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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think young people are getting worse with the ageism

122 replies

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:05

Some teenage girls just tried to bully me in a shopping centre for having a "millennial walk".;

I appreciate this is mostly very silly (and honestly where did they get the mistaken belief that anyone cares about their opinion on what's cool... Ikik their desperate for approval mums and dads) but I can't imagine even the roughest girl in my year at school making fun of a similarly older woman for her age (who would now be in her mid 70s).

Makes me worry about the workplace in years to come. Perhaps I'd better get on with training up my menagerie of AI bots.

OP posts:
Zov · 18/05/2026 19:07

What is a millennial walk? Confused

Mummblebee · 18/05/2026 19:11

I’m also curious OP.

Lomonald · 18/05/2026 19:12

Yanbu I unfollowed a content creator because she was talking about "Boomers" i did comment how agiest she was being, i also had to have a word with my youngest Dd a few years ago about her agiest language, i blame tik tok !
although I am interested what is a millenium walk ?

Gardenpleasure · 18/05/2026 19:13

I agree with you OP.

The cult of worshipping youth has resulted in a lot of younger people absolutely despising older people. And they have no compunction in showing their contempt.

Backedoffhackedoff · 18/05/2026 19:15

I think it’s always been like that but we didn’t notice when we weren’t old people

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:15

Zov · 18/05/2026 19:07

What is a millennial walk? Confused

Well actually I believe it was technically a "boomer walk" (with hands clasped behind one's back like a dad at a museum).

I used to put my hands in my pockets but then I started worrying what would happen if I tripped and couldn't break my fall.

OP posts:
EmeraldShamrock000 · 18/05/2026 19:15

Respect and manners are a thing of the past for a lot of teenagers, some parents dropped the ball.
I hope you’re okay.
I grew up in a rough area, this would not happen in the past. You respected the adults in society.
Vile witches.

TheGreatDownandOut · 18/05/2026 19:16

No idea what a millennial walk is but some Gen Z need to realise that the shit show us millennials have endured, coupled with the fact that most of us were latch key kids, who frequently got drunk in fields and/or went to work and put in the hours after a looong night on the lash will mean that most of us simply don’t care what they think.

To be fair, the only Gen Z’s that I know in real life are lovely people.

pambeesleyhalpert · 18/05/2026 19:16

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:15

Well actually I believe it was technically a "boomer walk" (with hands clasped behind one's back like a dad at a museum).

I used to put my hands in my pockets but then I started worrying what would happen if I tripped and couldn't break my fall.

My husband makes fun of me because I walk like that- always have done 😂🙈

imreadytodive · 18/05/2026 19:17

Lomonald · 18/05/2026 19:12

Yanbu I unfollowed a content creator because she was talking about "Boomers" i did comment how agiest she was being, i also had to have a word with my youngest Dd a few years ago about her agiest language, i blame tik tok !
although I am interested what is a millenium walk ?

Edited

Is it ageism, or is it just pointing out how stacked against us society is and you don’t like it?

ObliviousCoalmine · 18/05/2026 19:18

Sorry, are you complaining about ageism while…being ageist?

TheBlueKoala · 18/05/2026 19:19

I think I would just have laughed as well. But then I'm very aware of my age and I accept that I'm old (46) and not cool so nothing on that register really gets to me.

EwwPeople · 18/05/2026 19:23

Gardenpleasure · 18/05/2026 19:13

I agree with you OP.

The cult of worshipping youth has resulted in a lot of younger people absolutely despising older people. And they have no compunction in showing their contempt.

Have a look at the threads on here about the “youth of today”. Adults despise young’uns just as much, if not more. What’s good for the goose…

user1471453601 · 18/05/2026 19:24

In the late 1980s there was a film, "fried green tomatoes cafe" I think it was called, where Cathy Bates was cut up in a car park by a couple of young girls in order to get the parking space Bates was trying to park in. The girls started laughing at her, the Bates character reversed a couple of times into their car And told them she could do that because she could afford Fully Comp insurance and they'd probably only got third party.

my point (a bit laboured, I know) is that a certain amount of contempt young people feel towards older people, is not new.

maybe if you experience it as new, it's because you've not long been in the older generation age bracket?

MyArtfulGreySloth · 18/05/2026 19:25

To be fair, that is a weird way to walk op.

UniquePinkSwan · 18/05/2026 19:26

Millennials have been going on at boomers for years. It’s your turn now.

