to think the ageism on here has been disgusting recently

[EverythingYouDoIsaBalloon]

Distaste for the idea of older mothers. Pesky pensioners daring to shop at weekends when they've 'got all week' to do it. Retirement-age people being lambasted for not resigning to free up jobs for younger people. A lack of comprehension as to why older people are even in the workplace at all. Calls for over-80s to be stripped of their driving licences. A solemn assertion from one pp earlier in the year that '60 isn't young. It's old.' like middle age doesn't even exist. And that’s just off the top of my head.

Some people are going to get a shock when they get older themselves, according to some of the comments I’ve seen on this forum recently.

The one that makes me laugh is a young person complaining about pensionioners grtting triple lock, or raising the threshold so it's not taxed which means more abd more people will work longer as they can't afford to retire fully, yet they then complain they need ro stop working and free up jobs for them 🙄

We all get hung up on numbers, when actually there can be vast differences between people of the same age. 60+ year olds are not one homogenous mass.

My dad wasn’t running 5ks, doing circuits, lifting weights and playing lead guitar in a band at 65, like my DH is. He was drinking pints of mild, playing dominoes, wearing a flat cap and reminiscing about the war 😀

There's plenty of threads bashing baby boomers saying they stole all the houses, despite 1970s 12%+ interest rates.

And mass unemployment in the 80s.

Are people taking 'old' as an insult rather than just a descriptor? I can't see why someone describing 60 as old would be ageism in itself. It's hardly young or middle aged. I'm 38 and would say I am or am approaching middle aged, I'm hardly young and that's not an a negative thing.

The problem is that society regards the concept of being 'old' in very negative terms. Why? I am getting on now at 68 and am happy to be called 'old'. Yes I have learned a lot via my life experience, that's a positive thing. My body isn't what it was, I am not a fit 68 yr old but one with an autoimmune disease and disabilities, but they don't define me.

Is 'old' perceived as having a certain undesirable mindset? Or to be at a time of life when you become a burden of some sort? Or taking up space and shelter when you'd be better off not doing so and giving way to those younger?

Yes, you are still the same person inside as you were as a youngster. It's only the mirror and maybe aches and pains that tell you differently.

We should respect older people for their experience in life, not denigrate them.

Thank you!

You've said what I was struggling to put into words.

Yes, a lot of people are taking "old" as an insult, instead of the factual descriptor it actually is. Thats why they don't like it.

I'M OLD AND I LOVE IT!

Parenting age posts get nasty. It's generally a lot worse to be a younger parent, though.

Most people gave birth in their 30s or 40s and need to throw other women under the bus to feel better about waiting.

Anyone who has a child outside of the permittees range of 28-45 should just avoid.

I'm starting to get 'oh, bless you,' from younger people for some reason. I'm 56.

Not to mention the remarks and horror on age gap relationships.

The people posting have at some point broken up with someone their own age proving its nothing to do with age as to whether a relationship works out or not.

That's interesting to read. I disagree personally - for me middle age is about 40-70. I feel that nowadays improved healthcare and changed mindsets have pushed old age back a decade.

@MilliMollieMandi

introduction of Gransnet???

that doesn't account for the recent increase in ageism! It's been around for years!!

i'm 55 & it makes me feel young!! I haven't been on it for a very long time.

I remember in the job I had the year of the Brexit vote, one of my 20something colleagues complained that older people shouldn't have had the vote as they'd 'had their say and it's not them who will be affected by the outcome'. Seeming blissfully ignorant of the fact that they were probably voting based on what they wanted for their children's and grandchildren's futures. (To be clear, I think Brexit was an appalling mistake and I'm pissed off at what the Leave contingent has done to the country, but people's right to vote has to remain sacrosanct in a democracy.)

@AmelieTaylor - I think it is the idea that we need a site called 'gransnet' that is the problem. At what point is someone too old to post on here? Of course it doesn't account for the recent increase in ageism (which is actually not that recent).

I completely agree. It's the constant conflating of age with negative qualities on MN that gets my goat. Very little respect for life experience.

Ha! I'm about to become a mother in law, while having a 1 year old myself is confusing for some people on here as they don't know which way to hate on me 😬 I am both a new mother and a mother to a fully grown adult.

@Wondering17

i live alone, I'm 55, I've just been made redundant. I have known for a long time I would be, it was inevitable. People keep asking if I'm going to retire. I tell them 'happily - if they're going to pay my mortgage & bills and keep paying into my pension🙄🙄🙄

the ageism on here is bad. I'm not sure if it's worse than ever or if I'm just sensitive to it now??

Very true….even truer (is there such a word) that it’s u dear 25 yr old males that are more likely to cause accidents. I’m sure a fair number of MN users would be aghast that their darling son should have their license taken off them!

YANBU. At all. It's rife everywhere. I was asked recently at work (when we were required to walk just over a mile to a church for a school assembly) if I needed to get the minibus 'as one of the older members of our school community'. I'm 57 and a marathon runner.

Genuine question though, when do you consider middle age to be?

I doubt that this is true. If I heard about an accident between a 20 year old guy with mates in the car and an 80 year old then I don’t think my mind would go to the 80 year old being at fault.
Most 80 year olds I know are very aware of their limitations and have made good accomodations eg only drive in daylight, stay local etc.

I know it is a little off topic. However, I would just like to raise my criticism of the word 'Boomer' to describe the generation born from 1945 to 1964. There was a slight 'baby-boom' during these years in Britain (curbing a lot after contraception became more widely available in 1963), however, in most European countries, including Britain, there certainly was not the economic and cultural 'boom' that defined the USA, where the term evolved.

Rather, in the post-war years and into the early sixties in Britain, there was a greater move towards socialism and quite an existential struggle as individuals and as a nation to define our place in the world. Yes, there were the Beatles, and winning the World Cup, but these things were anomalies in the austere society that emerged in those 'Booming' years. Indeed, most younger boomers would have been shaped by the horror show this country found itself in during the seventies and eighties and from which it has never escaped.

The goal-centric, individualistic, materialistic, hard-working; hard-playing 'Baby Boomers' of generational stereotyping, does not apply to the vast majority of people who grew up in those years in this country.

I'll go back to my carpet slippers and warm Horlicks now.

I think it is the idea that we need a site called 'gransnet' that is the problem. At what point is someone too old to post on here?

I thought Gransnet was specifically for complaining about adult children’s partners, in-laws and how the grandchildren aren’t being brought up properly! (Lighthearted )

@ByCupidStunt

Old is obviously the opposite of young.
I said old age is not the opposite of young, which it isn't.

Shouldn’t be on the road but can lead major nations?

Like it or not "baby boomer" is the term which is the neutral, non-offensive term.
"boomer" on the other hand, has been banned by many social media platforms as it carries a completely different connotation and isn't a neutral term.

Many of us have tried to tell HQ about this difference to little or no avail.