Gee, Satan, d’you think that maybe that’s the reason I said:
???
Which part of that did you not understand?
Chique, I have grandparents too. And you know-they’re selfish, whining, and don’t realize how lucky they are. They continue to alienate family members. My grandmother has been in a funk for years.
Note-we still see them. They’re really good people-but a pain in the ass. I’m sick of hearing my grandfather bitch about how much his house was reassessed for, or how my grandmother treats very old friends and neighbors like shit because she’s depressed. (My aunt died about, oh, 11, 12 years ago? and ever since then, my grandmother has gotten funny. You say I should be supportive, but the fact is, we’ve tried to help her, and all she does is bitch.)
I wonder why, if you noticed that OVERWHELMINGLY most of the posts here were not indicting “all” old people that you even felt the need to bother posting at all? Seemed like everyone “got it” except for you. This response didn’t do anything to change my opinion of that either.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61240
I’m quite sorry for your situation.
All right, I am not good at this. I admit it. But, here I go again.
Do any of you people realize that people who are old are often in bad health, that they can’t move well, that they are unhappy because their loved ones pay no attention to them?
Would it hurt those of us who still feel loved and can still move around freely to be polite, to give a little respect to older people who have worked hard all of their lives to make their children’s lives better and are confused because no one seems to care? Excuse me, but I don’t think a little effort to be kind would be enough to do.
I think that this country treats it’s senior citizens shamefully. And I think that the populace treats them shamefully also. They have fought their battles, and done their best to do what they thought they were supposed to do.
Not only do we not take care of them financially, but people treat them like trash, too.
I think it is wrong, and hurtful, and WRONG!
Scotti
My apologies if I offended you (lost all my grandparents when I was younger so I haven’t been through the “taking care of older people” area of life)…but I’m not saying all old people are bad and that there aren’t reasons for them to, say, want a seat at the front. I’m talking about when they almost BOUND onto the bus (I’ve seen some wearing jogging outfits even) and then give me the death glare for not rushing to give them my seat or what have you. Make no mistake, if someone looks like they have any trouble moving or look old enough that it’s obvious it’s difficult for them to get around, I’ll get up and leave my seat for them before they even get onto the bus…I don’t mind at all. It’s the healthy/well-off people who take advantage of the fact that other people their age suffer that irritate me. Like someone who sprained their wrist stealing a handicapped spot. It’s just wrong and they know no one will call them on it because they can get away with it. I can’t stand that.
And the seat thing still irks me…If they can get up, walk to the bus stop, stand around for 20 minutes, get on the bus, snag a seat in the middle of the bus, they can take just one more step to sit in the window seat instead of the aisle one…they wouldn’t even have to get up when people wanted off or anything.
I’ll love us and hate those rotten teenagers on the bus, I’m positive, heh…I’ll probably be driving around squinting at everything cutting people off and going 30km/h on the highway too. I mean come on, you have to have SOME fun with being old. 
- Tsugumo
My father is a ninety year old widower who is totally dependent on me and my sister for virtually everthing. His mind is sharp, but he can no longer see well enough to read, he obviously cannot drive, he has to use a cane to walk, he has had three heart attacks, bypass surgery and a hip replacement.
My sister is a seventy year old widow who has to depend on me to do the things she no longer has the physical strength to do.
I will be sixty-one in a month and I ain’t in the best of shape, myself.
Cut us fucking old folks some fucking slack. We have enough grief without being hassled by a bunch of youngsters.
Hassled by youngsters? Give me a break. I feel for your situation, I really do. A lot of older people that I know (my two surviving grandparents) are lovely people.
I am talking about the old people that generalise all teenagers as troublemakers. They piss me off no fucking end.
Yeah, nikjohns? well, try thinking about it this way. You are young, energetic, full of life and able to move WHEREVER and WHENEVER you feel like it. Do you REALLY think that you would be so cavalier about things if you couldn’t? Give these people a break, and if you are kind and polite, I am willing to bet that they will give YOU one.
And since I sense an assumption coming my way, NO. I am NOT a senior citizen.
Scotti
I think we’re talking about people who take advantage of the fact that they are older to get special treatment.
I see it all the time. Age is no excuse for poor manners.
Neither is youth, dear.
I think the young people were the victims of bad manners in the thread start, not the old people. Young people are usually quite nice to old people, and vice versa, and the young people above at least have the decency to rant here about old people flaws, than to go off on the elderly.
I never said it was.
It’s just it seems that when someone mentioned that the elderly talked about above had poor manners, everyone defended them because “they were old and probably in poor health, they deserve to be respected, etc etc…”
NO one is entitled to be rude. No matter how old or how young.
Does any of that excuse rudeness? I feel sorry for anyone who cannot do what they want, when they want (whether it is old people, people that need carers, some disabled people[not a generalisation])
We had no cause to be impolite to the old people that we came across on Thursday. They showed ignorance and contempt by parking in a specific no-parking zone.
We were, honestly, polite at first to the silver top. But then she came out with that gem (surely she is the one in the wrong by assuming that we will damage the cars), and not us.
You are quite right, and I stand corrected.
Scotti
When I found three teenagers smoking dope in our fenced back yard and asked them to leave, was I being rude?
I don’t know who it was who removed three boards from my fence and then slashed the screen on our new back porch later that same night, but I am willing to bet it wasn’t some “fucking old people.”
Yes, I know that all teenagers are not troublemakers, but my most recent encounter with teenagers was very prejudicial.
Working as an RN on a med-surg floor, I have had more that my share of dealing with people of all ages. The simple truth is that if a person is a miserable pain in the ass his/her demeanor usually doesn’t improve with age.
People are people and I interact with all with no preconceptions. I expect the same in return. If someone is out of line I call them on it no matter if they are 16 or 106. I have dealt with people who say “I’m 80 years old, I can do whatever I want” My reply “I don’t * think * so.”
By the same token, I have seen people young ignorant or both that seem to think they can treat the elderly like shit and get away with it because they are young and the other is old- and vice versa. Then they are surprised when someone gets upset. I am not saying that’s what happened in the OP, I am merely trying to point out that the senior citizen’s point of view may have been prejudiced somewhat by the behavior of another person with whom she had interacted previously.
Just to clear things up
All elderly are not senile- or necesarily right.
All youths are not drug crazed idiots- or necesarily right.
We would * all * get along better if there was more tolerance on both sides of the age barrier and if we would try to discover what we have in common instead of focusing on our apparent superficial differences.
Must.Resist.the.Forces.of.Reason…
So you don’t like all teenagers because of those three?
I haven’t mentioned any old people other than the ones that I encountered on Thursday, yet you seem to hate all teenagers. Which of us is prejudiced (indeed, you half admit to that yourself)
[quote]
Originally posted by The Mermaid
**Just to clear things up
All elderly are not senile- or necesarily right.
All youths are not drug crazed idiots- or necesarily right.
We would all get along better if there was more tolerance on both sides of the age barrier and if we would try to discover what we have in common instead of focusing on our apparent superficial differences. **
Well said
So, Louis, if you can judge ALL teenagers by those morons that broke into your yard, I can judge all ELDERLY like the woman in the OP. Pot, kettle, black, baby.
:rolleyes:
And btw, arthritis isn’t always an “Old Person’s Disease.” My dad has had arthritis since he was in his thirties.
Also, let’s say on the bus scenario: you have a spry, healthy fit woman in her sixties or seventies. Why does she have the right to hog the bus seat, when say, a young 23 year old woman gets on, who is heavily pregnant? The pregnant woman should stand on the bus? The kid with the bad knee? The young girl with a sprained ankle?