Have you noticed this with your parents as they’ve got older?

I’d say definitely not true. A big age gap affects you more as you get older. In my 40s I was in a relationship with a man in his 60s. Lasted 4 years. Eventually he started to get old man-ish and got on my nerves.

I think this happens when people have too much time and no significant worries. It's like there is a need to have a problem and in the absence of a 'real' problem mouldy blueberries will do!

My dad is lives alone and has few friends... I swear he switches phone / broadband providers in the hope it won't go smoothly so he will need to make multiple calls to customer service, go into town to the phone shop, write emails of complaint and then tell everyone he meets about how awful 'X company are, the minute details of the issues, and compare it to the previous switch 12 months ago.

It gives him something to do / talk about/ moan about!

why did you let your day be overtaken? I can assure that my retirement is not being wasted.

I think what someone said upthread about hobbies has made me think that I need something for my 70s and 80s. My 80 year old parents in law are out and about, mostly with our dog. But you do see that thing where one small task takes all day….or week.

I’m 62 , so can understand a bit from where your parents are . I’ve watched my own parents die as well as friends and relatives . Seen a lot of sad things in life and when you are in your 50s it’s a bit of a turning point. When I turned 60 it’s like reality hit and you start thinking differently.
instead of looking forward, you start thinking about what you haven’t done, regrets, and if you are going to be healthy in the years to come or suffer like maybe you’ve seen in older family members that have passed away .ive seen some harrowing stuff .

i have had a knee replacement and have arthritis, also health in general is starting to deteriorate . It’s really frustrating as inside my mind I’m still young, (I’m a ps5 gamer addict ffs 😂) just with a lot more experience in life .
We are in the middle of moving to a nicer quieter area , to make things easier , but that thought that not so great things are looming is never far from my mind .
Maybe that’s what you see in your parents ,money and being successful isn’t everything. Sorry to sound so depressing but I do get what you see in your parents

MIL is like this since retiring (had a high level City job so worked long hours and under stress) and I think it’s boredom/less to fill her world.

My mum is like this but she always has been. Shes 86 now and is constantly angry with everyone, moans all the time and now gets upset that no one wants to spend time with her. She’s even had three different cleaning companies walk out and refuse to work for her and i recently found out that all the gardeners in the area have put her on a blacklist because she’s so vile to them. My dad was the opposite.
cheerful, friendly, never complained. Even when he was very ill.

I think it can be partly memory issues - so worrying about which bin to put out and when...... but also anxiety, I have a friend who is sooo stressed about anything, she is on her own but I'm a couple of years younger and my attitude is more laid back - the garden will still be here whether you mow on a certain day or not, our house is 100 years old, it will survive the odd leak, loose slate, dripping tap, pointless having a melt down.
She is not fun to be around.

I notice I have also switched off about bad drivers, busy roads, too much rain etc etc - I'm a happy bunny

My parents are very recognisable versions of themselves when we were all younger. I’m older too. They just have a little more time to think about things. My mum will bang on about VAR and my dad about the ‘state’ of the UK. TBF if either of them started talking about mouldy blueberries I’d just say something like ‘puts X into perspective doesn’t it’, then we’d all move on.

Mine are 80s and largely content and grateful for the life they have but are disproptionally irate at mknor things such as when bin doesn't get collected or cold calls. After a couple of rants I avoid them on those occasions and they got the message and rant to each other!

I don’t think it’s necessarily an age thing, rather a time thing. My sil is the same since she gave up work after having dc. They’ve grown up and now everything is now a ‘drama’. Queue at the post office, no bread at the corner shop, run out of cornflour - a few of this week’s ranting issues.

I'm the same age as your parents. I am not like they are at all! I am pretty relaxed about most things nowadays.

Mine are like this. It makes it hard work when I see them. Anything I tell them they mange to put a negative spin on. I already feel like I am trying to manage a family, house job and older parents so the constant negativity is draining

Mine are pretty positive unless they start talking politics, then it’s all boat people and tax talk. My mum reads the telegraph which doesn’t help.

I totally agree, although this isn't something that is particular to the elderly.

And if you can, wean them from the Daily Mail (this will be pretty much impossible). Reading hate and bile every day is not going to make them any happier.

This is a skill that could be harnessed for good - get them to run for parish/town council - they’re just the people to get things done. If they weren't always like this are they getting enough exercise? I notice mine and my DP’s moods dip if we’re not getting out regularly, even if it’s just for a walk.

I think the loss of confidence and increased anxiety is definitely a common change that I have observed. Also, the elderly are often being phased by minor things and jobs take far longer.
All these things are completely understandable though.

The negativity, angriness, unhappiness and making fairly routine things into a nightmare and being demanding over them are more specific to the OP's parents and personality related imo.

My inlaws do the house thing. Pouring money into their house doing unnecessary renovations they'll never make back. Its like a hobby for them. They're in their 80s and their world has definitely because smaller through health concerns but they don't seem to sweat the small stuff. I think that may be more to do with personality traits rather than age.

I definitely don't think this a general thing as people age, not.
What does seem to have happen sometimes is that certain characteristics, often flaws become exacerbated. I would guess that your parents have always tended to be negative, glass empty type people who don't cope with change/inconcenience well. It sounds as if they have been very fortunate in life so far and are very well off so perhaps you haven't noticed it so much before as they have been well cushioned from problems.
Your parents do sound very tedious and tiring @Thesleer. Can you encourage them to do some volunteering or something to distract them from their own minor concerns?

No, not all people get like this. My late parents were pretty happy and content until they died in their late 80s, and didn't stress much about things. DF was a bit of an overthinker, but he'd always been like that.

I'm the same age as your parents OP and I don't stress much, and although I will be renting for the rest of my life, and the money I have in the bank is going to run out some day, I am happy and content with my life.

No. The women I know who married older men all left them when they got older. So much for true love. One left coz her husband developed a habit where he started jiggling his legs about and making grunting noises when sitting on the sofa. 😂

Maybe you should encourage rhem to do some volunteering. They sound a bit self absorbed.

In my opinion moaning about petty things like blueberries is a sign that they don’t have enough going on in their lives! What do they do to fill their time, do they have hobbies, sports or activities they do either separately or together? Do they go to classes, to learn or develop skills, or to be creative? Do they garden, volunteer, are they active in their community? If they were busier and had more things to keep themselves busy they wouldn’t have time or the energy to be moaning and whining.

I am slightly older than your parents and am really looking forward to tomorrow because it is the first day for well over a week that I don’t have anything planned to go to outside the house and am looking forward to slopping about!

Agreed. Same with my folks. Plenty of cash, assets and little to do but fettle and fuss - what would be low level worries, or even not a worry at all, is amplified and castrophised and becomes a massive thing. They get stressed or fixated over a small thing, such as an MOT, and what would take you or me an hour, is a whole day event. Its frustrating I know. My Dad's always made himself busy but been easy going and he admitted recently he worries in the mornings about what he's going to do for the day. He started recently (South Manchester) Men in Sheds which is a voluntary group that helps to reduce social isolation in older members of the community. MiS provides a setting where people can socialise, work together, learn new skills and share their own and hes found his "people" building stuff within the community..but its not a fix all and he still has his days....