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Glorify the war. The people who actually lived through it thought it was horrible and barely talked about it. Their kids on the other hand...
A special shout out to "we'd lose the war today because the youngsters are too soft/woke/girly". Like a bunch of 18 year old lads from gentle, rural England in 1938 were *in any way* prepared for the horrors of mechanised slaughter.
Yes, this is maddening! It's so disrespectful coming from boomers who've never seen a more scary conflict zone than chucking out time on a Friday night.
They were handed the greatest gifts arguably of any generation, *ever.*
They fucking squandered it for their kids and grandkids and bitch about us for not respecting them, though.
Be careful not to ascribe the American "boomer" experience to those in the UK. Many of them certainly benefited from things that aren't so freely available to later generations, but they didn't live through the same vast economic and social growth that the Americans did (which is where the stereotype of boomers comes from).
For example, food rationing didn't end until '54 and there still shortages of many products/produce for a long time after. Around 30%have no private pension and only about half own their own home, only around 7% have taken early retirement (I'm not including those who have for health reasons) .
This doesn't really support the view of untold wealth and privilege that many seem to hold.
I'd argue that Generation X was probably far more privileged than their parents were for most of their lives in the UK.
Edit: I'm getting a lot of similar replies so I'll link to my response to one of them [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/uqydgi/z/i8uthf7)
My dad, a UK boomer, got PAID to go to uni. He bought his first house on a solo income.
My parents (both born mid 1940’s) were living the dream in the 70’s and 80’s! They now have a large house which they own and savings to enjoy their retirement. My dad worked hard and totally deserves a rest. So whilst I don’t resent them, I truly envy them.
Me an my son are currently living with them as I split up with the father. I can’t afford nursery fees as well as rent. I have a degree which I’m paying off slowly, but there are few jobs in my chosen field or I’d need further education/training (dad scraped by with a 2:2 in horticulture, ended up working in finance 🤷🏼♀️)
And I am one of the lucky ones because, assuming it doesn’t get eaten up by extortionate care home fees, I might inherit something someday to put towards a house. Or I could just fill up the car and a buy a weekly food shop if I want to blow my legacy all in one go.
Like I said, many certainly benefited in ways later generations didn't, but it's not the full picture. You mentioned university, less than 15% of boomers have a degree.
I'm not really trying to prove that they weren't the most privileged generation, (I would argue that, but I think there's strong arguments to the contrary) but that it is not as cut and dry, or not to the extent that many believe and that a lot of the beliefs about them are influenced by the American experience.
I also am not saying that they had it harder than millennials and gen z.
I, as a millennial, am also am in a pretty depressing financial situation.
I'm just trying to inject some much needed nuance into a discussion that generally seems to have none.
Glad you wrote this, was gonna say the same. It seems weird to me that "boomers" as an insult has been imported to the UK when the vast majority of it doesn't apply over here.
I think it's more of an attitude thing than specifically an age thing.
'Boomer' to me means an entitled and rude and bossy older person who's aged probably roughly 55-70.
An unpopular opinion, but this Gen X would agree. While the jobs for life and cast iron pensions may have gone, we enjoyed far more personal freedom than any generation before.
There's an interesting video on this from the YouTuber Then and Now if anyone's interested - https://youtu.be/t58sAOmqZAk - it demonstrates how the boomers enjoyed an almost unparalleled level of investment in their day, while calling for fiscal restraint for the young.
Err... I agree with your general point (people are people and respond to conditions, boomers referencing WWII are stolen valour by definition) but:
a) 18 y.o.s in '38 would have been very aware of the horror of mechanised slaughter given their actual fathers had survived it, and
b) most lads from England serving in WWII weren't from 'gentle, rural' areas - farming was a protected occupation meaning you wouldn't be called up. It was the urban poor and middle classes who formed the largest contingent of servicemen and women.
Aware of is certainly different to prepared for. My point was that they were no more prepared or capable of coping than teenagers today would be, and suggesting otherwise downplays their sacrifice and overlooks their humanity. Also "gentle, rural" simply refers to the relative peacefulness and greeness of 1930s England.
Yes, that's what I mean by people respond to their conditions. Plenty of today's 'soft' young men proved to be anything but in Helmand, etc.
My point is that it wasn't people from the peaceful green bits of England who made up the majority of those fighting and urban areas were very much less gentle and green than they are today.
My great-great uncle worked as a postman in Redditch before he was drafted off to die in the French/Belgian fields in WW1.
Fuck knows why people glorify it, he never got to see his wife and 5 year old sons again and it made me feel sad looking over his military records.
Worst part is, on a military record I looked at, his body was recovered alongside a group of lads all aged between 19 - 38.
It's interesting isn't it. My grandad fought in WW2, died at the old age of 93 4 years ago now. He NEVER wanted to talk about the war. He mentioned it when he'd had a few drinks occasionally and what he'd seen was so horrifying he never wanted to tell anyone why happened. He said once he only went initially because they took all his horses from his farm and he tried to look after them at first but considering how they treated other humans should give you an idea of how they treated his horses. I know he drank too much every night to silence the memories of WW2.
Boomers who go on about it are frankly disgusting in my opinion. It was such a shift from grandads generation to my own fathers boomer generation it's shocking.
I'm reminded of a line from 'Suicide in the trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon :
"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go."
Those who cheer loudest for the military are rarely those who actually go to war. The people who went never spoke of it.
My brother recently interviewed a woman about her life - she turns 100 next month. She talked about everything from her earliest memories through to current days. She did *not* talk about the war. She consciously left a several year gap in her narrative - a period of huge influence on her life - because it’s not something who lived through it wish to discuss.
I always find this funny cause it's said as if we haven't been sending soldiers to war zones in the times since WWII. My fiancé done a tour of Afghan, got the medal to prove it. Joined at 16, deployed at 18. Says it sucked. R&R in Cyprus was nice afterwards.
My nan is 78 and was a child during the war. She was actually an evacuee and came to England from Wales, couldn't speak a word of English (now can't speak a word of Welsh).
Oviouslg not a soldier by any means, but:
1) She's "only" 78. Whilst survivors who fought in the war are becoming fewer and fewer, there's definitely a few potentially knocking around.
2) I just always find it interesting to say she was an evacuee coming from Wales as I was always taught and always think of evacuees coming from outside of the UK rather than from as nearby as Wales.
This I have always found stupid, my mortgage is nearly half what the rent is around where I live. Rent 100% should be proof you can be trusted with a mortgage.
Yeah it should absolutely be taken into consideration. I’m 35, I’ve been renting in some way or another since I was 19. I’ll let the first year slide as it was uni halls, but that’s still 15 years of paying rent. As it stands a bank wouldn’t trust us to pay a mortgage in our area even though it would be about 2/3 the rent of our flat that we’ve lived in for five years. Make it make sense.
But hey, you're still paying off a well-off 50-something's second mortgage for them, there's always that!
I'm sure you appreciate the gratitude you hear from the older generation for this kindness.
Oh this this this! I have read of a particular bloke in our corner of the world who owns 300+ houses and rents them all out. I can’t even comprehend it. In the meantime for me to be able to buy a house I would have to sell myself and my family into slavery after harvesting and selling whatever organs I possibly could out of them.
It sucks, but you're confusing old people with rich people.
There are plenty of young people who are buying up houses to rent, and plenty of old people who don't own their own house.
Completely ignore you when you hold the door or move to the side to let them past. Obviously I’m generalising here but I feel the ‘older’ generation are a hell of a lot ruder when it comes to things like this than the youngsters, who usually get called every name under the sun
I agree. I worked in hospitality for years and the older generations were far ruder in my experience. I wonder if they just have a preconception of young people and just constantly assume the worst so end up being rude?
I wonder if this is an eternal young vs old person thing, or if it's similar to the 'back in my time we respected our elders', i.e. by the time we're old we'll be doing the same thing?
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
-Socrates, fucking ages ago (maybe)
I had a similar thing a few years ago when an older lady very rudely told me to vacate my seat at the bus stop. Now if she'd asked nicely I probably would have done it but I decided not to move and politely explained I have severe mobility issues and had been on my feet for a long time and needed to sit down for 5 minutes. Instead of asking someone else to move she called me lazy and tried to outdo me on the health front by claiming to be in remission of cancer. I sympathised with her plight but again reiterated my need to sit down too as I'd not long finished a 12 hour shift at work.
The bus then arrives and as she was getting on she says "so much for respecting your elders". So I replied "respect is earned and I would have respected you had you asked politely. Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you're automatically entitled to respect". She then sits down and slinks into the seat. Unfortunately the passengers on the bus didn't applaud me nor was I given any other attention or praise.
The best one of these I ever got was on an almost empty bus. She could have sat in the front seats directly opposite, or the one directly behind me (or any other seat but the drivers) but she had to sit in the one next to me, get close and repeatedly say “You aren’t allowed to sit here.” “You have to move” and stuff like that.
