Does anyone else have really old fashioned parents?

[Spoldge45]

My mum & dad are both 71, so not that old, but honestly, I feel as tho they are in their mid-eighties. They dont seem to have embraced anything post 1995.

They still take their camera film to the shop to be developed
They don't use the internet/have never brought anything online.
They don't have mobile phones (even tho not using one has caused issues in the past like last year when my mum fell over whilst out walking, & she was badly injured but had no way of contacting anyone. so had to wait to be found by a passer-by)

I'm just curious to see if this is so rare or if others have parents in a similar situation, who just refuse to embrace any form of technology.

My uncle gave my mum a mobile, but she wont use it. We brought them a tablet a few Christmases ago & spent ages showing them how to use it, but it just gathers dust.

As they are getting older I feel technology could be really useful to them. I worry about my mum going out alone without a phone as she has some health problems & is very unsteady on her feet, but despite my best efforts she wont use a mobile.

Is anyone else in a similar situation & do you have any tips? Thanks x

My parents were like this and my husbands parents too.
They are all no longer around now, but technology was not their bag at all.
Didn't even buy their own home and my dad didn't drive !
My late fil had a very basic mobile he never used.
I'm older than you are, so I guess my parents being this way isn't unusual for that generation, but for your parents at 71 to be this way is unusual I think. My siblings and spouses are late sixties and one is 71 , they are tech savvy and have the latest phones and I pads and laptops and all sorts! Very on the ball with all this.

This sounds like a nightmare- my parents are a bit older and use Apple Pay, Netflix, order food online etc.

I agree that it would be safer for them to use phones, so frustrating for you.

Sorry I can't help you.

I think that's unusual, tbh. My 87 year old dad has a smartphone, uses a tablet, shops online and takes digital photos. My mum is 85 and doesn't do any of those things, but could learn if she felt the need.

That does sound very unusual. My 89 year old has just bought herself a new iPad as her old one was on the go slow.

I think it’s unusual too.

My uncle and aunty are like this. ( early 80s). Neither of them has a mobile phone, let alone uses the Internet. It's a shame because one of them has recently been in hospital and, along with current visitor restrictions, it was a lonely time with out any phone and apps for entertainment!

My parents on the other hand ate much more with it. And in fact I remember my grandfather telling me about 30 years ago that his friends were so impressed and thought him very "with it" ....because he had a digital watch!!

@Spoldge45 same here. My mother refuses to use a mobile and wont go near the Internet. She still writes cheques and goes to the Council Offices in person “to pay the rates”. She won’t accept an automatic prescription renewal and insists on getting a paper prescription from the GP. It’s extremely frustrating. She is ripe for the picking for any half decent scammer.

Yep, my paremts are in their 60's and don't have the internet at home (otjer than on their phones). They don't use internet banking (will often drive to an actual bank to get an actual statement if they need to), still watch broadcast tv, use cd's/dvd's (I think maybe they even have a video player somewhere 😐) etc.

My dad was amazed recently when some of his work mates invited him to a coffee shop. He just couldn't get his head around the fact that people would go to a non pub based environment to socialise

They still have some shockingly old fashioned attitudes too re. Worki g mothers, single mothers, gender roles, slapping kids, mental health, enforcing prayer in schools (which is bizarre necause I've never seen either of my parents pray or go to church), climate change. Just batshit stuff really . It's like the past 30 years have never happened. They used to be quite normal back in the 90's, I swear.

The same. No internet, laptop, PC and although I bought them a cheap mobile it has stayed unused in a drawer… 🙄

My family are amazing at all this.
They 'what's app' and have computers and just generally on it all !
I doubt you'll change them now op.
My parents didn't change much about their life at all! My dad was very old fashioned all his life. The world went on around him whilst he still lived as they did in the 50s!

Yes, Dad is early 70s and Mum is mid 60s and they're hopeless. Mum has a phone but is deeply suspicious of calling charges and only uses it when she's inside the house Dad won't even entertain it.

They do have Sky. That's the only form of technology in the house really.

God, no. My dad is almost 90 and is a self. confessed “Apple freak.” Up to date with everything. Got an imac, iphone, ipad etc.

He’s just put his house on the market to move close to me and the estate agent thought his flat was owned by a 20 something because of the modern decor and all the gadgets.

My df is 90 and with a little help on the phone he can get on messenger and zoom
He texts more than I do.
He's just renewed his football season ticket.

My dad was 98 when he died last year.
He also had very ' old fashioned' views ;
Try explaining' gender fluid ' to him and you would have been there all day.
The internet was ' new fangled '
The only takeaway he ever ate was fish n chips
Sky was well , the sky !
Mobiles were for young people and BT was the only phone provider you could have. Or British gas.

Eating out never happened in my dads world.
Cars were once described as ' orange box on wheels' : it was the dark ages round my dads !

