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

[CAM]

Its illegal to be ageist now

Enid, No - that's how I see it, and I'm pretty amazed by some of it...they're just so radical and rebellious and positive while the floppy, droopy pinch-faced young mums moan and whinge and smoke and bear the full brunt of bringingup a family in an area of rural deprivation....but I have to admit that my Mum does tut tut at some of the gossiping that goes on amongst the ones who are...older than her!

I also think that older people over estimate how lucky we are to be able to enjoy central heating, television, ipods etc.

So many of us have to work long hours and spend precious hours commuting every day - we feel pressured and time poor.

If sacrificing modern technology gave me the opportunity to stay at home and live as part of a community where I felt my children were safe I would take it!

Even if it meant frozen toothpaste and pretty ice patterns on the inside of the bedroom windows (things I enjoyed growing up in the 1980's btw).

I'm sure I read somewhere that social inhibition and ability to empathise dwindle in old age due to changes in the brain itself - not in all old people, though, and always relative to their basic personality/kindness/social awareness lifelong.
I have noticed that my parents and MIL (and my friends say this too) are more forthright and harsher about situations that in middle age they would have responded to tactfully and more charitably.
It's all tied in with the poem about wearing purple and heckling people...
Anyway, I guess that the small minority of abusive older people we hear about on here sometimes are the minority. I know a lot of old people, through our church mainly, and they are warm-hearted, shrewd, funny and argumentative. Try running a Fair-Trade stall in the church hall and being ganged up on by that lot
I find it upsetting too CAM, and did find the comments about John Humphreys troubling. I work somewhere where talented individuals are still making a worthwhile living into their seventies and eighties and they are all at the least interesting company.

We've got radical and rebellious ones too Blu

in response to the op, my only gripe with old people is how down right rude most of them are.
i would not dream of being rude to an old lady for no reason, why do they feel they can be rude to me?
they are not the only age group that struggle with money but becuase most of them do, that seems to be their permit to be rude.

upwind - i'm not that old. well, early 40s i appreciate what you're saying about the impossibility of getting reasonable housing. where i live it's been a problem for a very long time. i don't understand why the government doesn't have schemes to help young people onto the housing ladder. i have campaigned where i live and they are considering shared equity schemes. is there anything in the uk?

about people being harsh and lacking in tact

I've noticed that people in their twenties and thirties are far harsher and more tactless than I was at that age

it shocks me sometimes

"my only gripe with old people is how down right rude most of them are."

So, no ageism there then LadyoftheFlowers........?

And Upwind, our parents and grandparents worked just as long if not longer hours than many in our generation. And with less rights and benefits that exist today - also less annual leave and Bank/Public holidays let alone the really important stuff.

Fair enough, they perhaps didn't commute to the same extent.

They didn't commute as far, but given that most of them would have walked to work, many would have just as long as day if not longer.

And workers rights were nothing like as good.

My grandfather broke his back while woking in a mine. His compensation? To be allowed to pick waste coal from the tip.

I said that 71 (or whatever) isn't 'old to die', or 'no age to die', on the thread Mhamai refers to. Of course it is sad and whatnot that people die at whatever age, they are loved, and missed, and grieved for, whether they are 4 or 104.

Someone commented that 71 was 'young to die' [para]. It absolutely ISN'T, in fact the average life expectancy for a male in the UK is 76.1 (expected to increase to 78.6 years by 2010), according to MSN encarta (2006 estimate). Therefore a man dying at 71, is actually only 5.1 years from the ball-park 'life expectancy' figure for his gender (male) and country of residence (uk).

statistically speaking, it isn't young to die, I mean

hhmmm...this is a tricky one. i do think SOME old people conform to grumpy stereotypes eg i have often been made to feel v uncomfortable by elderly people tutting etc, on the bus when buggy takes up seating space. but...they are also some of the most likely to be friendly and chatty with the LOs.

old people are like young people. Some are nice and some are arseholes, most are just average.

Why make assumptions based on age when we would be horrified if people made assumptions based on race, religion or gender.

Try replacing old people in this quote with, say, Asian people

"my only gripe with old people is how down right rude most of them are."

how does that read? Fairly offensive, no?

Agree with matianbishop,the thing is old people are generally conveyed as either "nice old biddy" or "cantankerouse old witch".We lumo them into one or the other and are shocked when they don't conform to our preconception of them.

Yes I know what you mean Noonar, but what I object to is the language used - old bag/hag/witch/bint etc.

And then some people not understanding that our parents and grandparents did have a harder life than many of us do today, that is in terms of rights and benefits.

