Are older people obsessed with commenting on other peoples weight?

My parents are absolutely obsessed with everyone's weight in a way that I have never noticed in anyone else. Constantly talking about people's weight and my parents ask me how much I weigh every time I see them. My dad always told me that the worst thing I could ever do in his eyes was to get fat and that a fat wife was every man's worst nightmare. My parents constantly make stupid comments about everyone's appearances, especially women on the TV. They will mention weight but also facial features such as a big nose or chin, and they act as if these people have crooked teeth or big ears to personally offend them, or that they had a choice in the matter. They also have a problem with people having surgery or people on diets and exercising, and basically get angry when people just aren't naturally thin and attractive.

Actually probably just my family, being 50+ has probably made it a bit worse tbh!

I did when I was in Philly and they had the guy that played the Mountain on GOT and the newscaster went behind him and you couldn't see any bit of the newsguy. Now that dude was big.

Other than that, I really don't hear much of that here. Hair is big here. And shenanigans.

It’s a generational thing. I know many older women in their 80s who would NEVER have allowed themselves to get over weight and always comment on women’s weight. . Probably they lived their youth when the food market was a very different place to. It’s wrong by our standards now, but no doubt we’ll all be getting it wrong when we’re older as well in some shape or form.
I personally find that the teens of today are much bigger. Bigger bone structure, taller, wider. Anyone else noticed this? They’re huge compared to my generation. All friends my age agree.

Yep, that’s the over 50s for you….or is it just your family?

Jesus Christ, this thread!

Are younger people obsessed with peoples age ?

It’s so wearing, hearing relatives discuss weight and their comments on their own food consumption being naughty or terrible.
And commenting on people in public being overweight or having tattoos. Mentioning the guessed ethnicity of new neighbours in hushed tones as if it is necessary to add that info…

My Grandmother was like this, she was also French and had no filter when it came to peoples weight!

I’m in the age bracket concerned and I never comment on anyone’s weight. Apart from anything else, like many of my generation, I was brought up to consider personal remarks to be rude.

My mum, aunt and uncle all in their 70s and 80s constantly comment on people’s weight, but they always have. I think it came from my grandmother who did it too. I remember the women in the family on every diet possible in the 70s/80s and a general obsession with weight. Sadly all obsessed with mine as a child and felt they had rights to comment on it, causing lifelong issues and very much influencing how I feel about them now and the emotional distance I maintain. Generationally they think it is the norm, or they would if they thought about it, really they don’t even notice they’re doing it. It certainly won’t be true of everyone from that generation and many who might have done it previously will have moved with the times and reframed their earlier views, or may never have held those views in the first instance.

Fifty nine year old checking in. Oh deary dear. Next year I’ll
he turning into a judgemental old trout according to some on this thread!
I do think the generation above me (my mother’s generation) went through rationing and were by and large a very slim bunch. Women were also judged on appearance more than brains. Must have been awful for them. Crazy diets abounded.
by way of contrast I’ve never owned a set of scales, and never commented on anyone’s weight. And yet my 27 yo daughter has an eating disorder. Shit happens whatever you do

i wish posters would quit with wild generalisations

oh dear god <scrabbles around for smelling salts> I was born before that....

"older generation" 😱. I still have older family members though, in their 80's and 90's so I still don't think of myself as the older generation - THEY are😆

I don't know anyone my generation who comments on people's weight, but it certainly was more common for that older generation above me to do that.

to be fair to them the contrast must have been quite shocking between the slim people of their youth in the 50's and what they were beginning to see all around them. Old photos of my parents and their friends show they were all very slim.

Many were relatively slim during their lives and can't believe that youngsters are going into adulthood carrying so much weight

There was a lot of undiagnosed mental health needs, manifesting as very disordered eating - right down to putting their own children on restrictive diets

Diet culture was strong during the 60s, 70s and 80s, with the cornflake diet and the champagne and boiled egg diet quite famously the tip of the disordered eating iceberg

The joke is of course, many of those commenting are pretty obese themselves...

You need to mix with intelligent people in order to have positive experiences . . .

So, in your 50s is ‘not old at all’, but people who are 60 are ‘older people’? What a load of ageist shit. You do know that one day you will be 60? I bet then you’ll be outraged if someone spouts this crap at you! ODFOD

I’m a nurse and have previously worked in older peoples care, so usually around 60+ and find they (mainly women)

I think you have the age group wrong. I think there is a point to be discussed, but it is in some people over 80. I am surprised that you work with so many 60-year-olds in older people’s care?

And because of the difference in life expectancy, when you work with older people, there just happen to be many more women than men around. I’m not sure these behaviours you describe are particular to women.

"Older generations are obsessed with weight........"
I'm of a similar age to your mother, and I have no interest whatsoever in other people's weight.
Neither do any of my family, friends, and acquantances of my age group.
Just because your mum and aunts were ignorant twats regarding commenting on your weight, doesn't give you the right to stereotype a whole demographic.
Your opening comment is ageist and extremely insulting.

Having said that, I'm genuinely sorry you had to experience that behaviour.
I would argue that your mum and aunts were more or less guilty of emotional child abuse, honestly, and I hope you know that you didn't deserve that.

Yeah, my mum does this all the time, age 73. It will be one of the first things she comments on if she hasn't seen me. Weight plus what people do for a living. It seems in her eyes thus equals people's worth. She also comments on strangers weight etc. When I was younger I had an eating disorder. So yes, I have experienced this first hand OP

If you'd said people of 75 or 80 then I might have agreed, up to a point. I think that some (by no means all) women of that age, do lose their inhibitions. And yes, they grew up in a different time when there was still rationing. I have had women of that age comment on my weight, my skin, my hair or what I'm wearing. It's a sort of Miriam Margolyes thing that they do. A put down but they say it as if its friendly.

But the thing is, I'm 61. And I would never dream of commenting on anyone's appearance. So I'm not all that happy about being called old or spoken about as if I was affected by rationing (which actually ended 10 years before I was born). And really, you can't pass judgement on older people being rude about your weight, when you are being equally rude about their age. How is being sizeist any more offensive than being ageist? Two wrongs don't make a right.

Could be that? It’s bloody mortifying though and it’s said with such utter venom. It does make me want to spend less time with her in public as a result.