Are older people obsessed with commenting on other peoples weight?

Not everyone of course! And there’s a big difference between a 60 year old and a 90 year old - as in, you know, 1/3 of their life!! But yes, I think some elderly people project onto others because there are medical concerns about their own weight loss or gain.

My MIL is like this! "She's huge... Look at the size of him... Etc etc." and not quietly either!!

OMG, Noooo!. It's people who have nothing else to talk about!! Sadly that does include some over 60s, but also a great number of younger people too.

I'm in my 70s, and would never comment unless someone asked me. Neither do my friends (60s and 70s) or my Mum (90s), my siblings, or my cousins (all over 60). I mean, who cares? We've got much better things to discuss!!

My late grandmother would screech LOOK AT THE FATTY if an overweight person walked past. She was born in 1925 and fat people were a novelty for much of her life.

my mother (70s) and I (50s) have noticed how much bigger people are nowadays but we keep our mouths firmly shut. I do feel sad when I see obese children - a lifetime of health issues most likely beckoning - but I’d never in a million years say anything.

Maybe it’s your family though. And maybe it’s the families of other posters who feel compelled to describe their families’ behaviors. You yourself are happy to throw an adverb like ‘shitily’ around. Maybe it’s a your family thing.

Most of my friends are around the sixty mark, give or take, and really couldn’t care less what others look like.

Yes - all the older women in my family comment on weight constantly, it's something I've noticed

My nan has commented on my weight my whole life. Even telling me I need to hurry up and lose weight before we visited family in America because my cousins out there were smaller than me!! Felt like I was such an embarrassment to her

Well people have got fatter; so if you are elderly that will be noticeable. It was much more acceptable to comment on weight gain even in the 80s. Plus there is some evidence that brain changes as you get older can mean you have less of a filter.. so maybe? 60 seems a bit young for the latter though.

Is it just weight though?
I feel that older people just tend to be more blunt then younger generations (less concerned about offending or triggering others).

As somebody with no filter I much prefer brutal honesty TBH.

I have never been overweight. The comments I got as a teenager were along the lines of "ooh, aren't you skinny" from people my own age.

Guess you don't get out much. I think of my aging families who have got more manners than to say anything about anyone's weight.

I agree OP - and all those over 60s on here who say it’s not them are just getting shitty for nothing! Both my mother, and my MIL, plus my grandma when she was alive constantly comment on people’s weight, hair, clothes etc and I know from my friends’ experience it’s not just my family. I think the younger generations are a bit more polite and also more accepting of people who are fat (probably because so many people are these days 🤷‍♀️)

But trends do exist, and observing them is part of us being human. The fact you haven’t observed this particular trend in older people doesn’t mean that it a) doesn’t exist or b) that OP is ageist.

Surely anyone can understand that a trend or generalisation is just that. It’s implicit that there are shades of grey and it’s not an all or nothing statement. And shutting down a discussion on it seems unnecessary.

to be fair it does seem like as some people age they lose their filter.

much older than 60 mind.

It's literally the title of your thread 😂 i really don't think you can reasonably say that you didn’t state that all "older" (60+!!!) people are obsessed when it is what you chose as the title of your post!

This is my experience with my Dad, Mum and Step Dad. I've gone low contact with my Dad because he can't stop himself trying to belittle me over my weight in front of my kids. I won't tolerate it.
My Mum and Step Dad seem better recently (they can't agree my Dad is unreasonable if they're also guilty, although with them it was less malicious). I've had to ask my mum to stop commenting on other peoples weight in front of my 7yo though.
My Mum seems unable to relax about her weight and will probably be on a diet till the day she dies.

My mum has mentioned my weight for the last 40yrs. Her nickname for me as a teenager was "chubby" so much so that when i visited her office once they wouldnt belive it was me, I was never more than a 8/10.

Anytime i tipped over a size 10, id be told i was fat.

During Covid i went from an 8 to16. I was told i was too fat to get in the car, to be careful i didnt hit the other cars with my stomach and other vile stuff. It reached a head when she told my teenage boys how fat i was and laughed.

it was all done under the guise of "im joking" etc. And that generation thought it was ok. My 2 cousins ended up anorexic.

But if you were born within 20 years of WW2, you are likely to have been brought up by parents who grew up during that war, with the social norms of that war.

I’ve been thinking about this today. I’m currently in Brittany. No one is fat at all. I am, I’m a good 20-22. I was brought up by b. 1933 parents. They were frugal, yet leapt upon 70s convenience food, while commenting how ‘no one was fat during the war’. I suspect they would have become quite large if it weren’t for a life time of heavy smoking!

Here's another thread title for you:

Are younger people obsessed with commenting on the age of those who comment on others' weight?

If you are fixated on age as a source of generally being a less rational, sane and humane person than younger people, then naturally you are going to notice all the examples of older people being a bit crap, and to give them more weight than examples of younger people being a bit crap.

Also, it is hard for older people in hospital to deal with the fact that they are viewed by the staff through the prism of hostile ageist stereotypes. One solution to the difficulty, if you are an older patient, is just to play along with the younger person's expectations. To be the dotty old superficial unperson that the younger person is expecting to deal with, and to talk trivia.

Agree op. My gran and my mother in law are very rude about weight and act shocked by/comment loudly on obese people in the street etc

Might be worth bearing in mind that it would have been simple to go to the GP, say you were tired and wanted to lose a bit of baby weight and come out with a prescription for amphetamines in the 50s and 60s (and then tranquilisers to address the insomnia arising from it), to be taken with your 6am black coffee and third cigarette (of about 80) of the day.