Anyone else's Parents swanning about as if they are immortal?

[Namechange2020onceagain]

Just had a chat with my Mum, she then asked if I want anything from B&Q as they are popping in there tomorrow! This is after they went shopping to Sainsburys this morning and then said they are going again on Friday.

I have said I will get any shopping they need, but they keep going out.

FFS they are both over 70 and my Dad will die if he gets the virus. They are not taking it seriously at all.

Yup 77 year old dad driving down to see my brother in South London on Friday and still working!

The issue is that these stupid (I don’t use this word lightly) people need to recognise this isn’t all about them being stopped from having coffee with friends. If they continue like this we will be forced into lockdown and all because we are trying to protect this very vulnerable group.

yes its really selfish of them to swan about shopping etc. My mum is 83 and lives alone - has a heart condition, but instead of worrying about whether my 3 kids and I will pass the virus on to her, I am more worried she will pass it on to us as we have been doing preventive isolation/social distancing and she has just carried on like nothing has happened.

We should already be in lockdown like mainland Europe. That would be proportional and fair.

Also

That should have happened about 3 to 4 weeks ago, criminal Johnson is still arsing about.
We are now facing months of this because of that 'cock.

Totally.

DM is 75 and has Parkinson's, DD is 82 and has COPD.

They are in complete denial, and REALLY pissed off with my brother and I as we have been telling them all week to stay in and that we won't all be round at the weekend for Mother's Day.

They think the whole thing is 'ridiculous' - we are at the end if our tethers, and it sounds like we're not alone.

We've got enough to worry about, both with kids in yr 11 & 13 not knowing what the hell is going on and all our parents are worried about are going out and seeing the kids aaarrrggghhh!

Not my parents... my dad died just a month ago from lung cancer but for the last few days I was volunteering in a charity shop and there were barely any customers but most of them were in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.
I don't know why they are not sitting home.

My dad is over 70 and a taxi driver, he went today to pick someone up from the airport 🤦‍♀️

The guidelines for the older generation to self-isolate have not been issued and as long as they take sensible rules they will be fine!

They will have plenty of time staying in soon so you can help them then!

My PILs are in their 90s. They're not on social media and they don't like Boris Johnson they don't like watching the news. They walk into their local village and buy a newspaper every 2-3 days.

They read, and comply with what they understand. But without social media (or any other up-to-date source of information) as far as they as concerned they should be practising social distancing, minimising contact (except for what is essential) and washing their hands. So they don't go to the golf club, or the women's group meeting, or see their friends.

Despite their age, neither have heart / lung / other complications and so they interpret the advice just as they read it. They are possibly a couple of days out of date. They won't go out alone and always walk to the shops together. They are not deliberately ignoring the advice, they just don't get it the minute it arrives on social media, and it takes some time for them to assimilate it.

In all of this they are peaceful, resolute about the possible outcome, and for us (the family) to be calling every couple of hours with 'advice' pulls them out of that place and causes them confusion.

It's a hard one.

@pollyglot - did you actually just use your mother’s passing to mic drop in an argument . I’m truly sorry for your loss.

Telling us about your one experience of being older does not counteract the many being discussed on here today. As I said, you’re ahead of the game, and that’s great. But us talking about other people doesn’t deny your experience, and most of us are not saying all older people. Apart from the prat who mentions boomers just above here, and just needs sending to time out.

I’m leaving it there, not flouncing, just cleaning out my cupboards, whilst in isolation with immunocompromised kid. Hope you stay well, as I do for everyone

Getting out while they can. I don’t blame them. There will be a long period of forced isolation ahead. It’s not an order to stay in atm. God help us all when it is.

Forgive us old folk. It’s taken a while for the penny to drop as, when you youngsters reach maturity, you will also feel young in your head and heart and, to a degree, invincible!

All my peer group (over 70) are now abiding by the curfew, hopefully it’s not too late.

Aw stumpie such a kind message. I get it - it's very hard. Ultimately everyone wants the same thing - as few people to die because of this as is possible. I wish I could see my parents and I totally understand why they want to do normal things as that's what makes life enjoyable. I hope we pull through this together.

We all hope that. I think a lot of us understand that our normal lives have gone for ever. Perhaps that’s a good thing. I do wonder if in 70 years time today’s teenagers will be saying “We lived through corona virus, we can cope with anything”.

I tried to book an online shop - no availability at all - this was at 6am & nothing for the next 3 weeks - the supposed early pensioners time is chockers with people who don't look like pensioners grabbing - I am not exposing myself to that - I will have to try to go at a less busy time

My mum 80 and dad 82 said there alright as it's for old people not to sure what bracket she see's herself in .

I heard the wife of my neighbours coughing in the garden last night, lots of coughing ! but he still went out to walk to our corner shop, a busy co op, he’s just got back, I would think they’re in they’re seventies. They’ve always been entitled, selfish idiots though.

I had to get really cross with my dad yesterday. Have been telling him to get a few extra bits in for the last month- not panic buying but a few cans of soup here and there. Stuff for his bread maker etc. Told him last weekend to make sure he had enough regular food in and then in a few weeks I would go and do another shop for him. Yesterday he told me he is fine as has enough meals to last till Friday. Said his fridge freezer has packed up but that the other one he has needs defrosting which he hasn't got round to.

He said he had been to the local farm shop yesterday and was surprised how busy it was. I told him he needed to self isolate and he said he wasn't going to bother saying he was healthy and no worries about his health ( he is 82, has high blood pressure and had cancer 2 years ago...) at which point I really lost my shit with him. Told him who the hell was going to look after him if he got ill? Muggins- that's who! And then that would put me and my family at risk and anyone else he had decided to spread it to in the mean time.

He conceded that he would give me a shopping list which I know will be full of random crap that's not available without traipsing round umpteen virus ridden shops.

My Mum and Dad have at last seen the light. I think it was Corrie being cancelled that brought it home to them. It's the little things.

I am now getting all their shopping for them. Thank goodness.

That’s good op. Good old Corrie.

@mindproject - eh? the elites want us all.. what? WHY? What would this grand manipulation codswallop you're on about achieve? Your posts make no sense

Mine are just ignoring it too. Mum said 'oh yes, we're self-isolating, we played a round of golf with mates today but we all brought our own flasks instead of going for coffee afterwards.' These (and their mates) are all people who worked in the medical profession, for the NHS, their whole lives.

This crisis has brought home to me just how entitled the Baby Boom generation really are. As a generalisation, but certainly true of my own parents and those of many of my own friends, they've had a very easy life with plenty of money and big houses and now generous final salary pensions, and they just assume that's what they're entitled to. It never seems to dawn on them that other people don't have it so easy, in part because they diverted all the resources to themselves. Now that sense of entitlement is leading them to gamble, not just with their own health, but with everyone else's, as well as the NHS.

(Of course there will be Boomers who don't fit this pattern - I am talking very specifically about the middle class, which expanded massively with the post-war generation.)

Did you post here just to knock a whole generation? How bitter, miserable and envious you sound. Golf is perfectly acceptable, it’s in the open air and players are usually 2+ metres apart.

As retired medical professionals, they’re the people the government is proposing bringing back to work on the front line. That kind of puts their round of golf into perspective. And yes, how bloody entitled of them spending 40+ years looking after the population’s health, how shocking, how dare they?