No, I am a big believer in sociobiology. Older people aren’t worth as much once they get past their reproductive years. They can make this back easily by helping their kids and grand kids grow and support them in as they grow older. Most do pretty well in this role. Some do not. I knew all four of my grandparents and three of them were great (two still are).
My maternal grandmother was a complete waste of space including chain smoking, morbid obesity, depending on her kids for everything, drinking, and being verbally abusive. She lived in Fort Worth, Texas until I was about 16 and she moved into the same town in Louisiana that we lived in getting accomodations in government subsidized housing. She was a master of comments like those described in the OP.
My mother is a highly successful person and can please virtually everyone through her speeches yet she could never please her own mother yet she tried and tried. She physically, verbally, and emotionally abused my mother from birth because she is her only daughter. During the election that elected Bill Clinton to the first term, I called our house without knowing she was there and she answered the phone. I proudly told her that I met Bill Clinton twice that night and I thought that it was cool.
She flat out told me that I was a piece of trash for going in the first place and I shouldn’t have even called because she was disgusted. That was just a typical sample of the way she treated people especially her family. She was also notorious for belittling people’s gifts to her as some as she opened them and made her kids take them back right away to get a slightly different gift.
Right before she moved into our town, I got a job in the local supermarket that I was very, very proud of because it gave me financial freedom against terrible family circumstances. I found out that my grandmother was going on food stamps as some as she moved there. I told out told my mother that I didn’t want her in the store at all especially when I was there. For some reason, they went along with it and she took the old folks bus to the store 15 miles away instead. That was cool.
She died suddenly a few hours after complications from hip replacement surgery and I got the call right before I went to work in the morning. “I am sorry for your loss” was the most kind thing I could muster to my mother and that was the end of it. My mother told me this year that I hurt her by doing that and I felt terrible but I told her I could not do anything else in good faith.
I know it sounds like I am a stubborn asshole mainly because I am but I am also a kind person. My father is the worthless asshole parent but his mother is an awesome grandparent even in her 80’s and she helped raise me. I would do anything for her. I would fly down on 2 hours notice if something happened and I could help.
That supports my point. I love my children unconditionally but that does not flow up the chain. Sociobiology dictates that both my parents and any upstream relatives have to provide some worth before they tap into any of our resources at all. My mother could but my father can’t and my MIL can but my FIL can’t. My paternal grandmother can as well but my maternal grandfather can’t. No resources flow in that direction unless they are deserved.
I know this makes me sound like a prick and the reason for that may be self-evident but it is based on sociobiology scientific theory.