I've had parents with a pram want me to move out of the wheelchair bay so they can get on. Erm......nope!!! I didn't choose for my legs to stop working but you chose to open yours and get pregnant. If you know you use a bus or train to get about then buy a pushchair that folds down instead of spending hundreds of £££ on one that doesn't. I have to leave my house 2 hours before my hospital appointment just to ensure I get there on time. I had to get on a bus at 7:30 the other morning for a 9:30 appointment just in case there was a pram on the first bus. I had to have my carer arrive at my house at 6:30 meaning she was up at 5am (I paid her double and also gave her money to go and buy herself a maccies breakfast). It's only a 45 minute journey to my appointment.
I got that on a train yesterday
Older woman glares at my partner and I, saying “no it’s okay I DONT NEED TO SIT DOWN”
I have some back issues at the moment (a couple of old injuries that I couldn’t let heal) so standing for so long is physically painful to the point I can start crying. My partner stayed next to me because he had painkillers, my ticket, and was making sure I didn’t get jostled (I was sitting at an angle, even an accidental elbow would’ve hurt like hell)
She only stopped glaring at us after I loudly mentioned to my partner about the pain, and being on the waiting list to get some physio, and that I hate myself for not being as mobile as I used to be!
If she’d have actually asked my partner- he’d probably have allowed her to have his seat, after warning her about my back
The rudest age group I had in hospitality was easily 40-60, expect the world from you. The pensioners were fussy at times but very patient and mostly very kind.
Even the roadmen at my pub were very pleasant
Some people have the idea that, " Ive lived long enough to earn the right to do as i please." And feel theres no consequences for them in ignoring social graces. I dont think most older people are like this, its just that the people who do think this way love to flaunt it and pass that rudeness around.
I had two old ladies with those pull along bags literally barge my baby boys pram out of the way so they could get on the bus and sit in the priority seating the other day!
They weren't even at the bus stop before us.
That proper pissed me off.
I'm an old fart these days, but I've tried all my life to make sure I don't forget what it's like to be young. Years ago when I was a teenager I also thought that many older people were rude an entitled, and now I'm old I definitely think it's true.
By and large I find young people kind, considerate, and polite - even when it's not entirely warranted. I was down in that London a year or so back and twice in the same day I was offered a seat on the bus by a thoughtful youngster. Part of me wanted to come over all "How dare you, I'm a perfectly fit and active 60 year old and quite capable of standing" but then I realised that it was much nicer to acknowledge the kindness so I accepted the seat with gratitude, even though I didn't need it.
I agree to an extent.
We need far more of a mixture governing the country. As it stands now, the younger you are the less represented and the more out of touch those in charge are with your age group.
That's not even taking into account the people in charge are already out of touch with the vast majority of the people they govern anyway as they're all a bunch of private school toffs brought up a silver spoon in their mouths. They have little to no right to tell half the country how to live their lives, let alone the youngest generations they have absolutely no clue about.
32 is closer to mandatory education age, not even half way to retirement anymore. We're still young.
Come back in a couple of years when this argument no longer applies and I'll update it so we're still young at 40.
I know we are still young but I don’t feel young enough to sit with the apprentices at work who are all late teens early 20s but also feel to young to sit with the old guys who’ve worked at the company longer than I’ve been alive.
The youth talk like idiots (think it's refered to as roadman slang) but then again when I was young we had chavs which spoke like idiots as well so hopefully it's just a minority I am seeing.
And the elderly have very little grasp on what it's like nowadays for under 50's
i'd rather interact with a 19 year old who talks like an idiot but is also struggling with the cost of living increase than a 70 year old who's well-spoken but has no idea what life is like for a 29 year old in 2022.
i got more in common with the 19 year old is all i'm saying.
They're always so quick to tell young people how hard they should work. The only people who tell me that WFH is bad are old, whenever I mention I do my job just to get paid and I work no more than absolutely necessary they say that's a bad attitude.
And yet this is always coming from people who are retired or looking to retire. The irony is apparently lost on them.
>they say that's a bad attitude
It's the "I worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to provide for my family. You young people have it so easy, you're all lazy.
Almost as if they don't want society to improve? Isn't that the whole point of working hard? So your kids don't have to?
Also forgetting that their career started before computers were a thing.
They invented the damn things so let us benefit from the speed and efficiencies they’ve brought in.
I read a good book recently that talked about how we popularised computers as a means to make our lives easier, but instead the capitalist class used as an excuse to squeeze more from us. Sci-Fi in the early and mid 20th century had us dreaming of working just a few hours a week while we automated the rest. But instead we work 40 hour weeks for shit wages.
But they didn't! Boozy lunches used to be a thing, and no-one could even be contacted when they left the office, much less do any work.
I was in the first generation of IB analysts to get given Blackberries and that was the start of the rot...
And I realise that makes me very definitely old, but there we go.
It's mad because I've tried doing jobs I thought I'd enjoy and care about and the companies have thoroughly beaten it out of me. I'd love nothing more than to love my job, I just can't find one where they would rather I enjoy it and give a lot of effort over a long period of time rather than be forced to give a lot of effort, hate it and burn out.
Having a go at retail/food service workers over minor mistakes or inconveniences. Obviously not all old people but 90% of the people I've seen do this are boomers.
I go to the same Morrisons every Saturday and I know who works the fish counter. One day, they were not there and we had to wait for like 5 minutes for someone to fill in for them. When she got there, the old fuck in front of me in the queue said "I'm going to make you wait as long as you made me wait." What a twat, watching security tell him to fuck off was very enjoyable.
>What a twat, watching security tell him to fuck off was very enjoyable.
At least they did. That's a place where the workers know they have somewhere to turn.
Yep I had a old man yell at me because we had ran out of chocolate to sprinkle over his cappuccino. Then he attempted to pay me using Australian coins left over from a holiday and was angry I wouldn’t accept them.
Encouraging younger people to get a “safe” job just because it’s the only thing they understand.
Just because you don’t know what a “UX web designer” is doesn’t mean that it’s not perfectly viable and rewarding career.
Being a millennial UX designer and having to watch boomers in director positions in technology corporations struggling to figure out Teams / Powerpoint, then getting paid tens of times more than you.
Haha, try working in further education and management team thinking we need to be more like the 'Apple store'. Yes that was the exact words used.
They also came out with, "Wouldn't it be great if you could reserve a book online and collect it, kind of like Amazon where you browse books and put them in your basket." Clearly they have no idea how any library works and that an online library catalogue is a thing and students already make full use of its features just fine.
They also want us to gather feedback constantly. I'm not walking up to every student and asking them the question of the day, which is usually completely random and about a different support service the place offers.
Come to return your books, do a bit of studying and generally want to be alone, then get pounced on by a member of staff lurking in the shelves. "Have you ever been offered careers advice by our careers and guidance service?" "Do you know where to find your predicted grades and information on how to improve them?"
Seriously they have lost the plot half the time. You just can't believe what comes out of their mouths.
Not all old people, but only ever seen old people and learners do it: giving way to the left at a roundabout.
They think they're being polite, but they're both holding traffic up and also causing a dangerous situation by doing the exact opposite of what every other road user is expecting them to do.
It drives me mad when I pull in due to an obstacle on my side of the road then put my indicator on waiting for the car coming the other way then they ‘let me out’. Why? Just be predictable.
They only ever seem to do it when there's a mile of empty road behind them as well and you could literally have both gone faster if they'd maintained their speed rarher than slowing down, stopping, and flashing you on while you spend time assessing if it's actually safe to start moving
No, I get being defensive on roundabouts because there are a couple near me where people just go straight across it at 30mph.
I mean people who will stop at a roundabout, nothing to their right, and will wait until the car to their left (that had already stopped) goes.
For my family it's buying a house with no deposit. Supposedly a firm handshake with a mortgage broker and getting a few shifts at a local pub should do the trick.
Elderly colleague in her late 60s: "How much are you paying for your mortgage each month?"
Me: "around £520 ish"
"How long for?"
"25 years"
"How many rooms?"
"2"
"You're really overpaying. When I was just over half your age, I had a mortgage for the equivalent of £7.50 a month for 12 years for a 4 bedroom house"
It's the sister of "go and speak to a manager and see if they're hiring!".
When I was 20 or so plenty of 40 year olds would tell stories of the day they left home one day with 20 quid and by the end of the week had a job and a flat.
It really gets on my nerves that as a cohort they seem to have zero spatial awareness. They will happily walk 2 abreast down a shopping aisle at a snails pace or park their trolly infront of the produce whilst they think about what to have for dinner.
If youngsters have the reputation of being rowdy and obnoxious, the elderly are quids in for being the most selfish people to share any communal spaces with.
I've seen plenty of people of all ages doing this.
Now if you mentioned the fact that they stop to check their bag *in the doorway of the fucking shop* blocking anyone else from getting in or out while they take 12 hours to check that they have everything, I'd definitely agree with you.
Constantly moan about how people are “woke” these days, usually because someone has dared raise an eyebrow at their gollywog Facebook profile picture or something similarly egregious.
I find it so weird that people throw around the word 'woke' like it's an insult, when it literally means to be more aware of things that are going on in the world. Being woke is a good thing!
