The town I live in just completed and pass a walkability and bike master plan. That calls for road diets with more focus on the older downtown and neighborhoods think 15 min city concept. The meeting at city hall was packed with boomers raging against it. hey brought up 'issues" of traffic , to many apartments, noise, and of course 'crime'. One woman was even in tears.

After talking to some then just don't want any change and cant understand why people don't want to drive every ware all the time. I would bring up well would it be nice able to walk and get some coffee or groceries. The first think they would brig up is CRIME. ( Our town as a below average crime rate).

The master plan did pass but boy some were shouting at the city council, visibly pissed off. I just don't get it there were a lot of gen Xers and younger in support of it of the plans. but why are boomers and mostly just boomers bent out of shape over anything walkable or urban.

Genuinely baffled but I'm glad I stood up for myself. (This isn't a boomer but I thought this might be a good place for this considering the community. )

Driving to see family yesterday around 11:00 am and we went under a handful of MAGA boomers with flags and signs about Trump winning, saving America again, etc. Waving at cars, just being weird.

"Tell me your family doesn't invite you to things without telling me your family doesn't invite you to things."

I (Gen X) have never told my son (Gen Z) that I follow this sub. While Christmas shopping we were waiting in line at the Costco customer service desk. A Boomer couple ahead of us were extensively questioning the rep about every detail of their membership while the line grew and grew. Later we were driving behind a couple going 20 in a 40 zone. Son says, "Boomers are out Boomering around today". So now have a new descriptive phrase.

I’m at McDonald’s with my 5 year old and just witnessed a boomer chew out the kid working here. Not even sure he was the person responsible but this boomer is ranting to this poor kid that she ordered a tea with sugar but they put the sugar into the tea and not with it “on the side”. She spent about 2-3 minutes lecturing him on this and how she knows it was his mistake because there’s no way she would order it incorrectly. He finally just said he’d get her a new drink and walked away. The reality is all she needed to say was that there was a mistake and they would have gotten her what she wanted (which actually is what happened to me). Last I saw the boomer was ranting to people who she may or may not know at another table about the incident that they just witnessed from 6 feet away anyway. Not sure why there is such a sense of victimhood or why others need to be alerted of this major news story.

Is this a thing anyone else has noticed??? My in-laws and my mom have gotten worse over the years with completely ignoring food expiration dates. I’m not talking more innocent things like spices or slightly expired dry goods. I’m talking 2+ week expired lunch meat. 6+ month expired condiments. 3 year expired soda. 2 week expired egg or dairy based salads (crab salad, chicken salad, etc).

Went to the in-laws over Thanksgiving and it was like a series of unfortunate events. Coke Zero that tasted awful only to find out it expired 2021. And right after that serving us Wine that was a weird yellow/orange color and tasted flat and strange. Expired turkey lunch meat with that slimy film. Orange juice that was 6weeks expired and fizzy. And then, before Christmas we visited my mom and my husband went to use honey mustard and said it looked really strange and found it expired in June. But the thing that really gets me is how when it’s pointed out (without any type of judgement) they act like we’re the crazy ones and are being too picky, and “don’t you dare throw that out. It’s fine!”. Or the common argument is “it has vinegar in it, so it’s still good”. To some extent I get there is leeway in expiration dates, but this is getting excessive. It’s gotten to the point that every time we visit them there is at least 1 perishable item that is excessively expired.

Should come as no surprise that one of them got food poisoning over Christmas…

EDIT: After seeing many comments regarding BS Best By and Sell By dates. I do agree, and want to clarify that I’m not referring to that. Even expiration dates have some flexibility, within reason. I will fully admit to eating milk and yogurt a little past the expiration date because to all senses it still seemed good. But I also made that choice and knew I could be rolling the dice and finding myself on or bent over the throne later. And I’m also not talking about sugar, pasta noodles, and other dry goods that can extend well past the expiration date. I was referring to the overall blindness to expiration dates beyond reason and safety; and how it has been getting more extreme over the years for them.

