To be slightly irritated to have missed being the generation that got to live life guilt free?

[Beetle76]

I opened a packet of smoked salmon for supper and then had to decant the bit I’m not going to eat now (dinner for 1) into a bulky glass container to keep in the fridge for tomorrow. I felt a twinge of irritation that I couldn’t just throw it into a zip-lock bag or use a bit of cling wrap. I then felt guilty about throwing the non-resealable, non-recyclable packaging away and then started to think about how I would need to avoid buying it again unless I could buy it by weight somewhere. But then I thought I probably shouldn’t be eating fish anyway because of the antibiotics they are fed as well as the slightly uncomfortable fact it was once a living thing.

AIBU to be irritated that I wasn’t born into a generation that could live a convenient life, where they didn’t live under the constant feeling of guilt for every little thing that they did?
I’ve had a long and tiring day today and living in ignorant bliss just seems very appealing right now

I think you need to chillax. That’s way too much anxiety over salmon.

Tbh - if Other large nations keep pumping plastic and shit into the ocean, your zip lock bag ain’t going to make much difference, and you can rinse it and resuse it!

I would not choose to be born 30 years earlier for anything.

I wouldn't have HAD salmon to worry about how I was going to store it.

You need to find something else to think about!

I think older generations felt guilty about different things. It's not that long ago that a large proportion of the populace thought that God was watching their every move.

@beetle76 I'm taking this post as light hearted and on purposely OTT..... which I agree life is like.

I can put something in the bin without thinking if I've put it in one of the 5 bins we have now. And even then I need to double check. 😂

OMG
SALMON was only invented in the last 30 years!!!

A hundred years ago you would probably never have tasted salmon and would be sitting in church sweating under the beady eye of the parish priest while you wondered if you were going to go to hell because you let the post master’s son hold your hand and see one of your stockings, so all in all you probably don’t have it too bad.

Which generation are you talking about, op?

I'm actually totally with you OP.

I watched a home movie of my third birthday party the other day and I was looking at the party bags that were handed out thinking 'the plastic tat is still sitting in landfill today'.

Even when I do the recycling I think 'bet it just gets shipped out the country, dumped in the sea and will kill a whale'.

When I washed the recycling it bothered me I without thinking used the hot tap 'what a waste of energy....burning needless fossil fuels....global warming etc'.

AAARRRHGHHHH.

Smoked salmon is not a good example to use. Previous generations woukd certainly not have eating things like that.
I doubt if my parents (late 60s) have ever had smoked salmon for 'supper' in their lives!

I think you’d have got on well with my gran (war generation) who didn’t throw anything away, even wrapping paper (carefully flattened under the sofa cushions and reused). She would have disapproved of the salmon though, when you could have been eating tongue and home grown veg.

The only salmon I saw as a child was in a tin, and that was only used for sandwiches when posh relatives came to visit.

Teenage girls being groped by all and sundry were taught to smile and laugh it off.

None of that would even cross my mind.

We got tinned salmon and used tupperware. Sometimes we had to catch our own fish BUT for real luxury a shifty man came to the back door with a whole salmon under his coat.

Gutting fish for supper is not recommended after a hard's day work. That's why they invented Deli Counters

I am in my 60s and certainly had smoked salmon when I was younger. You didn't buy it in a vacuum sealed pack though, it came unsliced as in a side of salmon so was not something you ate for your supper at home. Loads of people ate salmon in the past but it tended to be poached or from a tin.

I don't even think about stuff like this. I'm not going to spend my life feeling guilty about things I can't control. I do the best that I personally can and that's good enough for me.

Fair play to you OP for trying to think about the environment. I know exactly what you mean. I long for the me of a year or so ago who didn’t know that we are about to run out of landfill and it isn’t a long term issue like I thought.

I’m currently obsessing about wrapping paper since discovering this year it’s not recyclable

I mean...I don't think that's a generational thing...I think you are overthinking eating some salmon. You either want to eat it or don't, and you either want to put it in one container or another. Don't freak.

Well, I’m glad some people got what I was trying to say and the tone I was trying to say it in
For the record, I’m very chillaxed, I have no particular generation in mind and it didn’t have to be smoked salmon, it could have been the shrinkwrapped cucumber I had with it as a side that sent me over the edge!

Well if you think you have it hard imagine what it will be like for our children. Not only will they feel guilty over single use plastics because their short sighted grandparents destroyed the environment they will also feel guilty if they have to use state services because their greedy and entitled parents destroyed the welfare system.

Well I'm over 30 and definitely grew up eating smoked salmon - usually as a special treat for a birthday tea or something, served as a starter. I still feel very extravagant if I buy it, unless it's those value packs of trimmings for sandwiches.

@grubbyhisterbeard it’s only the glossy stuff that’s non recyclable-you can sometimes find some that isn’t glossy if you look in naice shops. Or you can just use newspape/make your own easily. You wouldn’t expect it to be no recyclable though would you? I blew my mind when I realised that coffee cups were non recyclable.

I'm the same. Sometimes I just want to dump our leftovers into the big bin but I can't bring myself to do it. Same with palm oil; I love dairy milk but now can't have it. The list of things I don't do/ have to do is getting longer...

I know you're being facetious, but the brand of smoked salmon I buy comes in a plastic bag with its own ziplock re-seal.

Actually, I was thinking the other day of a local shop my mum used to use in the 1960s. It was referred to as the "Health food shop" and he had very large containers of liquids like honey, glucose, etc on the wall, and you'd take in your glass jar and he'd fill it for you. There were also large containers of loose things like barley which went into your own container. I don't think we appreciated how sound the whole idea was.

Smoked salmon can’t possibly be a new thing? I’m sure there is a recipe for smoked salmon in my Mrs Beetons (it is a later version, but my copy is 106 years old!) When I’m ready to evict the dog from the warm spot behind my knees, I’ll go and dig it out...
I can’t figure out how to tag people but I definitely agree with the PP that mentioned kids and anxiety. As an adult (who possibly is just a little worn down from adulting today) I know that I can switch off these kinds of conversations in my head at any time, but I’m guessing a child, particularly a sensitive one, might struggle.
All I’m saying, is that not so long ago there was a time when you didn’t have to worry that your food was riddled with antibiotics, because antibiotics were supposedly a good thing that made food cheaper and more affordable and plastics were a marvellous convenient thing and nobody thought any further than that!