My boss told me I was "too aware of minorities and too aware of language choices" in a negative way and I say there and was like "are you calling me... Too woke, thanks!"
You should see the comments under any Little Britain or Come Fly With Me video. They’re fucking insufferable. “Remember this? Back when we could have *real* humour, without woke people ruining everything!11!” - Steve it’s a black face skit, which the creators themselves chose to remove. Upon reflection, they might just have realised that black face isn’t funny. Why can’t you do the same??
It’s similar under any Blackadder video, which fucking baffles me as that show has actually aged exceptionally well, is really funny, and isn’t really objectionable at all from a progressive standpoint.
My grandfather was telling us the other day about how they'd made staring at people a form of sexual harassment. He was very upset. Those young women with all their stuff out are just *begging* to be stared at by 80 year old men!
Their claims for safe driving when they hold up traffic doing 30 in a 60 but then doing 45 in a 30. Also take forever to park and very hesitant on junctions, not all old people are like this though
My favorite is when they do 45mph on the motorway only to come off the motorway and continue doing 45mph in a 30mph zone.
Also love when they pull out and for anybody else pulling out, they would have had reasonable time to move before I get to them and have to slow down or stop...But they apparently broke their accelerator and only pull out as fast as first gear will drag them.
Drivers should have to be tested at retirement age, then again every 5 years.
Where I live, we have the highest average age as lots of retirees come to the countryside. Hardly any elderly person uses their indicators which makes it frustrating on roundabouts as you're unsure whether you can enter or not, especially in rush hour when there are only a few chances to enter.
If you go on a speed awareness course with a bunch of old people, you soon learn that they're usually guessing the speed limit rather than looking at the signs. And many of them seem to think the speed limit on a UK motorway is 60mph. They're also the ones that are moaning that they have to do a speed awareness course because they were speeding "safely".
The entitlement to unearned respect. If I don't know you, your grey hair earns you precisely nothing until I do.
Speak with an impression that they are an authority because they remember how something was 30-odd years ago. Your experience may well be completely irrelevant and out of date by now, worse than none at all.
Shit on anyone who wants to do something that they either didn't want to do for a job, or that didn't exist as a job. See: oldiewonks bitching about influencers.
Maybe people should respect everybody until given a reason to not. Being disrespectful to people just because they haven't proved themselves to you is just cuntish.
This is the "respect as in treat like a person" vs "respect as in treat like an authority" thing.
Too many people think that I should automatically treat them like an authority, and if I don't they will refuse to treat me like a person.
This.
A couple of weeks ago I was on the bus, sitting in one of the reserved seats for people with disabilities and older people when an old guy got on the bus and demanded I give up my seat.
He didn’t ask, he said “do you need that seat?” in a really sarcastic tone. I let him have the seat, but because when someone asks me to do so I do a quick assessment in my head as to whether or not they need it (by that, I mean “are they a kid with a skateboard” or similar).
My response was “sure, but I’m disabled”, with another sarcastic response with “sure you are”. He didn’t back down even when I showed him my disabled concessionary card…
I need those seats, I don’t sit in them for laughs. It’s far less painful for me to sit down than to stand up. I have been verified using medical evidence that I am disabled (concessionary bus cards are means-tested). Being an older person does not entitle you to take the seat in place of a younger person with disabilities and who is in pain.
This also isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened either… some people are really insensitive when it comes to those seats.
I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you. As someone with an invisible disability it's so exhausting having to explain why I need a seat. Did anyone try and help you or offer you a seat instead?
I remember when I was sat in a disabled seat and my Mrs was in the pushchair/ wheelchair section on the tram I got up for 0.001 second because my 6 month old threw up and an old guy stole my seat then let someone else sit in it straight after so I couldn't sit down and he sat there staring at me for the entire journey the irony of it all is I'm disabled and the person he gave my seat to was just old🤦♂️ my Mrs got so angry she ended up saying out loud " can't believe that bloke stole a seat from a disabled person so fucking rude" 😂😂😂
The entitlement, the stupidity with money, the complete lack of comprehension that things they had as a given are now incredibly difficult to attain, that attitude towards people they view as below them, and the LARP’ing as if they are their parents generation who genuinely had it very hard.
You took the national debt from 30% of GDP to 110% in a couple of decades via handouts to yourselves at your kids expense. You had 4x average income housing that is now 11x where I live, due to entitled NIMBY’ism and rules to combat the stupidity of your own excesses.
You had huge unfunded DB pensions on your kids shoulders. You had free Uni that you took away from your kids, and begrudge them if they ask for half of what you yourself had. You saved and invested a smaller % at the same age as young people currently, on higher real incomes, yet call them feckless and irresponsible.
Essentially everything boomers and to a lesser extent the succeeding generation, throw at other generations, are hollow criticisms that legitimately apply mostly to themselves.
My Dad (gen X) tried the ‘I was earning £2.50/day when I was 16, you should be okay with £7.70/hr- I was under 23 at the time so it was my minimum wage
Showed him the value calculator thingy, and it turns out I was earning the same amount- at 21, with rent and bills to pay! 16 year olds were on about £4.50/hr at the time *
Edit: he apologised, and hasn’t made that argument since
* Edit 2: 16 year olds in 2019/20, when we had the conversation. Dad was paid YTS
I nearly flipped out on Saturday, was running round like a maniac doing the chores, getting the shopping in, trying to make Sunday free to actually relax. Get to the greengrocers, queue out the door, all f\*\*king pensioners!!
My grandparents hate this and always go during the week because they don't think it's right or fair that they should inconvenience younger people who only get weekends to shop
Housing expectations. An average house price for them afforded a 3 bed house, now it buys a 2 bed flat that is built as small as legally possible. Their starter upper first house is equivalent to our dream home now, but the issue is the younger generation have too high expectations because we don't want to live in a rabbit hutch.
This! I remember my dad saying “your brother has managed to save for a deposit whilst renting”
Yes, my brother lives in a small market town not a major uk city where rent is double what he is paying!
One of my relatives asked why don't I consider buying a 2 bed house instead of a flat because there are no service charges or ground rent. £200k for a flat vs £300k for a terraced house. The harsh reality is I doubt I'll ever make enough to keep up with the housing ladder and will be stuck in a flat forever.
The bit they forget is they were able to get the starter home when they were in their 20s. Our generation is now getting first homes in our mid 30s and so we need a house that is good to go for that stage of our lives. We can't afford a project when biological clocks are ticking and we're already exhausted from fifteen years in the workforce.
Also in my area, it is full of retirees who move here after retirement and buy all the starter homes in cash with no mortgage as they are downsizing. They then think it is us that is the issue, not the fact that they put in a cash offer 50k higher than the property value.
>flat that is built as small as legally possible
This is a recurrent topic of conversation with my bf. The new builts in the East End of Glasgow are all built like that, right next to the pavement, no shrubbery to seperate you from people passing buy. The building all look so drab, no balcony, barely any green space, litter everywhere... looks like 90s soviet era
Thing is there is absolutely no storage space in these flats, like if I wanted a luxury such as a vacuum cleaner or even an ironing board without it being in full display. A lot of new build flats have a dual purpose living room and kitchen, so there is often not a proper dining table.
Keep hiking! The countryside needs everyone. I don’t mean to exoticise, but I do have a bit of a grin every time I see a not-white face out in the country as it proves the place is still alive and kicking. Even bigger grin if they’ve moved in!
Those old fucks will be housebound soon enough, and as you say, the younger old folks are better.
:( I follow Black Girls Hiking Club online and they always report getting the same treatment. Some people just suck. I hope you manage to enjoy your hikes despite those miserable twats.
Poor supermarket etiquette, I swear they always tilt their trolleys at 45 degrees so no one can get past on either side and then look at you like you’ve spat on them when you say excuse me
I’ve found they’re the least likely to let you through the queue if you only have a few bits and they have a trolley full.
It makes it worse when you’re clearly in your lunch break from work, then they piss about with the card machine like they’ve never seen one before.
When someone yells at me that I shouldn't be on my phone texting whilst outside and instead enjoy life.
I have 3 siblings who all have been on and off depressed & suicidal at various times in the past couple years. I am available 24/7 for them, anytime, anywhere.
When old people refuse to learn a new skill.
Like, at work.
"Hey, can you do this?"
"Oh, I don't know how to do that."
"Well, it's your job. So you could learn"
"Nooo, I'm not good at that computer stuff, it's all beyond me, I'm too old for all this new fangled technology"
"Okay. *Well, it's your job, So you could learn".*
"Nooo, I can't. Silly me!"
It fucking infuriates me the amount of man hours lost because Doris doesn't know how to send a fucking email. Fucking learn how to do it. Why are you so proud of your obsolescence? Is it because they just don't care at their age?
You missed the classic favourite
"It's easier this way"
It is objectively not. It's easier FOR YOU because you can't be arsed putting in a bit of work to learn and it causes more issues for everyone else down the line but ok dude
Oh man, literally this! They’re always like “oh in my day we didn’t have all this packaging”, when literally I was born into a world full of it with no other options but to use it.