Is expired Coke Zero or off wine going to harm us? Unlikely. Though it will taste absolutely foul. But I failed to mention that on our arrival to their house they made a point to tell us all the things they bought for Thanksgiving and our arrival. We responded that we really appreciated the thought and they really didn’t have to get anything special for us. We have young children and had offered to bring items which they adamantly refused. But after a sequence of awful tasting expired items, they admitted they found them in their basement, and were gifted the wine “a few years ago” (which probably means 10-15 yrs). Why even make a point of lying that they just bought it??

Regardless, the alarming things are the items that smell, taste, and/or look off that they are offended we won’t eat, swear that it’s still good, and refuse to toss. Our parents are well off, so it’s not about the money. And my in-laws only drink bottled water, and leave wounded soldiers everywhere. So doubt it is to avoid waste. Who knows. You want to roll the dice on eating expired food? Fine. But we have young children. I don’t care how many times they tell me something looks fine and try to guilt me into it. I’m not going to give our 4 year old 6 week expired fermented orange juice. Or feed our 1 year old the nasty expired lunch meat.

It turns out they think they got food poisoning from a “slightly expired” can of clams they put in their pasta sauce. I would bet a lot of money that it was sitting in their pantry from last Christmas or before.

I was just grocery shopping, minding my own business, picking up veggies for my guinea pigs. And then I hear it. Someone hacking up a lung biscuit very close to me. I look up and just over by the organic produce there is a boomer OPEN MOUTH coughing all over the produce. Just raw dogging the veggies w his germs.

Anyway, wash your produce friends.

I can’t do it anymore. Every Christmas my boomer parents try to make visiting us so difficult, and then if we don’t visit them they make us feel bad for it. They live 3 hours away and we have two kids under 5 with a dog so traveling isn’t the easiest. Every year my mother takes 4-7 “girls trips” with her friends and just took one a few weeks back. She goes out of her way for those trips and wouldn’t miss one for anything. Most of the time her trips are near where we live but she’ll never visit us. My dad also has to work which is part of the reason why they can’t come down this weekend, but he’s in his 70s and doesn’t need to work (he does it to get out of the house). His job isn’t demanding or important and he could easily take off, but he acts like he’s performing life saving surgery in a region with no surgeons.

This year we aren’t traveling to them. We just traveled there for Thanksgiving and would like to enjoy some down time at home. If my parents were incapable of driving then my outlook would be different, but that’s not the case - my mother travels all over for her girls trips. My mother is very manipulative and will always try to come up with complicated plans for us to come visit, all to force me into giving a reason why I can’t or don’t want to which she then uses against me. Similarly she’ll come up with a complicated visit to our house like an overnight visit, but in reality I know that means they’ll show up at 5PM and leave at 11AM the next day (never seeing much of the kids bc they go to bed at 8PM). When I give ANY reason as to why those plans don’t work, she uses that against me as if I’m the one with the problem.

Meanwhile, they both comment on our FB posts and photos about how much they love their grandkids, as if that reassures everyone of their roles and level of involvement.

There’s also a dog issue. We love dogs, have one of our own, but they have two that are both menaces. They pee/poop all over our house including our guest bed, and bark hours on end. They live next door to family who can watch the dogs without issue (they trade off with each over throughout the year). They have no problem having the family watch the dogs for the girls trips (my dad sometimes travels with her and visits a friend) or any other time away, but when it comes to my house, they know we don’t like the dogs and will make a big deal about it. If there’s ever a slight feeling like we are asking them to visit us (like one time we went to a reunion and needed a sitter), they immediately say they must bring the dogs. As if they are doing us a favor by visiting and in return we must allow them to bring the dogs.

Overall I’m just over the mind games. Hoping to hear that I’m not alone with parents like this. Thanks for letting me vent..

