I have a friend who relentlessly vents/complains about her boyfriend. Let's call her Sarah. Recently, another friend made an offhand comment about Sarah's SO and it was NOT well-recieved. Sarah's face dropped and she suddenly became very defensive, "You don't know him!", "That's NOT true!" and "But he always does X/Y/Z nice thing!". And it got me thinking - it's easy to offhandedly say something negative about your SO for whatever reason - but it would be horrible to hear the same thing from someone else.

This probably isn't an issue for most of you here, but it's definitely something I have been guilty of in the past and continue to keep an eye on. Witnessing Sarah's reaction helped put things even more firmly in perspective for me; everything you say has effect.

I suppose even if this isn't an issue for you, it may be a tactful way to dissuade any of your girlfriends who are repeat offenders.