Are older people obsessed with commenting on other peoples weight?

I have an auntie like this. She can’t help herself, not a good word to say about anyone really, not just about weight. If she stuck to the saying ‘if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all’ we would never hear a peep out of her. X

Oh dear. I obviously missed my trip for re-education. Should I go into hiding in case they come looking for me?

I guess I could always pretend and they mightn't notice. I've never commented on anyone's weight though. What sort of things should I say?

I haven’t got the age range wrong,.

Well, lots of people including me have noticed a tendency amongst some of the older generation to comment on weight. But we have mostly noticed it in people who are now late 70s and 80s. Not in people who are 60. Thus your original comment appeared incorrect, which is why you are being repeatedly challenged.

OP maybe the word you were looking for was generational? My mother’s generation- her included- were of a time where you couldn’t be beautiful unless you were slim. She was, and still is, obsessed with being slim (which she’s never been, actually). It’s always been the same though, not just since she turned 60. She’s in her 70s now and still obsessed, not just with her own size and weight but everyone else’s too.

This exactly. I grew up as the fat girl 'my measurements were 36 27 36 throughout my twenties ans I was repeatedly told I was the big one, or that men wouldn't get ny size past their friends....' and I can't get over how big the girls are now and that they all have boyfriends holding their hands in public. Its refreshing to see actually but absolutely not what I'm used to seeing and no bloke in the 1980s or 90s where I lived would have been seen dead with a fat girl. I'm the wrong side of a size 18 now but I won't hold my partners hand in public as I've had it ingrained into me that I'm an embarrassment since about 1984.

Thanks for highlighting this OP, it's more common it seems than I thought and not just my mum ha. I just did a quick Google and loads of threads and articles around this, seems to generally women 80 plus who are written about

Thats fine. People were far smaller back then. I consider 12 to be small as I was 14/16. Funnily my mum who is probably a similar age to your nana thinks I'm wasting away!!

My main aim is health rather than size. I was pretty ill recently. I wouldn't have been quite so ill if id have considered what i was eating.

Well you can’t say all, but is it a thing? Yes it is, and it’s extremely rude! It’s a kind of crappy put down. Most of us were told not to comment on people’s appearance growing up as that would have been considered bad manners (it is) but there is definitely an older demographic of women who aren’t so concerned.

Exactly this ☝️

My DM is 80 and will talk non stop about other peoples weight, ohhh she’s too skinny ohhh she’s fat. But NEVER about her own family of friends always about random strangers.

... I doubt it.

Im not being smug or rude. I was overweight, maybe obese according to BMI. It wasn't easy. Its still ongoing as I still consider myself overweight. I am far more healthy though. I do wonder why people are so quick to assume only the older generation comment on it.

I could have written this post. My Mum was born in 1938 and so was young in the 1960s when thin was everything. She comments on my weight, my cousins weights, friends, strangers, everyone. I also have a very unhealthy relationship with food and have been on a diet for over 20 years.

I'm a size 10.....

Yes of course , every single older person comments on people’s weight. 🙄

Have you ever considered that not being smug and rude would be a better way of "taking care of yourself "?

My grandmother was terrible for this and as she got older, it got worse, particularly as she grew more deaf. Comments that were pretty awful had, at least, been muttered sotto voce. As her hearing worsened, the comments were practically bellowed and it was pretty embarrassing.

The weird thing is that my mother, an otherwise sane and rational woman who lived through all this, has now taken to cutting items about diet pills out of the newspaper and presents them to me every time we visit. As I'm not vastly overweight, I feel a bit miffed but I think I've nipped it in the bud by stating that I wouldn't consider them as I'm on enough drugs already and I don't fancy having to take these pills for the rest of my life.

Maybe you're quite big? Hence why people comment more. My experience is no one comments on size. I'm not super slim. I'm average 12. Plus I take care of myself.

Obviously not all older women.

People were less worried about making offensive comments about appearance on the past.

I know young rude people too.

My aunt 70, is lethal, she is very rude and wears it like a badge of pride, she has always been rude and overweight herself.

Just because a comment is perceived as 'ageist', doesn't make it untrue.

OP, this is my experience of my (80 year old) mother and her similarly aged friends.

And, yes, I know she/they don't represent every single elderly person in the whole world, there are enough threads on MN around this very topic to suggest that it's very much a 'thing'.