I don't understand the constant comments I see and hear from boomers condemning celebrities for havingng their own opinions. They'll say things like, "they should stick to acting instead of politics" simply because a celebrity is public about whom they support. It's as if they don't think of them as people. If you don't like their opinions don't support them. To say they shouldn't be allowed their own preferences though is ludicris. What makes Jim Boomer any more qualified to an opinion than any other human?

I really want to know if this is a common experience or just something i’ve encountered numerous times which is boomers completely trauma dumping stories about them being SA’d at family functions or other social gatherings. i’ve encountered this at least 3 times.

Finally got a boomer story! Long time lurker and finally got one to post.

Little back story on my mood. Day after Christmas, wife is about to be induced next week, need groceries, no lunch yet and it’s 2:30 pm. Tired but glad to see the nap that awaits me on the couch while watching tv.

We all know the wait at Costco is nuts. They have the long line for the self checkout and then the other smaller lines for the assisted checkout. Well I made my way to the smaller lines because usually people in the big line aren’t aware that’s the line for self checkout out. The line for the assisted checkout reaches to the aisles and so when people have to cross, it’s always a shuffling of carts to make room to people to go across. When it was my turn to be in the way, I gave a carts length in front of me for people to cross. Lines slow so I just pull out my phone and start surfing the web. A few later, this older lady stops right to my side and just glares at me. I’m sleep deprived and hungry so I thought I subconsciously did something wrong. I asked if everything was ok, and she just snapped and said I should get off my phone and move out of the way for her to cross behind me. Turns out her husband and their cart were behind me and I was slightly blocking her shortcut to get to his side. I thought it was slightly rude but didn’t think much of it. I knew I was running on low and not much into confrontations so I just moved forward for her to get to her cart and husband. Once she got to her spot, she started talking about how my generation is just terrible and always on their phone. She said I wasn’t paying attention and had this giant gap in front of me to the next shopper. Her tone was extremely condescending and I had enough. I politely but sarcastically said that the line wasn’t moving as much and it doesn’t make sense why she has to be a Karen about a gap that people are actively using to cross and me being on my phone. I asked how any of this was affecting her. She just started huffing and puffing that I was rude and I responded with pointing out her outward behavior to someone who was just in line to check out minding his own business. After that her husband told her to go get a hot dog and wait and started to apologize to me for her behavior. She stormed off and I chatted with the guy while we wait.

After all the stories I’ve read on this thread, I still don’t know why some of these people act so entitled and rude. With that I will step off my soap box and end my boomer story here. Still gotta go to one more store before I get home. Not too extraordinary of a story but my first boomer story out in the wild.

I finally finally a story for here, and honeslty it's not as bad as some of the others but I figured random internet strangers might get a kick out of it.

My parents are at end of the Boomer Era, but firmly in that mindset. I'm talking FOX news brainrot levels, so that's been fun. My mom asked me what I thought about the news of drones flying all over the place, and I told her I didn't know Jack shit because I don't, but I saw a funny meme essentially calling the drones alien spacecraft originating from the ocean, the government confirming that yes there's aliens in the ocean, and Millenials are dealing with it like any other Tuesday because what the fuck else are we going to do.

She launched into a conspiracy theory that they're likely US drones looking for a nuclear warhead that's been smuggled/lost on US soil and that she's happy she got potassium iodide pills (that she's apparently been taking daily) because if it goes off she'll be protected from the radiation. And I just kinda blinked. Like. Ok mom whatever you say. And then she launched into how the aliens in the ocean thing isn't REALLY aliens but harbingers of the anti christ bringing about Revelations. And while Trump is going to save us all, Elon Musk is the anti Christ.

It was an interesting start to Christmas.

Watching Abfab sure hits different now. It was funny to me in the 90s... now, not so much.

It gets harder every year. They get older, meaner and stupider.

