Things your parents do

[rosemole]

They never hang up after a call and I can always hear them bickering in the background afterwards.

What else?

My dad calls the internet ‘the website’.

”Did you see the article on the website?” Er...

^
🤣

My parents have quite a modern TV set up... so firestick, prime etc, bbciplayer etc.

Want to watch a film... my mother can find it, no problem.

Insists on recording her daily episodes of soaps, old reruns, quiz shows etc, all available on the catch up service.

I know all about her friends husbands health issues.

Any health issue my children have, like needing glasses... is apparently her fault.

I love her... but the daily phone call is exhausting.

Oh! Me too!! Laughing our heads off over a cup of tea, what I’d give to do that again…❤️

I'm always puzzled by threads like this. Presumably most Mumsnetters have parents that are around 60? Or even younger. But they all seem to have the behaviours, attitudes and understanding of stereotyped OAPs from a 1980s sitcom. It's very weird.

Aren't most mumsnetters around 40, or older?

My parents are in their 70s and I'm only 38. They've seen massive advances in tech in their lifetimes, and sometimes do find yet another one a bit of a struggle. Other advances make their lives easier.

My parents are both dead now, he'd be 88, her 84.

My parents in law talk about which motorway/A roads they used to travel somewhere. I really couldn't care less. When I ask about their holiday, I want to hear about the holiday, not the route they took to get there.

Boiling meat before adding it to any type of sauce. It will never just go in raw and be allowed to cook that way!

@rosemole
Ah, the 'who died' conversation—that made me laugh 🤭. My mum sadly passed away, but whenever we talked, our go-to topic was always the same: Who died? Who was born? If there was nothing to report, we’d laugh and say there wasn’t any news worth sharing. It’s funny to think about now, and maybe it sounds strange to others, but it was our special little ritual. I miss her so much...

My mum constantly tells me how busy she is. Even though shes retired and was a sahm all her life. She then gives me a running list of everything whee had to do that day.

She's had to brush her teeth, have a shower, have her breakfast, walk the dog, go to the shops, vacuum, ring her sister, make her lunch, go back to the shop because she forgot something, go to see her friend, make a cup of tea and now she's got to make her tea and it's all too much and she's short of time.

Dhs parents, his mum just goes on and on about sils children, really mundane stuff too like "little Henry did 3 poos last week".
Also filling us in on the health of a bunch of people we've never heard of.

Fil just goes on and on about money and who's built an extension, who's got a new car, he's money mad.

Mil when she's on holiday keeps sending me photos, but it's never of the places she's visiting or even the places in the background it always a very close of selfie of her at a really awkward angle.

So they are literally holiday snaps but just a close up of mils face.

I don’t think they do. Mine is in her 80’s and from reading threads in here loads of others are similar ages.

When I send my dad a picture on WhatsApp, he sends it back when he has looked at it 🥰.

He also seems to think I must have no idea of anything that happened before my 18th birthday: "Do you know the Smiths?" - "Well, yes, they were our direct neighbors for 16 years when I still lived at home"
I have a very nice group of friends, but dad is always looking for new ones for me: "In my sports group, this one man has a daughter who is also 44. Do you want to meet her? I could ask him!"
My dad is the best ♥️

DH and I are late 70s. Threads like this should keep me alert to the types of conversations NOT to have. Hopefully my lovely DD will tell me if I get too bogged down in minutiae. 👍🏽

Yes! The bags!! I’m picking up my 86 year old Mum for Xmas later today. She’s coming for just four nights, but there will be a suitcase, large bag of presents (bless her!), several random bags for life and a cool bag containing a supermarket sandwich and a packet of crisps. I’ve never really been able to work out why.

My dad will kick off the conversation, "Do you know who died?"

World's worst guessing game.

He's always so pleased to have that little nugget of information for me.

Increasing deafness is exacerbating my mum's tendency to invent my side of the conversation. She'll have a very rewarding conversation in which she is largely inventing my share of the dialogue.

Seeing then later today and looking forward to it!

I'm always puzzled by threads like this. Presumably most Mumsnetters have parents that are around 60? Or even younger.

81 and 86 for me.

The 60 or even younger is getting on for my age.

I'm lucky to have both my parents still with me, we're incredibly close and I love them so much. But boy do a lot of the things on this thread ring true!

• My mum uses her laptop for WhatsApp so every message is 50 million lines long like an email. It's particularly annoying in groups.

• They both do the day of the week thing / trying to remember the name of the partner of a person you've never met / fixating on tiny detail. Manny's parents in Black Books does this joke to perfection.

• My mum rings within 3 minutes of a whatsapp if I don't reply and starts by calling everything urgent. It never is.

• My mum is convinced everybody is 'a bit low at the moment'

• There's one episode of Midsomer Murders my dad refuses to acknowledge he has seen multiple times. He's fallen asleep, granted, but also we've all seen it together lots of times. It's a funny, memorable one to us because it's about his pretty niche old job.

• My mum has become increasingly tight in recent years on really silly things and gets bothered and anxious about low cost things that are no bother at all. Last year she made a huge deal of getting chocolate oranges for her great grand-nieces & nephews and making sure each got the flavour she had in mind (she even wrapped them up and multiple phone calls were had). Previously she's spend £50 a kid. Yet they still spend about £50k a year on luxury holidays. There's no telling her she's being tight as 'they can't afford it' (they can).

I do love them!

PIL very rarely in the same room as their mobiles, no land line, the only reliable way to catch them is if they are in the car. And then it's 'why didn't you ring us sooner?'

Another

Whenever my mum comes over, she comments on the cleanliness or otherwise of the house and starts doing a bit of dusting, putting shoes away or similar.

She will do things like move things in my kitchen cupboards around 'to be more efficient'.

It's VERY annoying but even more annoyingly she's often right.

Why do you assume that? I’m early 40s, my parents are early 80s.

my late father was one for always telling me about people that had died but i had no idea who he was on about. Easier to agree.
funniest was when my parents gave us directions to places pre sat nav,
if it was mum it would be via garden centres ie turn left by Webbs keep going and you will see Wyevale thats got a nice cafe etc
with dad a former lorry driver it was worse he always had a weak bladder so it was toilets and strange places
turn left by the Lord Nelson pub which was knocked down in 62 (this was early 80s) keep going oh yes you will see this modern block of loos then go on until you get to Jessie Xs house you know her she spoke to your auntie Lena once in Tescos (don't know either of them) back to the Legion which shut down 20 years ago etc
Death was always the one. when my aunt and uncle visited it would get some food then settle down and you know the first words they spoke would be 'so who's died then?'

My fil is a conversation meanderer. Which drives my husband mad, he’s like the uncle on Derry girls. If my husband starts with a convoluted story a quick “ok grandad x” seems to do the trick!

We get these too! Sometimes they are videos! So you’ll get a 360 degree view of her and you might get a millisecond’s worth of a fraction of the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower behind her. 😂
We also get ‘this is where we are going’ night where we are treated to YouTube videos of other peoples holidays: ‘this is what the breakfast room will look like’, ‘that’s the garden viewed from the room. We’ve requested sea view’ 🤦‍♀️

My DM seems to think the phone only works in one direction (she never calls me) and when I call her, after 45 minutes of me replying “hmm” and “oh dear” and “gosh” to her tales of garden mayhaps, book club misunderstandings, the weather, neighbours’ ailments/deaths, will (apparently unironically) say well it’s been lovely to catch up, always so nice to hear your voice before I get a chance to tell her anything about my life. She will then be AMAZED next time she sees us that DS has lost a baby tooth. “You never said!!”