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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To start a thread for grumpy old ladies who think things aren't what they used to be

358 replies

susanstryingterm · 11/06/2015 11:23

I'm probably a bit older than the average age on here, and totally emphasised with someone who said, in slightly despairing tones on a thread yesterday 'I sometimes think nobody knows how to behave anymore'.

So:

I think children should stand up for older (60+) people on public transport.
I think weddings should be a 'cut your cloth to suit your measure' exercise.
I think children should be called in by 9pm at latest during the Summer, so that neighbours can get some consideration.

OP posts:
morningtoncrescent62 · 13/06/2015 18:12

Quite so, Trisagion. I also hate the expression 'she fell pregnant'.

I haven't had time to read all the pages since I was last here. Have we had leaky headphones on public transport yet? I give you leaky headphones blasting everyone on the bus/train with tuneless 'music' worn by children who refuse to stand for older people. Hatrick!

Squeegle · 13/06/2015 18:46

Oh lewiji you just haven't got it have you

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 13/06/2015 18:54

She definitely has got it.

Lweji · 13/06/2015 18:57

lewiji

Who's that anyway? I haven't see that pp on the thread, nor Squeegle for that matter. Hmm

What is it that she doesn't get?

Squeegle · 13/06/2015 19:28

What I was trying to say, maybe too subtly is that you don't HAVE to argue about everything.
Even though it's AIBU, this is a nice fun, yes quite lighthearted thread, and by taking everything far too literally and arguing the toss about whether things exist now or then or that your own child behaves impeccably today, you're taking away any fun elements

Lweji · 13/06/2015 19:31

It looks like it's you who hasn't got it, then.

lydiarobinson · 13/06/2015 20:14

Why are some posters determined to stifle this thread. So much intolerance!

I miss the days when swimming pools automatically came with changing cubicles. I really don't want to get dressed and undressed in a communal space. Not a nice experience at all.

BigChocFrenzy · 13/06/2015 20:22

I hate the graffiti spoiling so many public spaces. I think I first saw graffiti when I went to London Uni mid-1970s, but it suddenly spread to most towns & villages.

People dropping litter on pavements & benches. Supermarket trolleys and plastic bags dumped in the Thames, looks horrible and spoils the habitat for the swans & ducks.

Constant noise, music blaring.
People texting and ipadding when in company, rude and isolating.
So much more traffic and very aggressive.
Most adults and kids travel even short distances by car, instead of walking.

Children have lost the freedom to roam on their own for hours as I did 1960 onwards. Their horizons have been shrunk and they are so restricted

Most of us live in little boxes with tiny rooms - ordinary people had space that now only the wealthy can afford.

British Rail. Privatisation has been a disaster.
The NHS was not stretched when I was growing up and staff were not abused by managers and public.

Men urinating in the street - also, there used to be more public loos open.
The pressure on women, especially young ones, to fit a certain body image.

Rampant consumerism, I pity the poor parents who struggle to give their kids the same as their schoolmates, so they won't feel humiliated. I grew up very poor, but I think it's tougher now to be respected.
Importing the school prom, baby shower etc from the US, all involving extra spending we didn't have before.

On the positive side, I'm very glad of the advances in human rights and in science & medicine.

lydiarobinson · 13/06/2015 20:36

Knowing shopkeepers and exchanging a bit of pleasantry and chat. Nowadays if you do that you will probably have some unpleasant angry young person in a rush huffing and puffing behind you because you have taken up three minutes of their precious time.

Encountered an appalling woman in Tesco recently who objected to the fact that everyone at the self check out wasn't going at the speed of light. She was accompanied by her young son, and I felt so sorry for him.

Squeegle · 13/06/2015 20:48

When I was at school, we were sold: peanuts, cheese and onion crisps, salt and vinegar crisps or jammy dodger at breaktime! All two and a half new pence I believe. Funny isn't it?

Squeegle · 13/06/2015 20:49

What I mean is - it's funny how in the seventies the schools actually sold these things and we were all thin, and now schools ban them, and we're all plump! How does that work?