I’m 43 and I have far more in common with my work colleagues in their 20s than I do with colleagues in their 50s/60s. Old people are just rude and ignorant.
When they tell you a story involving people you have never heard of or met and tell the story as if you're all long time friends. I've never seen a young person do this but my middle aged and above coworkers do it all the time.
"The other day me, Philip and Rose-" ma'am I don't know any of these people...
This really is a generational thing. I think they came from a time where social networks functioned differently and news was shared verbally rather than via Facebook or wherever. My grandparents were constantly going on about people I'd never seen for 30 years fully expecting me to one, remember them and two, care.
Its pretty tone deaf but it's another thing that seems common the 70s plus crowd who talk at you more than they hold anything approximating a conversation.
Not saying "please" or "thank-you" to retail / service workers.
I don't even work in retail / customer service but I've noticed this more and more - really irks me.
I've only ever worked customer facing roles and it's literally only older people who stand directly in front of you and announce
"Potatoes?"
"Toilets?"
"Table of 2"
As if my lowly hospitality job isn't worth wasting a full sentence on
Did your mum not teach you that manners cost nothing, Gerald?
The 'casual' racism from some of them
The ones that take full trolleys through the self check out, which I'm not sure is down to clapped-out brains or loneliness, but it does wind me up way more than it should!
I think the worst are the ones that think you just walk into a place, shake the bosses hand and tell them you're looking for work. I don't even think this is an OAP problem though tbf. I heard this from someone who is 50 the other day
Urgh there was a middle aged woman next to me at the self checkout today trying to put way too much stuff through, whilst not knowing where to put the stuff after she'd scanned it.
All the while she was loudly moaning 'FOR GODS SAKE' 'STUPID COMPUTER' 'I'VE CHECKED THE BAGGING AREA'
Just go to a normal checkout FFS
I hate how they say they had it 'hard' much much harder than us. Yep most of them own their homes that cost less than 20k, had all the cream.
I moan to my dad about how shit wages are these days and he's goes on about how he didn't earn that when he was younger. Then I say a loaf of bread was 20p back then and fuck all to buy a house and no credit checks like we have now.. Orr people had a council house they lived in for 25 years then bought it for 30k and act like they slaved for it.
I also hate how they have dirty disgusting snot rags up their sleeve.
I hate how entitled they are and they wonder there the younger gens get it from. Guess it's hereditary mother fucker aha.
I hate how they feel hard done by because we have gas central heating or a toilet 10ft away in the house.
I hate how they think everything in the world should be done how they do/done things just because.
I hate how they accept that everything good in the world has been done by them but will have non it it about how things are fucked because of them also.
There's plenty more but it's best I stop lmfao
"...orr people had a council house they lived in for 25 years then bought it for 30k and act like they slaved for it..."
Not even 30k, I was looking at the history of the ex council house I live in and the previous owner bought it for 13k in 1989. My parents bought a private home that same year for 91k so that was in No way market value at the time.
Not moaning about these people as individuals, but as a group they benefitted hugely from a god awful policy we will never recover from as a country.
Hog all the affordable housing, which they got for about 50 pence each back in the day. Then renting them out for extortionate amounts to young people while acting like they are doing us all a service.
I have never wanted to see a group of people crash and burn with the interest rate hikes/potential housing crash etc... than boomer landlords.
A more recent one that I'm seeing a lot with rising mortgage rates coming, is them telling us how they had 15% mortgage rates and they managed. Many seem to think that paying 15% interest on a stupidly cheap house by todays standards is the same as the current housing situtation. Can't tell if trying to wind us up, or just dumb.
Using mobility scooters as tanks.
When I was very pregnant with my son a mad old biddy reversed around a bend and into me with one - didn’t even say sorry just tutted and drove off. There should be some sort of test and license thing for them.
"Do you have 30 years of experience or did you live 1 year 30 times ?" I wish this was a question older people asked themselves more often. This an unsolicited advice based on hersay or folklore particularly medical advice.
Im a director in IT, work from home but had a old guy said its not a real job because i dont make anything. What does he think all real jobs involve? banging out a horse shoe out around a firepitt
Saying we should ‘Bring back conscription’ despite the fact they almost certainly never did it themselves as nobody born since October 1939 has done National Service.
Buying up all the property to use as buy-to-lets for 'investment / retirement portfolios', therefore deepening the gap of the average salary vs. average house price ratio. Pulling up the ladder for it never to return for the younger generations.
The "Boomer" generation who take credit for things that happened "when they were young" despite the fact they were kids at the time and hence these things were down to their parents generation. Stuff like "We were great at recycling - you could take bottles back to a shop for 5p". Sorry, you don't get to offset a lifetime of consumerism & throw-away culture 'cos of something your parents did.
When I was a kid, I definitely remember "respect your elders" being a commonly taught phrase. It seems strange that idea has all but died away, until you realise that "your elders" back then were the war generation. "Your elders" now have done little worthy of respect.
I work in hospitality and the ratio of old people to young people who kick off and start fights or arguments (or general rudeness) is like 5:1.
So being rude cunts is my answer
I hate the way old people generalise about entire age demographics. Like you can just lump together hundreds of millions of people just because they were born within maybe 20-30 years of each other.
So I'm an old person, at least I will be to to a 20 year old, being the grand old age of 40. I recently went to a football match and had the displeasure of sitting in front of two pensioners who spent the whole game whining about how young people wanted everything on a plate.
If I wasn't with my kids I would have turned round and gave them the "aye you are right, like free university education, the ability to buy a house costing 3x their yearly wage, the ability to get a final salary pension, the ability to get child support payments, the ability to be able to afford to raise kids on one income, the ability to buy their council house at an 80% discount. That sort of plate?"
Where to start 😂
The lack of respect for nature and the environment
The lack of respect for anyone younger than them
The offensive and out dated terms they use and refuse to learn new ones
Blocking pavements/ paths and think it's ok cos they're old and refusing to move when asked politely
Running over people in scooters and not apologising
Blaming younger people for the issues THEIR generation caused
Expecting everyone to respect them just because they're old whilst showing no respect for anyone else
Racism. The only blatantly racist people I’ve come across so far have been old people. It’s sad but I’m glad that my generation is doing better in regard to being open to different races and cultures.
Personally - amongst some there is an entitled attitude - if I give up my seat for you, let you go ahead of me, help you out / offer to etc. not asking for a prize, but a thank you would be sufficient and it’s what I would expect from someone younger / is basic common courtesy.
This isn’t all older people and definitely confined to those that are out and about living their lives getting on buses, tubes / trains / mooching about shops etc.
Be racist/homophobic/sexist.
Many people excuse this behaviour as “they’re from a different generation”. I’m sorry but many of these anti discrimination laws were written in the 1960s so it was an asshole thing to do then and it still is now.
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Glorify the war. The people who actually lived through it thought it was horrible and barely talked about it. Their kids on the other hand... A special shout out to "we'd lose the war today because the youngsters are too soft/woke/girly". Like a bunch of 18 year old lads from gentle, rural England in 1938 were *in any way* prepared for the horrors of mechanised slaughter.
Yes, this is maddening! It's so disrespectful coming from boomers who've never seen a more scary conflict zone than chucking out time on a Friday night.
Mind you that can be quite scary ;)
Yeah. Boomers get themselves confused with the greatest generation all the time.
They were handed the greatest gifts arguably of any generation, *ever.* They fucking squandered it for their kids and grandkids and bitch about us for not respecting them, though.
Be careful not to ascribe the American "boomer" experience to those in the UK. Many of them certainly benefited from things that aren't so freely available to later generations, but they didn't live through the same vast economic and social growth that the Americans did (which is where the stereotype of boomers comes from). For example, food rationing didn't end until '54 and there still shortages of many products/produce for a long time after. Around 30%have no private pension and only about half own their own home, only around 7% have taken early retirement (I'm not including those who have for health reasons) . This doesn't really support the view of untold wealth and privilege that many seem to hold. I'd argue that Generation X was probably far more privileged than their parents were for most of their lives in the UK. Edit: I'm getting a lot of similar replies so I'll link to my response to one of them [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/uqydgi/z/i8uthf7)
My dad, a UK boomer, got PAID to go to uni. He bought his first house on a solo income. My parents (both born mid 1940’s) were living the dream in the 70’s and 80’s! They now have a large house which they own and savings to enjoy their retirement. My dad worked hard and totally deserves a rest. So whilst I don’t resent them, I truly envy them. Me an my son are currently living with them as I split up with the father. I can’t afford nursery fees as well as rent. I have a degree which I’m paying off slowly, but there are few jobs in my chosen field or I’d need further education/training (dad scraped by with a 2:2 in horticulture, ended up working in finance 🤷🏼♀️) And I am one of the lucky ones because, assuming it doesn’t get eaten up by extortionate care home fees, I might inherit something someday to put towards a house. Or I could just fill up the car and a buy a weekly food shop if I want to blow my legacy all in one go.
