Signs you have an aging parent

[Deleted]

When they send you newspaper articles in the mail. Luckily there was no highlighting yet.

When mom is waxing poetic about her new socks.

When she refers to said socks as stylish. They have basset hounds on them.

I'm not sure I'm ready for this and this was all in one day.

[AAM2012]

My dad's been doing that for years but they're always political reasons so I do t even read them.

[hamster]

My dad is baffled why you yield to the left in a traffic circle. You always yield to the right, he says. Not when the traffic comes from the left!!

And both my parents tell the same stories over and over.

[krystee]

Every time I visit my parents, my dad hands me highlighted news articles and makes me watch something he recorded on TV. He's only 54. It cracks me up how excited he gets about it.

[sjh722]

My parents suddenly seem old.

Their house is hot.

Their TV volume is SO LOUD.

They play Words With Friends every night. They each have an iPhone, my dad has a laptop, and my mom has an iPad. They sit there and pass the iPad back and forth instead of playing on different devices.

My mom posts things on Facebook like "There is a steady stream of cars driving past our house. I-94 is closed for a huge pile-up. Lots of semis!" and "Took the dogs for a walk today". My dad de-joined facebook, because "All these young kids (uh, my cousins) want to be my friends. I don't care that Allison has a boyfriend!"

My mom stretches out a one-paragraph story to a 10-minute retelling. Recently, it was about how she and my sister saw a movie. And then a loooong description of the theater, a synopsis of the movie that was seriously 7 minutes long, and a 3-minute aside about how it was at "a Chinese theater". Except it was at "The Oriental Theater".

::headdesk::

[babsbunny]

My dad seems to make comments on Facebook about 2-3weeks after the post. So I'll log in, sort by recent events, and the top 5 things are old updates that he's just responding to.

[awkwardpenguin]

Jan 9, 2015 23:29:48 GMT -5 babsbunny said:

My dad seems to make comments on Facebook about 2-3weeks after the post. So I'll log in, sort by recent events, and the top 5 things are old updates that he's just responding to.

My inlaws do this all the time.  It's annoying!

[macmars45]

My dad and FIL need the TV turned way up to hear.

[stealthmom]

When you're not sure who is acting more childish, the 76 yo or the 6 yo.


This has been the past two weeks for me. 

[mich1]

Sigh.....when every break you get, you need to get on a plane and go back.

When you see your folks number pop up on your caller ID, and your first thought is "what hospital room is he in".

When you drive to the airport, you wonder if that is going to be the last time you see your dad alive.

I just left, after pending nearly 3 weeks there. My next break is at the end of March and my warm vacation is likely not going to happen as I need to go back to that godforsaken tundra.

I just left 2 days ago.

[UnderProtest]

When you tell them that they can use their fancy new iPhones to deposit a check for you and they say, no, I'd rather go to the bank.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2015 11:47:33 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

When you tell them that they can use their fancy new iPhones to deposit a check for you and they say, no, I'd rather go to the bank.

Similarly my mom drove 20 miles into town to transfer money out of savings into checking. She didn't realize she could just give them a call. I don't even try with online banking.

[Pom]

Jan 10, 2015 11:12:34 GMT -5 mich1 said:

Sigh.....when every break you get, you need to get on a plane and go back.

When you see your folks number pop up on your caller ID, and your first thought is "what hospital room is he in".

When you drive to the airport, you wonder if that is going to be the last time you see your dad alive.

I just left, after pending nearly 3 weeks there. My next break is at the end of March and my warm vacation is likely not going to happen as I need to go back to that godforsaken tundra.

I just left 2 days ago.

I am so sorry.  (hugs)  When FIL's area code pops up, we panic.  Let me know if you ever need to talk.

[mich1]

Jan 10, 2015 12:24:06 GMT -5 Pom said:

Jan 10, 2015 11:12:34 GMT -5 mich1 said:

Sigh.....when every break you get, you need to get on a plane and go back.

When you see your folks number pop up on your caller ID, and your first thought is "what hospital room is he in".

When you drive to the airport, you wonder if that is going to be the last time you see your dad alive.

I just left, after pending nearly 3 weeks there. My next break is at the end of March and my warm vacation is likely not going to happen as I need to go back to that godforsaken tundra.

I just left 2 days ago.

I am so sorry.  (hugs)  When FIL's area code pops up, we panic.  Let me know if you ever need to talk.

Thanks...I appreciate it.

[sjh722]

Jan 10, 2015 11:57:52 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

Jan 9, 2015 22:56:24 GMT -5 sjh722 said:

They play Words With Friends every night. They each have an iPhone, my dad has a laptop, and my mom has an iPad. They sit there and pass the iPad back and forth instead of playing on different devices.

I love everything about them, but this especially has me !

My Dad also doesn't understand why someone would listen to music on a phone. What a waste of energy. And time. What's iTunes??? Except he looks up songs he likes on youtube on the iPad and sits there and "rocks out". He is currently into .fun music from about 4 years ago. 

Also, he refused to text for about 13 years. He had a Blackberry pretty much since the invention of Blackberries, and would complain, "Don't text me! Too much work! Waste of time! But you can shoot me an email ANY TIME (this was usually accompanied by a jiggle of the Blackberry that was clipped to his belt), and I can respond right from my phone. So much easier." (Yeah, uh, same number of keystrokes, Dad.)

Then, when he joined the iPhone age, he did not sync his iPhone to his email for about 8 months, because people e-mail him a lot of spreadsheets, and he likes to print them. (Both the capability to sync your email between two devices - which he had been doing since, like, 2001 - and wireless printing are apparently lost on him.)

ETA: although now that he does know how to text, my sister and I get a group text whenever he's proud of what he made for dinner. Photo included. And a sentence about how lucky my mom is to live with him. (Which, if you knew them, LOLOLOL. It's totally the other way around.)

There's more. And my parents aren't even that old. (55-60) 

[niq]

When they're bedridden with the common cold for 5-8 days in an average month. :S

[VillainV]

When they don't realize that everyone can see their response to a group text.

[Pom]

When your parents take a paper plate and fork to K-mart to share the $1.99 breakfast...and this was 10 years ago.

[aurora]

Jan 10, 2015 11:12:34 GMT -5 mich1 said:

Sigh.....when every break you get, you need to get on a plane and go back.

When you see your folks number pop up on your caller ID, and your first thought is "what hospital room is he in".

When you drive to the airport, you wonder if that is going to be the last time you see your dad alive.

I just left, after pending nearly 3 weeks there. My next break is at the end of March and my warm vacation is likely not going to happen as I need to go back to that godforsaken tundra.

I just left 2 days ago.

Hugs.  Don't forget to take care of yourself, too.  It's a really tough time.

[BeagleMama]

"Facebook keeps sending me stuff about people I don't like... Who cares what they're doing?!"

Mom, that's called a Newsfeed. No one is sending you anything.

[starlily]

When you always wonder if this is going to be the phone call or visit when your mom doesn't recognize you anymore.

[elleblue]

{{{starlily}}}