LarrytheCucumber · 13/06/2015 21:06

When did children stop being children and become 'kids'?

lydiarobinson · 13/06/2015 21:07

I went out to the communal bin sheds just now with some rubbish and asked two lads who were jumping up and down on the roof and making a lot of banging noise if they could stop. They apologised immediately and got down. I am still in shock!

lydiarobinson · 13/06/2015 21:08

My parents often called us 'the kids', and I am ancient.

elementofsurprise · 13/06/2015 21:10

Ooh I've thought of some more!

People having the TV on all the time... not even just watching something whilst doing something else, but permanently on while you're having a chat or they're not in the room...

YY to self-checkouts - hate them! They always go wrong, even though I follow the instructions! Stupid patronising computer voice too!

Also in supermarkets, stupid wheeled baskets instead of normal ones you can actually comfortably carry. (One stack for people who genuinely need them, fine.) I mean, surely get a trolley if you're buying so much you can't carry it? People are always milling around tripping each other up with those things... which brings me to:

Wheeled suitcases below a certain size. I actually saw a woman get out of a taxi with a very small wheeled suitacase, pull out the handle, and pulled the thing literally about 3 metres to her door (no front garden/path.) I mean, it was more effort than just picking the damn thing up! They are so irritating, especially on Tube trains. Or anywhere with a lot of people - airports where everyone has these things, the queues are longer just from the space they take up! Although I get a smug sense of satisfaction at stairs when I sail by with my rucksack and everyone else is stuck like Daleks for a moment

Oh, and when did the word 'literally' stop meaning 'literally'?

GRR.

Loafline · 13/06/2015 21:14

Why are some posters determined to stifle this thread. So much intolerance! Grin the irony i hope! the whole thread is intended to be intolerant!

elementofsurprise · 13/06/2015 21:14

LarryTheCucumber On this programme: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00sydsh/a-city-crowned-with-green children are referred to as "kids" and it was first broadcast in 1964!

Don't really like the word myself though!

ChwatFeechers · 13/06/2015 21:15

Wonder when grumpy people will stop lamenting the fact that 'the good old days' were so much better? Happens with every generation.

mypoosmellsofroses · 13/06/2015 21:22

Oh yes, music in restaurants ...other night we took ds and 2 friends to Pizza Express, couldn't hear yourselves think, let alone have a conversation. Dh asked them to turn it down - cue 3 x 17 year olds cringing with embarrassment at being out with such old farts. But they did turn it right down :)

halfwayupthehill · 13/06/2015 21:26

I hate how shop assistants no longer say "that'll be x amount please". They just sit there silently.
I hate how some people think they have the right to their personal electronic devices, checking Facebook constantly at work, streaming music at work or watching videos on public transport with no earphones
I hate how I am expected to check my work blackberry 24/7

NickAngel · 13/06/2015 21:27

I lament the loss of 'ladies' 'madam' and 'gentlemen' as ways of addressing people. I can't stand the "hi guys" one gets from shop and restaurants and idiots on The Apprentice.
I am not a guy, my family is not 'guys'

LarrytheCucumber · 13/06/2015 21:30

elements of surprise perhaps that is when the rot set in Wink.

LarrytheCucumber · 13/06/2015 21:32

Oh no, I can't stand 'guys' either, especially as I am a 63 year old grandmother and I most definitely do not look like a 'guy'.

Thymeout · 13/06/2015 21:37

Cars being sold with all sorts of gadgets I'm never going to use - but no spare tyre.

Self-service - my bank now has only one till, for foreign exchange. And M&S has just replaced its 2 fast-track lanes with machines. No, it isn't quicker. Everyone has to wait while I find my glasses to read the screen and drop things.

Cinemas are too loud! As are many of the audience. And the smell of the food they sell. And the litter they leave behind.

'Being tidy down there?' Just gives teenage girls yet another thing to worry about.

lydiarobinson · 13/06/2015 21:55

You sound very angry Loaf. Maybe this thread isn't for you as you really don't seem to understand it's intent.