@Chwaraeteg

Yep, my paremts are in their 60's and don't have the internet at home (otjer than on their phones). They don't use internet banking (will often drive to an actual bank to get an actual statement if they need to), still watch broadcast tv, use cd's/dvd's (I think maybe they even have a video player somewhere 😐) etc.

My dad was amazed recently when some of his work mates invited him to a coffee shop. He just couldn't get his head around the fact that people would go to a non pub based environment to socialise

They still have some shockingly old fashioned attitudes too re. Worki g mothers, single mothers, gender roles, slapping kids, mental health, enforcing prayer in schools (which is bizarre necause I've never seen either of my parents pray or go to church), climate change. Just batshit stuff really . It's like the past 30 years have never happened. They used to be quite normal back in the 90's, I swear.

Yes! My mother is a firm believer that a woman’s place is in the home tending to a husband and kids. She uses racially offensive language (always prefaced with “I know you will say I shouldn’t say this but....” and will defer to a males opinion every single time. It’s exhausting and embarrassing.

I have an aunt and uncle a bit like this and a family friend too... doesn't even have a debit card

My in laws-we’ve just lost my fil but his phone was a brick,he didn’t trust direct debits,paid everything in cash and although he’d shop online,he’d only shop on Amazon-eBay was full of scammers and he refused to look elsewhere
My mother in law (who I love dearly) was a bit buggered when he passed away-everything is done online now and we’ve all had to come together to help her
She’d never been near the computer,pays for everything in cash,gave us her PIN number when we went to put a cheque in for her and when I ordered her some new slippers,she almost fainted as I got them from ‘scamming eBay’
We bought her a cheap basic smartphone and she’s really struggling to work out the complicated bits
Like turning it on and off (unless she’s on a call,it’s always turned off)
Picking up calls
Putting the phone down again
And she’s never sent a text in her life-but has just got to grips with reading them
She almost passed out when we set up an email for her-she seems to think that scammers can break into it and steal all her money

My mum is 72. Uses a smart phone, an iPad, Netflix etc, Hive for her heating. Drives all over the country alone (in normal times!). Her own DIY. Totally independent. I don’t have to do anything to help, other than re-set passwords occasionally. It always makes me sad when you hear of people so old before their time!

Not 'normal'. Even my 90 year old granny is competent on an iPad and has a mobile phone, facebook, watsapp etc. She is in a care home now and her being able to reach the outside world virtually honestly makes a huge difference to her wellbeing.

Both my parents are great with IT and v up to date on most mainstream things.
It's never too late.

It sounds like they are hindering themselves tbh.

Some larger libraries do weekly 1:1 sessions with a volunteer, to learn the v basics. But at this point I'd be suggesting paying for a tutor to come and give them more intensive lessons on basic IT / technology for a few weeks until they're going to be able to use it properly. I'd treat it like driving lessons to an extent! ..A bit of a PITA, expensive, you don't 'have' to but you kinda do if you want to get to where you need to be.. independently.

And these were the teens and young adults of the 60s and 70s, huge change, protests, woman’s rights, pop music mad aye. My dad likes tech etc, my mother wouldn’t know how to do anything, he does everything.

It's difficult to say - we have both end of the spectrum in our family. My grandparents are in their late 80s, both have iPads and iPhones, smart TVs with Netflix and britbox, currently asking my opinion on apple watches as my grandma thinks it would be useful if she had another fall. I usually have to set it up for them but after that they're pretty self sufficient.

My husband's grandmother has no internet won't use a debit card and pays everyone by cheque. Definitely no mobile phone.

I think what helped my grandparents embrace tech was a close friend had a stroke 15 years ago and now uses an iPad to communicate. They both really got into tech at that point as he found it hard attempting to the technology and his stroke injuries and they didn't want to be in that position should it happen to them.

My dad survived without all the tech to be fair.
I guess we all did.
You can't change some people.

Mine have only just turned 60 (so have had much of their working lives with computers and technology) and they’re a nightmare already. They will use phones/WhatsApp but they have no idea what they’re doing, can’t handle updates, don’t understand apps etc. They won’t use internet banking as they don’t trust it and so everything is drawn out of a cash machine. They don’t trust contactless and carry their cards in a little special wallet so people can’t take payments from their card as they walk. They’d never try and find a better deal on utilities or insurance as that’s ‘not the done thing’. I find it really frustrating actually as they’re more than capable of learning but their ways just make it harder all round. They watch far too many ‘consumer problems’ programmes and worry too much.

My parents died 5 years ago, at 83 and 85, very good internet wise, not so goood mobîle wise

My dad was unhappy when they stopped the insurance man coming round the doors for the money.
Pay it by direct debit? Are you mad ? Lol
Never looked for a better deal either. If it wasn't 'the pru' , then it wasn't any good!