AIBU to think that every time something unexpected happens, the appropriate response is to work out how to fix it or work around it, and get on with life with a minimum of fuss?
My parents seem to think that the appropriate response is "the computer is playing up, this has put me in a bad mood, therefore I am entitled to stamp and shout, growl at people, and complain a lot about how stupid the computer shop people are, and about how much i hate that stupid little wheel that just goes round and round and round, and how stupid youare for having bought me the computer and set it up in the first place"
I'm trying not to get drawn into their childish shite, but would love to have something effective to say to them along the lines of "grow up". But telling 70-somethings to grow up is pointless, isn't it - especially ones with no empathy 
AIBU?
"X has put me in a bad mood" - this is childish, yes?
Anna1976 · 06/05/2013 00:10
Have you tried looking bored by it all Anna? 
Distractedly giving the wrong answer (so they know you're thinking about your tea) and perhaps an effective thousand yard stare over the shoulder of the complainer?
If they don't feel they're getting the sympathy they feel to be their due they might move on to someone else?
i spend most of my life doing that over the phone to them about everything...
Unfortunately i need to stay on top of their IT needs, or I won't hear from them, and (much as that would be a bloody big relief), they do need someone to keep an eye on them - there isn't anyone else.
Dsis is a useless entitled freeloader who does nothing to help anyone e.g. "didn't notice her MIL had had a stroke" 
while complaining her parents in law were late with my niece's private school fees..., and all together, they've pissed off everyone else to the point the rest of the family/their friends are at best guardedly polite on about 3 social occasions a year...
Lots of sympathy for you though, it sounds a lot to have no option but to deal with.
Sockreturningpixie - your ex sounds a nightmare, you have my sympathies. Good on you for ditching the ex though.
My dad smashing a plate on the kitchen bench deliberately, because the back door key had been left in the lock of the wrong door, while I was sitting right next to both doors and not going anywhere and both doors were unlocked, seems rather mild in comparison
If X = "pregnancy" or "my mental illness" then I could understand it. Stropping because you don't know how to use a computer, or you can't find your socks it's childish to the extreme, even my 3yo has largely grown out of it!
I'd be sorely tempted to come back with "Oh fuck off, you have your health!" or similar, but for me "pregnancy HAS put me in a bad mood" !
I flipped this morning at more stroppy emails whining about the computer. I told them that the computer is not deliberately trying to make their lives difficult, and if they get annoyed at the computer, which is just doing its job, then its just their lives that become more unpleasant every second of the day while they whine about something that is easy to sort out.
Incidentally, this is one of four computers in the house, 2 iPads, 3 email accounts, wifi, 2 printers, a negative scanner, innumerable digital cameras, a telescope, 2 microscopes, a TV, a DVD player, a DVD to VHS converter, various setups for converting LPs and cassettes to CD, a CD player...., not to mention all my sister and BIL's stuff.... all of it set up and maintained by me, from the other side of the bloody world. THen they turn round and tell me I'm an ugly fat failure who can't keep a man because i don't spend my time clothes shopping in Paris. NO? maybe because I'm too busy being their personal IT slave? AAAHHHHHHH!
Fanjo/MrsMango - yes, exactly
Very close run thing here too
My parents have been exhibiting old-person tendencies since their 30s... I haven't yet come across anything that they do that's actually new. They've been ahead of their peers for decades and the peers are all now catching up...
Oh and - thegreylady - your computer will turn itself off if the battery has drained to nothing. So when you plug it into the mains after that's happened, the battery will start charging (except on some older laptops) but it won't switch itself back on - you have to do that bit.
Tablets are touch-screens. The touch bit works by you conducting a little bit of energy away from the sensor when you touch the screen. If something else like a stylus or the tablet cover touches the screen, that will work the same way too. Thus your tablet probably thought that the cover brushing across the screen was telling it to turn on. 
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JacqueslePeacock - do we have the same mother?
MaryRobinson - unfortunately my parents won't discuss anything health-related. It's definitely a relief not to have them being whiny about it, but I do worry that it's because they feel disenfranchised and scared, meaning they are unlikely to seek appropriate help (as has been borne out by a couple of incidents that escalated into hospital trips because they refused to sort things out).
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