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!

MIL refuses to believe she's wrong to be rude and nasty to people, w WB her own children and grandchildren. She's a total narcissistic witch 🧙🏿‍♀️

😂😂

Me too! Instagram is also a mystery to me.

That DH does all the meal planning, shopping and cooking in our household.

I'm possibly not as quick to correct this impression as I really ought to be… 😂

That I don't like mushrooms or quiche.

That you can keep your tickets on your phone and just use the QR or bar code to get in. You don't have to print off reams of paper with your tickets on there. DM takes a file on holiday with her!

That it is possible to order from the link I send you (the thing your GChild wants for her birthday) and you order it yourself, not send a bank transfer to me to order it for you to send back to me for your GChild's birthday. Just order it and have it sent to me!

That cats aren't scary, just bossy (Ddad).

Just what I was thinking.

Oh I love a bit of MN ageism on a midsummer evening.

You all should listen to yourselves. It'll come to you soon enough. Well, you have to hoe you'll get old - the alternative's worse.

Exactly

Snap, @TreesAtSea !

My frustrations with DM and technology is that she conciously and oh so cleverly decided in her 50s/ 60s that technology was a nonsensical fad and she'd have nothing to do with it. She had teenagers/ 20 somethings in the house that could have helped her get a reasonable foundation, and then life took off and left her in 1996. The internet is evil, yet the reality is that she has to then be dependent on her similarly aged friends or DB to function and internet for her. It's not about her age, it's about being stubborn and blinkered.

It's now left her very difficult to get in touch with as she's too hard of hearing to hear the phone any more.

She also never learned to declutter and let go of rubbish, and the house is now unpleasant and unmanagable for the rest of her days, including being filled with unusable furniture. I gave up trying to help with it many years ago because she couldn't let anything out.

The two combined have become a massive wedge in our relationship.

My mum just can't grasp the difference between private messaging on FB messenger and someone writing on their wall. If she sees something on her wall she thinks only she can see it. I'm like no mum all friends can see that but she thinks she's been pm'd. Doesn't matter how many times I explain it she doesn't get it.

Water. Just drink the fucking water. It's right there, in a jug with a glass.

Hopefully they will never learn that you are mocking them on this incredibly nasty "lighthearted" ageist thread.

Your dad sounds like an absolute hero! I love his response.

Oh gawd, I think we might have been
separated at birth!! My mum literally has no appreciation for anyone who would want to do something that she wouldn’t enjoy!!

Ddad
yes you still have to pay your mobile phone bill every month, no turning your phone off and not using it for a month doesn't mean you don't have to pay 🤦‍♀️

How to use a mobile phone. My mother has one but I don’t think it’s ever come out of the kitchen drawer.
How to pay using a debit card. She uses cheques or cash only and creates a scene when a shop won’t take them.
She can use her laptop to send and receive emails and read the news but that’s the limit. Online shopping is a complete nonstarter.
Early 70s and highly educated and highly intelligent retired professional.

No need to wonder my kids already think I'm a dinosaur im 32! 😂 they will explain how something works and when I say I already know they will say yeah cuz I just told you. kidsplaining is now a thing 😂

What I find most disconcerting is that most of the parents being talked about must be 60 at the most. Probably much younger...

Anyone wonder what our kids will be saying about us in future?

DD finds the slow speed that I text at is hilarious.

@saveforthat my parents don't give me or my family surprise presents. They ask me what is wanted then I send them a link, and they then go through the rigmarole I describe. I am not entitled etc I am just responding to their request.. They can say yes or no, no obligation. I posted in the spirit of the thread, and you have made it sound like I'm a grabby mare, without even knowing me. I hope whatever is causing you to feel so negatively against complete strangers gets better. Have a nice day.

@TheCyclingGorilla 👏 It’s completely acceptable and commonplace to manage gifts like this.

People should be aware that not every family does things the same way. It doesn’t make the people who do things differently to you guilty of being awful people. For goodness sake.

All the cries of ageism are not valid IMO. Is it ageism for parents to talk about their children and the things they do as infants/primary children/teens? No. And neither are the things on this thread.

As has already been pointed out, people are posting specifically about their own parents - there is no generalisation there!

And even through the annoyance, most people have the underlying humility and understanding that they will in turn cause frustration to the younger generation when they are a few decades older because, apart from the worse alternative, we are all heading towards older age.

I’m older than that and usually have to explain to my undergrads how to do anything computer or app related. I much more about most of the things mentioned on this thread than 19 and 20 year olds know.

Stupid ageism is one thing you can always rely on in MN.

“Also She'll also hopefully never learn it was me and now my sibling who dinged the car twenty years ago!”

That is mean.