Scrolling thru threads and found this treat from some geriatric who hasn’t been relevant since Vietnam

How many of you are visiting Boomers this holiday season who have been prescribed but refuse to wear their hearing aids?

(The excuse being, they're too loud and they hear "everything.")

So instead I have to put up with those who are in the room (or in the car), who should be part of the conversation, but because they can't hear, they just run their mouth in stream-of-consciousness-like-fashion, commenting on everything random they see outside the car window, and have no idea when they're being talked to. Usually what comes out is some sort of Boomer Bait commentary, often derogatory towards some sort of group like poor people, Latinos, LGBTQ+ people, etc., as if it's polite conversation to constantly evaluate and judge and label everyone they see.

Wear your hearing aids!!! Gahhh!

Okay so this Facebook group is clearly for fitness... and this boomer just couldn't help herself with that mug. Facebook is so vast, why not going a political group?!

Then in the comments she's no where to be seen when called out. lol

Most of the boomers I know have used computers for 30 years, the internet for 25 years, smartphones for 15 years and video calling for at least 5 years since the pandemic begun. Why is it that every time there is a holiday they insist on having a family video call, and every time it still feels like the same effort and as technically compilated as the sending the first transatlantic telegraph, or the first radio messages from the Apollo space missions?

• The pre-arrangement. Who wants FaceTime? How do you use a Zoom link? How do I download WhatsApp?! How do we add another peson?
• The preamble - setting up the iPad to get the vista of the room
• The start of the call - a good five minutes of "can you hear me?", "we can't hear you!", "you're on mute!", "your camera is off!", "how do I work this **** phone?!?!"
• Getting up and down for adjusting of the iPad
• The wait for the technophile boomer to try and connect it through the television or the home sound system, potentially deafening you.
• The camera angles -
  • The Blair Witch - phone right in somebody's eyes
  • The bald spot or the double chin
  • The person who keeps getting autorotate wrong who spends the call either on their side, or complaining that other people are on the side (or both)
• The shouting over each other - "push the camera button", "turn your phone sideways, no not that sideways"
• The amazement - "is that really you there?!?!"

Generally it takes at least 15 minutes before the conversation is ready to begin (apart from the one person who for whatever reason is still on their side), by which time everybody is too exhausted to say anything.

Humbug

So my brother just told me this story a few days ago and since it's Christmas and all, funny gift story time:

One year (before we went no contact over their homophobia and lying), my brother was talking to my dad over the phone. My brother told him how he was working in very cold conditions and needed some good gloves (with individual fingers) because of the nature of his work (grip in the film industry). He stressed over and over about how he needs warm gloves with individual fingers.

My dad suggested he buy mittens, to which my brother reminded him "no dad, I need my fingers to be free, otherwise I literally can't do my job".

A week later, a box with a pair of brand new mittens arrives. My brother donates them to thrift because he doesn't need mittens and has a half dozen (better) pairs of them already in his closet.

My dad calls him back and asks "how did the mittens work out?"

"They didn't." My brother responds. "I told you repeatedly that I couldn't use mittens, they prevent me from doing my job properly."

"You didn't tell me that!" My dad says, completely shocked. "If you would have told me I wouldn't have sent you those mittens! You need to be more clear what you mean when you're talking to me I can't read your mind!"

🙃

It's apparently that time of year. The above quote came out unprompted while sitting around the table with my folks and my kids. My folks have always had a bit of the casual racism that comes from the old upper middle class, but this is the first really "boomer" thing they've said. Something about getting older causing them the be more vocal I guess.

I resisted the urge to remind them that they were property managers and didn't really perform a necessary service outside of supporting the commercialization of residential property ownership, thus contributing to housing inequality.

The kids didn't seem to understand, so making a scene seemed ill advised.

Everyone always gives me side eye when I say I look forward to them dying. Then my folks chime in and remind me that they aren't sharing their earned wealth until they die.

I really fucking hate the holidays...