I am not excusing rudeness in any age group!

my mom and dad are lovely ,way too nice for their own good really.I have been out with my mum and had people tutting because she cant walk that fast now and they cant get by.But where the manners just to say excuse me.Interesting to see how fast they will be walking at 77!

I just get really worked up with the whole thing.

Pensioners are treated like second rate citizens,my dad fought for this sh*y country in the second world war along will loads of other men and women but never talks about it .So how come we have to hear how hard done by everyone is today.

Yes I too remember the coal fire,no central heating ,ice inside the windows, no fitted kitchen,handme down clothes, woodchip wallpaper and I am 37.But I bet most elderly people have memories far worse than those.

Sometimes I wish my mum and dad were rude to people as some people deserve it back but unfortunatley they treat others how they would like to be treated themselves.

Maybe thats something we should all ponder on.

Gripe done,night all.

so sorry, i forgot the 'some are average' bit.
my apologies.

i dont go around thinking 'i hate old people' i have grandparents, obviously, and my gramp fought in the war and yes i know what he has done for my generation and what it was like for him, he has told me first hand the horrors he was expected to endure at 18 etc
in my personal experience, it is the elderly who are rude to me. i obviously live in an area where they are particularly grumpy.
i dont get people my own age on the bus commenting on my childs hair that 'needs cutting' or commmenting on what he is eating. neither do i get people the same age as my mother saying things about my children being 'poor mites' because i am a 'young mum'.
it seems ok for it to be assumed that beacuse i am a 'young mum' i go out clubbing every weekend, dump my kids on my mother whenever i can and am unmarried and survivng on benefits. i am not saying there is anything wrong with being single before anyone starts or receiving bebefits, i receieve some. but it is assumed that that is what i am like/who i am, and it has been assumed on here in the past.
rant over!

i like old people i work with them a lot and think on the whole they are bloody excellent.

i dont like them in 2lt engine cars doing 25mph in a 40 - thats all!

my nan is 86. she thinks she has a good life. she "wants for nothing" she lives in a small one bed council warden control flat with no garden. her settee is second hand as is her high back chair, she has a sideboard from the 50's a telly from the 80's
point is this old lady thinks shes lucky becuase shes got a place to live and shes not cold. not a very high standard if you ask me

Just in response to Upwind - my parents were born in the Thirties.
When they married (late Fifties), they were in lodgings. Ie, they rented a room in someone's house (not family, a stranger).

This was common practice at the time.

But if it's 'been assumed on here' that you are on benefits etc, and you see this as rude, then it would seem it's not just old people who are being rude to you - very few Mners are 'old' - I'm probably one of the oldest at 50, and I have come across a few older than me, but I don't remember them as particularly rude.

another vote for Rusty's dad as being a cool dude!!

We do stereo-type older people as a short-hand, and as usual with stereo-types it's unfair. I have a friend who is 59 years old and is in a new relationship, following the death of his long-term partner two years ago. I was a bit shocked by this at first, as I was soo close to his partner for nigh-on 20 years, but, my friend is demonstrating that life rolls on, IF one stays flexible in thought and optimistic. This need not be limited by age.

Also, I DO get a bit peed off with the rubbish thrown at young people. It seems if you are not middle-agedand 'comfortable' then you are suspect....IMVHO.

AngharadGoldenhand - that is again becoming the norm though marriage is less common! I know several couples who rent in flat shares despite earning well above the national average. One difference today is effective contraception keeping the birth rate down for people in such situations.

I have never known anyone who fought in the 2nd world war - the problems my generation have pale into insignificance compared to that. The attitude I complained about comes from those older generations in their fifties, sixties and early seventies who tell stressed mothers that they should not have had children if they were not able to stay at home and look after them and that we need to get on that property ladder because the price of their home has doubled in the past few years (said with a ).

When we explain why that is not possible we are always told how hard they had it in their day - "when we first bought this house...." etc, we work hard in relatively better paid jobs and could not afford a two bedroom flat let alone a family home. Then you get the infuriating "can't or won't" comments I had earlier on this thread...

When measuring poverty, income is taken into account but expenditure on housing is not - most older people have secure tenancies of some sort or own their own homes. They do not usually appreciate how high the cost of living is for young families, perhaps because the different age groups just don't spend enough time together.

I don't have any problem with older people myself but I do think there is a growing sense of resentment and intergenerational conflict. This will probably get worse, as the people in positions of power are themselves older and see nothing wrong with announcing that younger generations will have to work longer to pay baby-boomers' pensions, while having little hope of pensions themselves.