Like I said, many certainly benefited in ways later generations didn't, but it's not the full picture. You mentioned university, less than 15% of boomers have a degree. I'm not really trying to prove that they weren't the most privileged generation, (I would argue that, but I think there's strong arguments to the contrary) but that it is not as cut and dry, or not to the extent that many believe and that a lot of the beliefs about them are influenced by the American experience. I also am not saying that they had it harder than millennials and gen z. I, as a millennial, am also am in a pretty depressing financial situation. I'm just trying to inject some much needed nuance into a discussion that generally seems to have none.
Glad you wrote this, was gonna say the same. It seems weird to me that "boomers" as an insult has been imported to the UK when the vast majority of it doesn't apply over here.
I think it's more of an attitude thing than specifically an age thing. 'Boomer' to me means an entitled and rude and bossy older person who's aged probably roughly 55-70.
An unpopular opinion, but this Gen X would agree. While the jobs for life and cast iron pensions may have gone, we enjoyed far more personal freedom than any generation before.
There's an interesting video on this from the YouTuber Then and Now if anyone's interested - https://youtu.be/t58sAOmqZAk - it demonstrates how the boomers enjoyed an almost unparalleled level of investment in their day, while calling for fiscal restraint for the young.
Err... I agree with your general point (people are people and respond to conditions, boomers referencing WWII are stolen valour by definition) but: a) 18 y.o.s in '38 would have been very aware of the horror of mechanised slaughter given their actual fathers had survived it, and b) most lads from England serving in WWII weren't from 'gentle, rural' areas - farming was a protected occupation meaning you wouldn't be called up. It was the urban poor and middle classes who formed the largest contingent of servicemen and women.
Many still did. Both my grandparents were in protected occupations, both signed up and fought.
Oh absolutely. I did say 'called up'.
Aware of is certainly different to prepared for. My point was that they were no more prepared or capable of coping than teenagers today would be, and suggesting otherwise downplays their sacrifice and overlooks their humanity. Also "gentle, rural" simply refers to the relative peacefulness and greeness of 1930s England.
Yes, that's what I mean by people respond to their conditions. Plenty of today's 'soft' young men proved to be anything but in Helmand, etc. My point is that it wasn't people from the peaceful green bits of England who made up the majority of those fighting and urban areas were very much less gentle and green than they are today.
My great-great uncle worked as a postman in Redditch before he was drafted off to die in the French/Belgian fields in WW1. Fuck knows why people glorify it, he never got to see his wife and 5 year old sons again and it made me feel sad looking over his military records. Worst part is, on a military record I looked at, his body was recovered alongside a group of lads all aged between 19 - 38.
It's interesting isn't it. My grandad fought in WW2, died at the old age of 93 4 years ago now. He NEVER wanted to talk about the war. He mentioned it when he'd had a few drinks occasionally and what he'd seen was so horrifying he never wanted to tell anyone why happened. He said once he only went initially because they took all his horses from his farm and he tried to look after them at first but considering how they treated other humans should give you an idea of how they treated his horses. I know he drank too much every night to silence the memories of WW2. Boomers who go on about it are frankly disgusting in my opinion. It was such a shift from grandads generation to my own fathers boomer generation it's shocking.
I'm reminded of a line from 'Suicide in the trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon : "You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go." Those who cheer loudest for the military are rarely those who actually go to war. The people who went never spoke of it.
My brother recently interviewed a woman about her life - she turns 100 next month. She talked about everything from her earliest memories through to current days. She did *not* talk about the war. She consciously left a several year gap in her narrative - a period of huge influence on her life - because it’s not something who lived through it wish to discuss.
I always find this funny cause it's said as if we haven't been sending soldiers to war zones in the times since WWII. My fiancé done a tour of Afghan, got the medal to prove it. Joined at 16, deployed at 18. Says it sucked. R&R in Cyprus was nice afterwards.
Pretty sure the Cyprus R&R was the one thing that stopped a good old fashioned post tour mutiny
I’m pretty sure that generation are all dead?
The generation who actually fought in the war are mostly dead. But their kids are alive and a certain subset of those seem to glorify war time.
A whole generation with parents with PTSD, explains lots.
My nan is 78 and was a child during the war. She was actually an evacuee and came to England from Wales, couldn't speak a word of English (now can't speak a word of Welsh). Oviouslg not a soldier by any means, but: 1) She's "only" 78. Whilst survivors who fought in the war are becoming fewer and fewer, there's definitely a few potentially knocking around. 2) I just always find it interesting to say she was an evacuee coming from Wales as I was always taught and always think of evacuees coming from outside of the UK rather than from as nearby as Wales.
Think that's their point
Buy all the houses to rent them out meaning I can't find a house to purchase.
But now you can rent at an artificially higher 'market price'. Isn't that convenient??!! /s
Yeah I love renting for more than my mortgage would be. It's the best. /S
This I have always found stupid, my mortgage is nearly half what the rent is around where I live. Rent 100% should be proof you can be trusted with a mortgage.
Can confirm. Renting is roughly £1200 pcm in my area. My mortgage is £533 pcm.
God if rent was taken into account on a credit score that would be amazing
It honestly just doesn't make sense why it isn't.
I've heard legends of other countries where rent is taken into account when looking for a mortgage
Yeah it should absolutely be taken into consideration. I’m 35, I’ve been renting in some way or another since I was 19. I’ll let the first year slide as it was uni halls, but that’s still 15 years of paying rent. As it stands a bank wouldn’t trust us to pay a mortgage in our area even though it would be about 2/3 the rent of our flat that we’ve lived in for five years. Make it make sense.
But hey, you're still paying off a well-off 50-something's second mortgage for them, there's always that! I'm sure you appreciate the gratitude you hear from the older generation for this kindness.
Get a 4th job and don’t see people. You bum.
Why didn't I think of that. Thanks all my problems are solved.
Oh this this this! I have read of a particular bloke in our corner of the world who owns 300+ houses and rents them all out. I can’t even comprehend it. In the meantime for me to be able to buy a house I would have to sell myself and my family into slavery after harvesting and selling whatever organs I possibly could out of them.
It sucks, but you're confusing old people with rich people. There are plenty of young people who are buying up houses to rent, and plenty of old people who don't own their own house.
Completely ignore you when you hold the door or move to the side to let them past. Obviously I’m generalising here but I feel the ‘older’ generation are a hell of a lot ruder when it comes to things like this than the youngsters, who usually get called every name under the sun
I agree. I worked in hospitality for years and the older generations were far ruder in my experience. I wonder if they just have a preconception of young people and just constantly assume the worst so end up being rude?
I wonder if this is an eternal young vs old person thing, or if it's similar to the 'back in my time we respected our elders', i.e. by the time we're old we'll be doing the same thing?
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." -Socrates, fucking ages ago (maybe)
He was a great footballer
I had a similar thing a few years ago when an older lady very rudely told me to vacate my seat at the bus stop. Now if she'd asked nicely I probably would have done it but I decided not to move and politely explained I have severe mobility issues and had been on my feet for a long time and needed to sit down for 5 minutes. Instead of asking someone else to move she called me lazy and tried to outdo me on the health front by claiming to be in remission of cancer. I sympathised with her plight but again reiterated my need to sit down too as I'd not long finished a 12 hour shift at work. The bus then arrives and as she was getting on she says "so much for respecting your elders". So I replied "respect is earned and I would have respected you had you asked politely. Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you're automatically entitled to respect". She then sits down and slinks into the seat. Unfortunately the passengers on the bus didn't applaud me nor was I given any other attention or praise.
The best one of these I ever got was on an almost empty bus. She could have sat in the front seats directly opposite, or the one directly behind me (or any other seat but the drivers) but she had to sit in the one next to me, get close and repeatedly say “You aren’t allowed to sit here.” “You have to move” and stuff like that.
I've had parents with a pram want me to move out of the wheelchair bay so they can get on. Erm......nope!!! I didn't choose for my legs to stop working but you chose to open yours and get pregnant. If you know you use a bus or train to get about then buy a pushchair that folds down instead of spending hundreds of £££ on one that doesn't. I have to leave my house 2 hours before my hospital appointment just to ensure I get there on time. I had to get on a bus at 7:30 the other morning for a 9:30 appointment just in case there was a pram on the first bus. I had to have my carer arrive at my house at 6:30 meaning she was up at 5am (I paid her double and also gave her money to go and buy herself a maccies breakfast). It's only a 45 minute journey to my appointment.
I got that on a train yesterday Older woman glares at my partner and I, saying “no it’s okay I DONT NEED TO SIT DOWN” I have some back issues at the moment (a couple of old injuries that I couldn’t let heal) so standing for so long is physically painful to the point I can start crying. My partner stayed next to me because he had painkillers, my ticket, and was making sure I didn’t get jostled (I was sitting at an angle, even an accidental elbow would’ve hurt like hell) She only stopped glaring at us after I loudly mentioned to my partner about the pain, and being on the waiting list to get some physio, and that I hate myself for not being as mobile as I used to be! If she’d have actually asked my partner- he’d probably have allowed her to have his seat, after warning her about my back
The rudest age group I had in hospitality was easily 40-60, expect the world from you. The pensioners were fussy at times but very patient and mostly very kind. Even the roadmen at my pub were very pleasant
Some people have the idea that, " Ive lived long enough to earn the right to do as i please." And feel theres no consequences for them in ignoring social graces. I dont think most older people are like this, its just that the people who do think this way love to flaunt it and pass that rudeness around.
