as you have no desire to live in the heat — it will go a long way toward keeping the peace with your mother-in-law. All that heat is probably making her irritable, anyway.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, [email protected]; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.