What is one thing your parents will never learn?

[TwoManyKids]

Light hearted!
My mum refuses to learn the difference between the WiFi and mobile data. She runs her data down at home (messing around with settings and accidently turning off wifi) and obsessively hounds waiters/baristas for WiFi codes when we are out! I keep telling her she is paying for data and she can use it!
What is something your parents can't get their heads around?
Also She'll also hopefully never learn it was me and now my sibling who dinged the car twenty years ago!

That the point of a mobile phone is that it’s mobile. You take it with you from room to room, not leave it in the kitchen and have to get up every time you hear a message come in.

The complete opposite of this. I do not walk around my home with my mobile surgically attached to me. And no I have not had a fatal accident because I didn't reply straight away. I bloody hate mobile phones and everyone's expectations they can have instant access to you. I purposely leave mine on silent out of site as I don't want to be bothered numerous times a day.

Cash machines were around in 1977, how on earth has she survived?

My dad hasn't either - actually he has used a cash machine on holiday abroad when there's no alternative, i.e. bank branch to go into, but he's never sent a text, doesn't have a mobile, won't use the internet at all - though he's happy enough for others to do things for him - and he really doesn't understand how many things work these days🙄. He also still writes letters.

My late DM never had a bank card, cheque book or used a cash point. She withdrew cash from the bank as and when or raised a bankers cheque for a big purchase eg new carpets, decorator etc.
She didn't have direct debits or standing orders either. Just paid up front at the bank usually on the same day that a bill arrived.

My DM has always been a housewife so has no idea of how hard it is to juggle a full-time job, children and life admin.

She has always been 'looked after by men. First my dad and now her 2nd husband. She has no idea how to MOT a car, buy a ticket online, sort house insurance or anything. I find it sad and infuriating in equal measure (and do wonder what will happen if her husband dies first).

She also refuses to pay for anything such as Netflix or Sky, etc. then moans that there's nothing to watch. Before anyone says anything... she is very wealthy, just won't spend it!

My mum (early 60s) will not use google maps or even her old trusty Sat nav for driving. She refuses to drive anywhere she doesn't know where it already is. Eg a little community centre in our local area is slightly off the beaten track, in that it's located in a park just off the main road and you wouldn't know it's there unless you look for it. It has it's own car park, clearly signposted, nice wide lanes etc, nothing really scary about getting there. It's approx 2 mins from my house and 5 mins from hers, she literally drives past it every day to work. She offered to collect my dc after a club one night, then when I told her where it was she changed her mind. 'Ooh no I wouldn't know where that is, never mind.' I told her exactly where it was and offered to show her on her phone map, but she just refused. Last year she offered to take one of my dc to the cinema about 15 mins away from our area. She drives regularly to the garden centre directly opposite the cinema. She did 2 practise drives to be sure she'd know where to go. It's baffling! If I'm going somewhere new she'll say 'so brave of you to go there'. I hope I never become like that, her world must be so small.

My mobile stays in my handbag, and lives there pretty much all of the time. That means I know where my phone is. It very rarely rings, and I don't get all that many texts. If I carried it from room to room it would be the same as my reading glasses, I'd spend half my life trying to find the damn thing.

Always amazed at how many Mumsnetters have nonagenarian parents.......

That you don't need to say your number if someone's ringing you.

(they don't of course - but if anyone listens to Tom Wrigglesworth, you'll know what I mean )

Sheffield 61977

Always amazed at how many Mumsnetters have nonagenarian parents.......

Why? I think the average user is probably in their 50/60s

This made me laugh alot!! 😃 But I'm intrigued how he did it, was it on top inside or underneath??

My mum won't use online/digital banking or order anything online.

She wants me to order online for her. I did at first but after she wanted a £300 item I declined and haven't ordered her anything online since.

She says that at 81, you just got for it and if there's a problem, ''there's always a nice young man who will help you out!'🤣

One of the few benefits of getting older, I find.

This!! It drives me bloody mad as they then moan about how they have ended up stuck in traffic “because the roads were clear when we looked online before we left home”! Arrrrrrgggghhhhhh!

That Neuro diverse kids aren't being naughty or awkward on purpose

Agree with this so much! My phone is permanently on silent, unless I am expecting a pre-arranged call. The phone is for my convenience, not the other way around! I leave it in a different room for hours, especially at the weekend. And people who take their phone even to the dinner table need to learn some manners.

Yeah, me too. I've been stuck behind the couple whose phone won't load their boarding passes at the gate ...

Do you have my mother??
Snap!

@groupery "Why? I think the average user is probably in their 50/60s"

Really? That will certainly make me look at the breastfeeding threads with different eyes....

How to apologies or even admit they could ever do or be wrong about anything.

I have a sister I never knew existed until now.....

Not my parents but my in-laws - how to pronounce my name. It’s an easy name to pronounce, just two syllables. But they can’t, they say, so they use the diminutive, which I never use and don’t really like. DH and I have been together for 20 years!

This!

My Mum cannot do anything online, bank, shop or email refuses point blank to learn how to use a computer! She can send a basic text from her non smart phone mobile.

My Dad can browse the internet and send a simple email. He refuses to bank or buy anything online though. Has a basic mobile, but does not like texting.

Their lives would be so much easier if they moved with the times and embraced tech and being online . They’d save so much time and hassle doing online shopping and banking.

They queue up in person at the bank each Monday and write a cheque to withdraw cash for the week! They do have debit cards, but refuse to use them!

How to say 'Prosecco'.
It's not 'PROSH-ECCO!'

My Dad (81) can't do anything on-line anymore. Insists on calling to speak to a person, which never works because he's hard of hearing! Generally doesn't really understand how the world works now, or how many plates me and my sibling are constantly spinning, so that he can exist. Everything just magically "happens".

He insisted on getting a smart phone, but never knows where he is on it, for eg. doesn't understand the difference between being in the text message thread of all messages, and actually viewing one message, or how to go back from being in a message to looking at all the messages.

It was a nightmare when he had to give me the One Time Passcode for on-line banking, I could hear the "ping" of the code being delivered to his phone, and without fail, he would say "haven't got it" and I would say "I just heard it get delivered", followed by much confusion. In the end I changed his mobile number to mine.

I think it's coming to us all, to be honest. I can't imagine keeping up with all the developments until I'm 90, or whatever.

DH's grandad used to think that the remote for the garage door, was the TV control. Neighbours constantly calling, to say that Tommy's garage door has been opening and closing for the last hour. 🙄

I'm early 50's and I just can't fathom Twitter. It just all looks like rambling nonsense to me with thousands of hashtags. Can't get my head around it. Seems juvenile. I've given up on it.