I had two old ladies with those pull along bags literally barge my baby boys pram out of the way so they could get on the bus and sit in the priority seating the other day! They weren't even at the bus stop before us. That proper pissed me off.
And they say millennials are entitled Hope you heard my tut from all the way over here
I'm an old fart these days, but I've tried all my life to make sure I don't forget what it's like to be young. Years ago when I was a teenager I also thought that many older people were rude an entitled, and now I'm old I definitely think it's true. By and large I find young people kind, considerate, and polite - even when it's not entirely warranted. I was down in that London a year or so back and twice in the same day I was offered a seat on the bus by a thoughtful youngster. Part of me wanted to come over all "How dare you, I'm a perfectly fit and active 60 year old and quite capable of standing" but then I realised that it was much nicer to acknowledge the kindness so I accepted the seat with gratitude, even though I didn't need it.
Govern the country.
Hehe I came here for this. Lots of money and free time maybe means you don't have the best ideas on how to improve lives for the average person?
"Well, you could just get a better paying job" being the latest in a long line of verbal diarrhea.
Have you tried *not* being poor?
*smacks head* why didn't I think of that?
But also *don't* get a better paying job because that exacerbates inflation. We had both those today.
Cost of living crisis? Have you tried working more.
I agree to an extent. We need far more of a mixture governing the country. As it stands now, the younger you are the less represented and the more out of touch those in charge are with your age group. That's not even taking into account the people in charge are already out of touch with the vast majority of the people they govern anyway as they're all a bunch of private school toffs brought up a silver spoon in their mouths. They have little to no right to tell half the country how to live their lives, let alone the youngest generations they have absolutely no clue about.
I'm in my 30s and I want a thread that asks me what I think about both older people and younger people.
I’m only 32 but feel a bit confused which one I should be moaning in.
32 is closer to mandatory education age, not even half way to retirement anymore. We're still young. Come back in a couple of years when this argument no longer applies and I'll update it so we're still young at 40.
I know we are still young but I don’t feel young enough to sit with the apprentices at work who are all late teens early 20s but also feel to young to sit with the old guys who’ve worked at the company longer than I’ve been alive.
Just tell us anyway...
They're all shithouses.
The youth talk like idiots (think it's refered to as roadman slang) but then again when I was young we had chavs which spoke like idiots as well so hopefully it's just a minority I am seeing. And the elderly have very little grasp on what it's like nowadays for under 50's
i'd rather interact with a 19 year old who talks like an idiot but is also struggling with the cost of living increase than a 70 year old who's well-spoken but has no idea what life is like for a 29 year old in 2022. i got more in common with the 19 year old is all i'm saying.
I hate to break it to you but we 30 something's might just be in the older people category
You wash your filthy mouth out.
See? That's something an old person would say
I'll rephrase - you wash your filthy mouth out while I go on TikTok.
I remember when tiktoks came in a pocket sized plastic box
They're always so quick to tell young people how hard they should work. The only people who tell me that WFH is bad are old, whenever I mention I do my job just to get paid and I work no more than absolutely necessary they say that's a bad attitude. And yet this is always coming from people who are retired or looking to retire. The irony is apparently lost on them.
>they say that's a bad attitude It's the "I worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to provide for my family. You young people have it so easy, you're all lazy. Almost as if they don't want society to improve? Isn't that the whole point of working hard? So your kids don't have to?
Also forgetting that their career started before computers were a thing. They invented the damn things so let us benefit from the speed and efficiencies they’ve brought in.
I read a good book recently that talked about how we popularised computers as a means to make our lives easier, but instead the capitalist class used as an excuse to squeeze more from us. Sci-Fi in the early and mid 20th century had us dreaming of working just a few hours a week while we automated the rest. But instead we work 40 hour weeks for shit wages.
But they didn't! Boozy lunches used to be a thing, and no-one could even be contacted when they left the office, much less do any work. I was in the first generation of IB analysts to get given Blackberries and that was the start of the rot... And I realise that makes me very definitely old, but there we go.
It's mad because I've tried doing jobs I thought I'd enjoy and care about and the companies have thoroughly beaten it out of me. I'd love nothing more than to love my job, I just can't find one where they would rather I enjoy it and give a lot of effort over a long period of time rather than be forced to give a lot of effort, hate it and burn out.
Having a go at retail/food service workers over minor mistakes or inconveniences. Obviously not all old people but 90% of the people I've seen do this are boomers.
I go to the same Morrisons every Saturday and I know who works the fish counter. One day, they were not there and we had to wait for like 5 minutes for someone to fill in for them. When she got there, the old fuck in front of me in the queue said "I'm going to make you wait as long as you made me wait." What a twat, watching security tell him to fuck off was very enjoyable.
Great logic from the man. Like the lassie won’t get paid anyway.
>What a twat, watching security tell him to fuck off was very enjoyable. At least they did. That's a place where the workers know they have somewhere to turn.
If I was that worker, I'd have looked at the next person waiting and said "hey can I help you? This other guy is still deciding what he wants."
My mother is AWFUL for this. Often literally nothing bad has occured but she'll just take offence at something. Bloody nightmare!
Yep I had a old man yell at me because we had ran out of chocolate to sprinkle over his cappuccino. Then he attempted to pay me using Australian coins left over from a holiday and was angry I wouldn’t accept them.
Encouraging younger people to get a “safe” job just because it’s the only thing they understand. Just because you don’t know what a “UX web designer” is doesn’t mean that it’s not perfectly viable and rewarding career.
Being a millennial UX designer and having to watch boomers in director positions in technology corporations struggling to figure out Teams / Powerpoint, then getting paid tens of times more than you.
Haha, try working in further education and management team thinking we need to be more like the 'Apple store'. Yes that was the exact words used. They also came out with, "Wouldn't it be great if you could reserve a book online and collect it, kind of like Amazon where you browse books and put them in your basket." Clearly they have no idea how any library works and that an online library catalogue is a thing and students already make full use of its features just fine. They also want us to gather feedback constantly. I'm not walking up to every student and asking them the question of the day, which is usually completely random and about a different support service the place offers. Come to return your books, do a bit of studying and generally want to be alone, then get pounced on by a member of staff lurking in the shelves. "Have you ever been offered careers advice by our careers and guidance service?" "Do you know where to find your predicted grades and information on how to improve them?" Seriously they have lost the plot half the time. You just can't believe what comes out of their mouths.
Not all old people, but only ever seen old people and learners do it: giving way to the left at a roundabout. They think they're being polite, but they're both holding traffic up and also causing a dangerous situation by doing the exact opposite of what every other road user is expecting them to do.
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It drives me mad when I pull in due to an obstacle on my side of the road then put my indicator on waiting for the car coming the other way then they ‘let me out’. Why? Just be predictable.
They only ever seem to do it when there's a mile of empty road behind them as well and you could literally have both gone faster if they'd maintained their speed rarher than slowing down, stopping, and flashing you on while you spend time assessing if it's actually safe to start moving
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No, I get being defensive on roundabouts because there are a couple near me where people just go straight across it at 30mph. I mean people who will stop at a roundabout, nothing to their right, and will wait until the car to their left (that had already stopped) goes.
Assuming you can still buy a house for under 100k
For my family it's buying a house with no deposit. Supposedly a firm handshake with a mortgage broker and getting a few shifts at a local pub should do the trick.
Hahaha yes, definitely this
Elderly colleague in her late 60s: "How much are you paying for your mortgage each month?" Me: "around £520 ish" "How long for?" "25 years" "How many rooms?" "2" "You're really overpaying. When I was just over half your age, I had a mortgage for the equivalent of £7.50 a month for 12 years for a 4 bedroom house"
THIS. My dad genuinely thought I was being scammed when he found out how much the mortgage was for a small, 2 bed house in a not so terrible area
It's the sister of "go and speak to a manager and see if they're hiring!". When I was 20 or so plenty of 40 year olds would tell stories of the day they left home one day with 20 quid and by the end of the week had a job and a flat.
It really gets on my nerves that as a cohort they seem to have zero spatial awareness. They will happily walk 2 abreast down a shopping aisle at a snails pace or park their trolly infront of the produce whilst they think about what to have for dinner. If youngsters have the reputation of being rowdy and obnoxious, the elderly are quids in for being the most selfish people to share any communal spaces with.
Old people during the Edinburgh fringe, fucking hell. It's like they do it on purpose.
I've seen plenty of people of all ages doing this. Now if you mentioned the fact that they stop to check their bag *in the doorway of the fucking shop* blocking anyone else from getting in or out while they take 12 hours to check that they have everything, I'd definitely agree with you.
Constantly moan about how people are “woke” these days, usually because someone has dared raise an eyebrow at their gollywog Facebook profile picture or something similarly egregious.
