To be fed up with the amount of old bashing that goes on

[CAM]

Its illegal to be ageist now

I think Carmenere's points are good ones.

What struck me the first time I saw a thread like that was that there had been 2 other recent threads in which someone had been horrible to a MNer. In one it was a new mum who snapped at a MNer for cooing over her baby. In another a woman with a mixed race child accused a MNer of racism for calling her child a cheeky monkey.
On both those threads, posters were not only sympathising with the MNer in question but also trying hard to find reasons why the horrible person had been horrible - maybe the mum had been up all night, maybe the woman with the child had been on the receiving end of deliberate racism. Whereas with the 'horrible old person' posts everyone just goes 'Yes, I had an experience with a horrible old person too, aren't old people horrible?'

So I take it by that, that you will be a very tolerable old woman when your time comes eh Cam?

Oh no I'm looking forward to being a grump

Yes, I said the same myself only yesterday. Of someone who was 62 - as if they were practically dead and repulsive with it.

i am surprised that people on mn think 50 is old

well i'm not really I think it is just a sign of an unsophisticated mind

I agree - I now deliberately avoid any thread which has any indication it's about old people in it because it's 99.99% going to be a slagging ground for them.

I'm looking forward to Gransnet! Wonder what we can replace fruitshoots with?

My mum is now 70 which has kind of made me readdress my previous preconceptions about old ladies (there's no way my mum is an Old Lady )
She has buddied up with an even older lady, and takes her shopping and having met this woman she has become a 'friend'. She is 80, single, childless, firecely intelligent, fierceley independant and shit scared about what will become of her. She is currently being treated for anxiety as she has nightmares (actual screaming, night terrors) about falling in her home and, because she has no family, lying there and slowly dying, in pain, starving etc.

I swear, I was so moved by talking to this woman, we have adopted her as an honorary grandma. my mum or I ring her every week just to check she's ok. She won't accept any 'help' or 'charity'.

I had an elderly neighbour who died alone, in near poverty, 5 months after her husband died. They had 4 children, none of whom lived nearby or appeared to visit often.

My God, this could be our futures...

I was astonished by a poster recently who didn't think 71 was young to die!

On a lighter note, I have been trying to get my df 79 to go to a local age active social club and his response, "No way! It's full of old people."

I think this is a really interesting subject actually as I have a good example of wide differentials in my own family. Mil is 76 and small minded and proud to be intolerant. Tbh the other day when an unfortunate mner encountered a racist old lady on the bus I felt it could easily be her and her biggest crime is that she is not a stupid woman. My dad is almost exactly the same age as her and whilst he can be grumpy and a bit intolerant of other peoples dc's he is very open minded and embraces the world he lives in iyswim.
Old people are just that, people. They are all different and I have said below why I think that some of them get bad press on mn. If this was some kind of hobby forum you just wouldn't get the same vitriol.

that's what my mum said when I tried to get her to join a over 50s walking group!

He says the men are ok, (He went out with them once) but the women outnumber the men and they don't half go on!

I think this is a growing problem - older and middle aged people often have a great deal of wealth in the form of their homes and pensions that most members of younger generations cannot now aspire to.

And in my experience at least, older people are generally unwilling to accept this, making remarks about childcare and housing choices that are really cruel when I would love to be able to stay at home with my children or even to be able to afford to live in a comfortable home with space for more!

I work in a university and there is a growing sense of resentment and bitterness amoung the students - what is the point in them working hard when they don't expect to ever have much to show for it?

This resentment can be offensive to those who were young in the 1960's and have a firm belief that things keep getting better and they have not made this country a worse place for their dcs. They would rather see young people like me as "unwilling to make the sacrifices" and unappreciative of "how hard we had it in our day" - because they "could not afford to go to university" and struggled to buy furniture for their first family-sized home.

These days we can afford the furniture but not a place to put it

I shall follow this with interest

I think if you read the thread on Dimbleby it is full of horror and disgust at his advanced age - hence reference to 'old grandad' etc
Jesus, he's having a baby with his wife who is an adult woman of over 30. It's hardly a crime.

no not a criem but i felt ewww

I want to apologise as someone who has posted a message 'old bashing' earlier today. I'd had a really bad day but I'm annoyed with myself that I could be so narrow minded. It wasn't the fact that the people who upset me were old - it would have upset me whoever they were. I'm sorry and thankyou for this thread which has made me think a bit.

no i dont care
i think a lto of old poeple hide behind thier age as a carte blanceh to behave in away that if form peopel of our age our youger woudl eb scandalous

Upwind, I think your students have a totally unrealistic idea of how people lived. My parents couldn't afford a home either. And plenty of people started married life - and families in tiny little flats with no heating and certainly no luxuries like televisions, washing machines, microwaves, instant hot water etc.

but my mum seems to think thta " invicotrian times pepopel loved 9 to a room" is a reson why we should be lucky
no times haev chnaged
we arent LUCKY

upwind is making some very important points there...

But Upwind there are many old people who are living on benefits in relative poverty..

More old people live in poverty than any other group!