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:27

TheBlueKoala · 18/05/2026 19:19

I think I would just have laughed as well. But then I'm very aware of my age and I accept that I'm old (46) and not cool so nothing on that register really gets to me.

I mean statistically you're about precise middle in the UK population and definitely not old!

I don't care about their opinions but I did find it a bit unsettling how gleefully dehumanising they were being.

OP posts:
CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:28

UniquePinkSwan · 18/05/2026 19:26

Millennials have been going on at boomers for years. It’s your turn now.

This definitely never ever ever happened when I was younger. I think the boomer thing is gen z.

OP posts:
FernFaery · 18/05/2026 19:29

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:05

Some teenage girls just tried to bully me in a shopping centre for having a "millennial walk".;

I appreciate this is mostly very silly (and honestly where did they get the mistaken belief that anyone cares about their opinion on what's cool... Ikik their desperate for approval mums and dads) but I can't imagine even the roughest girl in my year at school making fun of a similarly older woman for her age (who would now be in her mid 70s).

Makes me worry about the workplace in years to come. Perhaps I'd better get on with training up my menagerie of AI bots.

Well they can fuck off can’t they? We had a better childhood, more fun and we didn’t all end up anxious NEETs, so nerrrrr stupid girls.

Gardenpleasure · 18/05/2026 19:30

@EwwPeople
I 've talked about this on other threads on MN but as a woman in my 70s I experience bullying and intimidating behaviour from the children and young people in my area - the police and anti social behaviour unit have been involved quite a few times. Even today I've twice had young boys running up my path and banging my door. And other women, some even older than me, living in the area have similarly been targeted.

I didn't start off despising young people. But after almost six years of this I am extremely wary of children and young people. I have no expectations of decency from them. I don't despise them but I dislike and fear them.

phoenixrosehere · 18/05/2026 19:32

Why even take some strangers who happened to be teenage girls serious?

They’re the only generation (at least on social media and thanks to algorithms) that seem obsessed with the generation above them in the weirdest way especially considering millennials literally built the very social media platforms they love and enjoy, and they’re wearing the same fashion we did as teens

I don’t recall thinking about what Generation X was doing or my parents who are boomers in the same way.

Saying that, outside of the internet, I haven’t encountered such behaviour.

I had to look up the Millennial walk and got
it was a TikTok fitness craze that is practically just walking around listening to music from the late-2000s and early-2010s.

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:32

user1471453601 · 18/05/2026 19:24

In the late 1980s there was a film, "fried green tomatoes cafe" I think it was called, where Cathy Bates was cut up in a car park by a couple of young girls in order to get the parking space Bates was trying to park in. The girls started laughing at her, the Bates character reversed a couple of times into their car And told them she could do that because she could afford Fully Comp insurance and they'd probably only got third party.

my point (a bit laboured, I know) is that a certain amount of contempt young people feel towards older people, is not new.

maybe if you experience it as new, it's because you've not long been in the older generation age bracket?

I have been PART OF THE WORLD for quite a while, though. I did my time hanging out in shopping centres and it definitely never involved hassling random middle aged ladies for being uncool.

OP posts:
CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:33

Lol @ Cathy bates tho

OP posts:
Stoicandhappy · 18/05/2026 19:33

I am Gen X and fell down the stairs at a train station recently.

The loud group of teenage girls walking behind me were swift to come to my aid. They rescued my bag and set me upright, made sure I was Ok. They couldn’t have been kinder.

There are kind and unkind people in every generation. It’s ageist to assume otherwise.

CurdinHenry · 18/05/2026 19:38

Gardenpleasure · 18/05/2026 19:30

@EwwPeople
I 've talked about this on other threads on MN but as a woman in my 70s I experience bullying and intimidating behaviour from the children and young people in my area - the police and anti social behaviour unit have been involved quite a few times. Even today I've twice had young boys running up my path and banging my door. And other women, some even older than me, living in the area have similarly been targeted.

I didn't start off despising young people. But after almost six years of this I am extremely wary of children and young people. I have no expectations of decency from them. I don't despise them but I dislike and fear them.

Edited

It's really scary. I currently live in quite an urban location and people keep asking why I don't move to the suburbs for safety but the answer is I think it's probably safer here on the whole where very few teens live.

I do know there are really lovely and good kids too it's just that the bad ones have literally no influences to keep them in check any more (won't even usually go to prison for murder now where I live).

OP posts:
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