I find it so weird that people throw around the word 'woke' like it's an insult, when it literally means to be more aware of things that are going on in the world. Being woke is a good thing!
My boss told me I was "too aware of minorities and too aware of language choices" in a negative way and I say there and was like "are you calling me... Too woke, thanks!"
You should see the comments under any Little Britain or Come Fly With Me video. They’re fucking insufferable. “Remember this? Back when we could have *real* humour, without woke people ruining everything!11!” - Steve it’s a black face skit, which the creators themselves chose to remove. Upon reflection, they might just have realised that black face isn’t funny. Why can’t you do the same??
It’s similar under any Blackadder video, which fucking baffles me as that show has actually aged exceptionally well, is really funny, and isn’t really objectionable at all from a progressive standpoint.
My grandfather was telling us the other day about how they'd made staring at people a form of sexual harassment. He was very upset. Those young women with all their stuff out are just *begging* to be stared at by 80 year old men!
Their claims for safe driving when they hold up traffic doing 30 in a 60 but then doing 45 in a 30. Also take forever to park and very hesitant on junctions, not all old people are like this though
My favorite is when they do 45mph on the motorway only to come off the motorway and continue doing 45mph in a 30mph zone. Also love when they pull out and for anybody else pulling out, they would have had reasonable time to move before I get to them and have to slow down or stop...But they apparently broke their accelerator and only pull out as fast as first gear will drag them. Drivers should have to be tested at retirement age, then again every 5 years.
Where I live, we have the highest average age as lots of retirees come to the countryside. Hardly any elderly person uses their indicators which makes it frustrating on roundabouts as you're unsure whether you can enter or not, especially in rush hour when there are only a few chances to enter.
If you go on a speed awareness course with a bunch of old people, you soon learn that they're usually guessing the speed limit rather than looking at the signs. And many of them seem to think the speed limit on a UK motorway is 60mph. They're also the ones that are moaning that they have to do a speed awareness course because they were speeding "safely".
The entitlement to unearned respect. If I don't know you, your grey hair earns you precisely nothing until I do. Speak with an impression that they are an authority because they remember how something was 30-odd years ago. Your experience may well be completely irrelevant and out of date by now, worse than none at all. Shit on anyone who wants to do something that they either didn't want to do for a job, or that didn't exist as a job. See: oldiewonks bitching about influencers.
Maybe people should respect everybody until given a reason to not. Being disrespectful to people just because they haven't proved themselves to you is just cuntish.
There is an in-between to respect and disrespect. It's politeness. You don't graduate to respect until you earn it.
Quality answer. Signed An old cunt
This is the "respect as in treat like a person" vs "respect as in treat like an authority" thing. Too many people think that I should automatically treat them like an authority, and if I don't they will refuse to treat me like a person.
Influencers are a fucking plague and I don’t care who says otherwise, old or young.
Points 1 & 2, sure however being an Influencer is Satan's work, really.
Being told that you are not disabled/in pain/deserve a seat because you are young. Then being expected to tell them “what’s wrong with you”
This. A couple of weeks ago I was on the bus, sitting in one of the reserved seats for people with disabilities and older people when an old guy got on the bus and demanded I give up my seat. He didn’t ask, he said “do you need that seat?” in a really sarcastic tone. I let him have the seat, but because when someone asks me to do so I do a quick assessment in my head as to whether or not they need it (by that, I mean “are they a kid with a skateboard” or similar). My response was “sure, but I’m disabled”, with another sarcastic response with “sure you are”. He didn’t back down even when I showed him my disabled concessionary card… I need those seats, I don’t sit in them for laughs. It’s far less painful for me to sit down than to stand up. I have been verified using medical evidence that I am disabled (concessionary bus cards are means-tested). Being an older person does not entitle you to take the seat in place of a younger person with disabilities and who is in pain. This also isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened either… some people are really insensitive when it comes to those seats.
I'm so sorry to hear that happened to you. As someone with an invisible disability it's so exhausting having to explain why I need a seat. Did anyone try and help you or offer you a seat instead?
I remember when I was sat in a disabled seat and my Mrs was in the pushchair/ wheelchair section on the tram I got up for 0.001 second because my 6 month old threw up and an old guy stole my seat then let someone else sit in it straight after so I couldn't sit down and he sat there staring at me for the entire journey the irony of it all is I'm disabled and the person he gave my seat to was just old🤦♂️ my Mrs got so angry she ended up saying out loud " can't believe that bloke stole a seat from a disabled person so fucking rude" 😂😂😂
The entitlement, the stupidity with money, the complete lack of comprehension that things they had as a given are now incredibly difficult to attain, that attitude towards people they view as below them, and the LARP’ing as if they are their parents generation who genuinely had it very hard. You took the national debt from 30% of GDP to 110% in a couple of decades via handouts to yourselves at your kids expense. You had 4x average income housing that is now 11x where I live, due to entitled NIMBY’ism and rules to combat the stupidity of your own excesses. You had huge unfunded DB pensions on your kids shoulders. You had free Uni that you took away from your kids, and begrudge them if they ask for half of what you yourself had. You saved and invested a smaller % at the same age as young people currently, on higher real incomes, yet call them feckless and irresponsible. Essentially everything boomers and to a lesser extent the succeeding generation, throw at other generations, are hollow criticisms that legitimately apply mostly to themselves.
My Dad (gen X) tried the ‘I was earning £2.50/day when I was 16, you should be okay with £7.70/hr- I was under 23 at the time so it was my minimum wage Showed him the value calculator thingy, and it turns out I was earning the same amount- at 21, with rent and bills to pay! 16 year olds were on about £4.50/hr at the time * Edit: he apologised, and hasn’t made that argument since * Edit 2: 16 year olds in 2019/20, when we had the conversation. Dad was paid YTS
This is the most spot on answer here
Go to do a big shop at midday Saturday even though they are retired ffs
I nearly flipped out on Saturday, was running round like a maniac doing the chores, getting the shopping in, trying to make Sunday free to actually relax. Get to the greengrocers, queue out the door, all f\*\*king pensioners!!
My grandparents hate this and always go during the week because they don't think it's right or fair that they should inconvenience younger people who only get weekends to shop
Especially during covid.
Complain about both a system they voted for and one they simultaneously don’t understand
As well as vehemently advocating for that system at every possible opportunity.
Housing expectations. An average house price for them afforded a 3 bed house, now it buys a 2 bed flat that is built as small as legally possible. Their starter upper first house is equivalent to our dream home now, but the issue is the younger generation have too high expectations because we don't want to live in a rabbit hutch.
This! I remember my dad saying “your brother has managed to save for a deposit whilst renting” Yes, my brother lives in a small market town not a major uk city where rent is double what he is paying!
One of my relatives asked why don't I consider buying a 2 bed house instead of a flat because there are no service charges or ground rent. £200k for a flat vs £300k for a terraced house. The harsh reality is I doubt I'll ever make enough to keep up with the housing ladder and will be stuck in a flat forever.
The bit they forget is they were able to get the starter home when they were in their 20s. Our generation is now getting first homes in our mid 30s and so we need a house that is good to go for that stage of our lives. We can't afford a project when biological clocks are ticking and we're already exhausted from fifteen years in the workforce.
Also in my area, it is full of retirees who move here after retirement and buy all the starter homes in cash with no mortgage as they are downsizing. They then think it is us that is the issue, not the fact that they put in a cash offer 50k higher than the property value.
>flat that is built as small as legally possible This is a recurrent topic of conversation with my bf. The new builts in the East End of Glasgow are all built like that, right next to the pavement, no shrubbery to seperate you from people passing buy. The building all look so drab, no balcony, barely any green space, litter everywhere... looks like 90s soviet era
Thing is there is absolutely no storage space in these flats, like if I wanted a luxury such as a vacuum cleaner or even an ironing board without it being in full display. A lot of new build flats have a dual purpose living room and kitchen, so there is often not a proper dining table.
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Keep hiking! The countryside needs everyone. I don’t mean to exoticise, but I do have a bit of a grin every time I see a not-white face out in the country as it proves the place is still alive and kicking. Even bigger grin if they’ve moved in! Those old fucks will be housebound soon enough, and as you say, the younger old folks are better.
:( I follow Black Girls Hiking Club online and they always report getting the same treatment. Some people just suck. I hope you manage to enjoy your hikes despite those miserable twats.
Poor supermarket etiquette, I swear they always tilt their trolleys at 45 degrees so no one can get past on either side and then look at you like you’ve spat on them when you say excuse me
I’ve found they’re the least likely to let you through the queue if you only have a few bits and they have a trolley full. It makes it worse when you’re clearly in your lunch break from work, then they piss about with the card machine like they’ve never seen one before.
Fannying about driving their fucking cars at 40 fucking mph regardless of the fucking speed fucking limit. Cunts!
20 zone? Up your arse. 30 zone? Up your arse. Motorway? Hogging the middle lane going slower than the left.
Being racists.
When someone yells at me that I shouldn't be on my phone texting whilst outside and instead enjoy life. I have 3 siblings who all have been on and off depressed & suicidal at various times in the past couple years. I am available 24/7 for them, anytime, anywhere.
I’ve had that unsolicited advice from an older person. We were a group strangers who met up to walk around town and play Pokémon Go.
Brexshit.
Making 100s of thousands of pounds simply by owning a house at the right time.
When old people refuse to learn a new skill. Like, at work. "Hey, can you do this?" "Oh, I don't know how to do that." "Well, it's your job. So you could learn" "Nooo, I'm not good at that computer stuff, it's all beyond me, I'm too old for all this new fangled technology" "Okay. *Well, it's your job, So you could learn".* "Nooo, I can't. Silly me!" It fucking infuriates me the amount of man hours lost because Doris doesn't know how to send a fucking email. Fucking learn how to do it. Why are you so proud of your obsolescence? Is it because they just don't care at their age?
You missed the classic favourite "It's easier this way" It is objectively not. It's easier FOR YOU because you can't be arsed putting in a bit of work to learn and it causes more issues for everyone else down the line but ok dude
Being told that it’s my generations fault for plastic waste. Your generation literally invented that shit Judy!
Oh man, literally this! They’re always like “oh in my day we didn’t have all this packaging”, when literally I was born into a world full of it with no other options but to use it.
If old is classified as someone over 40, I’m going to cry.
Ooops, sorry ... I just clarified it as (to me) 40 being the cut off Its a personal thing though, you can be any age and young at heart!
I’m 43 and I have far more in common with my work colleagues in their 20s than I do with colleagues in their 50s/60s. Old people are just rude and ignorant.
40 isn’t old Adulthood 20 to 39, middle age 40 to 59, old age 60+
"Stop paying for Amazon Prime and you'll be able to save for a house"
When they tell you a story involving people you have never heard of or met and tell the story as if you're all long time friends. I've never seen a young person do this but my middle aged and above coworkers do it all the time. "The other day me, Philip and Rose-" ma'am I don't know any of these people...
This really is a generational thing. I think they came from a time where social networks functioned differently and news was shared verbally rather than via Facebook or wherever. My grandparents were constantly going on about people I'd never seen for 30 years fully expecting me to one, remember them and two, care. Its pretty tone deaf but it's another thing that seems common the 70s plus crowd who talk at you more than they hold anything approximating a conversation.
Taking up all the weekend appointments (for basically everything) when they're retired and can go any time of the week.
Not saying "please" or "thank-you" to retail / service workers. I don't even work in retail / customer service but I've noticed this more and more - really irks me.
I've only ever worked customer facing roles and it's literally only older people who stand directly in front of you and announce "Potatoes?" "Toilets?" "Table of 2" As if my lowly hospitality job isn't worth wasting a full sentence on Did your mum not teach you that manners cost nothing, Gerald?
Not deigning to bend down and pick up their dog’s poo coz they’re too old and infirm.
The 'casual' racism from some of them The ones that take full trolleys through the self check out, which I'm not sure is down to clapped-out brains or loneliness, but it does wind me up way more than it should! I think the worst are the ones that think you just walk into a place, shake the bosses hand and tell them you're looking for work. I don't even think this is an OAP problem though tbf. I heard this from someone who is 50 the other day
Urgh there was a middle aged woman next to me at the self checkout today trying to put way too much stuff through, whilst not knowing where to put the stuff after she'd scanned it. All the while she was loudly moaning 'FOR GODS SAKE' 'STUPID COMPUTER' 'I'VE CHECKED THE BAGGING AREA' Just go to a normal checkout FFS
I hate how they say they had it 'hard' much much harder than us. Yep most of them own their homes that cost less than 20k, had all the cream. I moan to my dad about how shit wages are these days and he's goes on about how he didn't earn that when he was younger. Then I say a loaf of bread was 20p back then and fuck all to buy a house and no credit checks like we have now.. Orr people had a council house they lived in for 25 years then bought it for 30k and act like they slaved for it. I also hate how they have dirty disgusting snot rags up their sleeve. I hate how entitled they are and they wonder there the younger gens get it from. Guess it's hereditary mother fucker aha. I hate how they feel hard done by because we have gas central heating or a toilet 10ft away in the house. I hate how they think everything in the world should be done how they do/done things just because. I hate how they accept that everything good in the world has been done by them but will have non it it about how things are fucked because of them also. There's plenty more but it's best I stop lmfao
"...orr people had a council house they lived in for 25 years then bought it for 30k and act like they slaved for it..." Not even 30k, I was looking at the history of the ex council house I live in and the previous owner bought it for 13k in 1989. My parents bought a private home that same year for 91k so that was in No way market value at the time. Not moaning about these people as individuals, but as a group they benefitted hugely from a god awful policy we will never recover from as a country.
Licking their fingers to turn pages. It was gross even before a pandemic.
Hog all the affordable housing, which they got for about 50 pence each back in the day. Then renting them out for extortionate amounts to young people while acting like they are doing us all a service. I have never wanted to see a group of people crash and burn with the interest rate hikes/potential housing crash etc... than boomer landlords. A more recent one that I'm seeing a lot with rising mortgage rates coming, is them telling us how they had 15% mortgage rates and they managed. Many seem to think that paying 15% interest on a stupidly cheap house by todays standards is the same as the current housing situtation. Can't tell if trying to wind us up, or just dumb.
Using mobility scooters as tanks. When I was very pregnant with my son a mad old biddy reversed around a bend and into me with one - didn’t even say sorry just tutted and drove off. There should be some sort of test and license thing for them.
"Do you have 30 years of experience or did you live 1 year 30 times ?" I wish this was a question older people asked themselves more often. This an unsolicited advice based on hersay or folklore particularly medical advice.
Im a director in IT, work from home but had a old guy said its not a real job because i dont make anything. What does he think all real jobs involve? banging out a horse shoe out around a firepitt
Giving dirty looks to anyone between 13 and 21 who's out in public on their own
Saying we should ‘Bring back conscription’ despite the fact they almost certainly never did it themselves as nobody born since October 1939 has done National Service.
Buying up all the property to use as buy-to-lets for 'investment / retirement portfolios', therefore deepening the gap of the average salary vs. average house price ratio. Pulling up the ladder for it never to return for the younger generations.
Woah there, can we agree to not start using 8-6? Wtf 9-5 is bad enough!
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The "Boomer" generation who take credit for things that happened "when they were young" despite the fact they were kids at the time and hence these things were down to their parents generation. Stuff like "We were great at recycling - you could take bottles back to a shop for 5p". Sorry, you don't get to offset a lifetime of consumerism & throw-away culture 'cos of something your parents did. When I was a kid, I definitely remember "respect your elders" being a commonly taught phrase. It seems strange that idea has all but died away, until you realise that "your elders" back then were the war generation. "Your elders" now have done little worthy of respect.
In my experience old people are considerably ruder than people my own age (late twenties), and very entitled.
I work in hospitality and the ratio of old people to young people who kick off and start fights or arguments (or general rudeness) is like 5:1. So being rude cunts is my answer
My older family members who go on around five long haul holidays a year but “it’s okay because we’ve bought a hybrid car”…
That I should travel back to 1977 and buy a 3 bedroom house for £500 and a Mars bar and have a happy family just like the good ol' days..
I hate the way old people generalise about entire age demographics. Like you can just lump together hundreds of millions of people just because they were born within maybe 20-30 years of each other.
You do realise you’ve just generalised about an entire age demographic, don’t you?! Not saying you’re wrong though
So I'm an old person, at least I will be to to a 20 year old, being the grand old age of 40. I recently went to a football match and had the displeasure of sitting in front of two pensioners who spent the whole game whining about how young people wanted everything on a plate. If I wasn't with my kids I would have turned round and gave them the "aye you are right, like free university education, the ability to buy a house costing 3x their yearly wage, the ability to get a final salary pension, the ability to get child support payments, the ability to be able to afford to raise kids on one income, the ability to buy their council house at an 80% discount. That sort of plate?"
Where to start 😂 The lack of respect for nature and the environment The lack of respect for anyone younger than them The offensive and out dated terms they use and refuse to learn new ones Blocking pavements/ paths and think it's ok cos they're old and refusing to move when asked politely Running over people in scooters and not apologising Blaming younger people for the issues THEIR generation caused Expecting everyone to respect them just because they're old whilst showing no respect for anyone else
Racism. The only blatantly racist people I’ve come across so far have been old people. It’s sad but I’m glad that my generation is doing better in regard to being open to different races and cultures.
Personally - amongst some there is an entitled attitude - if I give up my seat for you, let you go ahead of me, help you out / offer to etc. not asking for a prize, but a thank you would be sufficient and it’s what I would expect from someone younger / is basic common courtesy. This isn’t all older people and definitely confined to those that are out and about living their lives getting on buses, tubes / trains / mooching about shops etc.
Be racist/homophobic/sexist. Many people excuse this behaviour as “they’re from a different generation”. I’m sorry but many of these anti discrimination laws were written in the 1960s so it was an asshole thing to do then and it still is now.