Post by debatethis on Oct 29, 2018 16:59:57 GMT -5
All of this stuff ::waves hands wildly:: is my inlaws. And yet, I still adore them as much as they drive me crazy. -Giant SUV? Check -Giant house with only two people and four cats? Check -Giant house has several fridges/freezers/ovens/toomuchshit? Check -Fox news? Check -Paper plates and too damn many paper towels? Check -Bring their own WATER when they come visit? Check -Don't recycle? Check
We've been talking about buying a bigger house to have them move in with us (they are both in their 70's and we currently live 800 miles away) but IDK if we can afford five more fridges and all the paper towels they go through. :/
Post by BicycleBride on Oct 29, 2018 17:14:46 GMT -5
Every holiday I get in to a very polite argument with my grandmother (80) about actually cooking the food from scratch and paper plates/napkins. “Wouldn’t it be so much easier to buy the precooked turkey breast from the grocery and just heat it up instead of cooking a whole turkey?” Um no, cooking a turkey is legit the easiest part of thanksgiving and the reheated turkey breasts are dry as a bone and have no taste! And no, it’s not so much work to wash those real dishes, we literally have an entire machine devoted to that! And a separate machine that cleans the cloth napkins! Amazing! She also likes to “help” in bizarre ways like one time I made pulled pork and walked in to the kitchen to find her taking all the buns out of the box they came in and pulling them all apart to “save time” after I insisted we not premake the sanwhiches like she wanted to with just a tiny layer of pulled pork.
Both my parents are boomers and hard core democrats so at least we don’t deal with that. But my mom is a bit kooky. Like she is very well off financially but insists on penny pinching in the strangest places. All of her cups are thin reusable plastic and for many years were mostly collected from restaurants when my sister and I were little. She loves shopping at Big Lots and an alarming amount of her regular furniture is actually cheap outdoor furniture. She doesn’t cook and only eats things that can be eaten out of the refrigerator or microwaved. She can not figure out why we drink out of glass glasses (instead of plastic) and don’t have some sort of plastic plates for the kids to use. My dad has his own set of weirdness but his favorite thing to do is brag at every conceivable opportunity about how he never uses his dishwasher and washes all of his dishes by hand as if that’s a real achievement to be proud of. Both of them really enjoy shaming people who aren’t up by 6 am.
I hate to break it to you all, but much of what you all are describing are not just Boomer problems, they are most-of-America-regardless-of-age problems.
My H constantly refers to me as a condiment hoarder 😐 But ya know what: I LIKE CONDIMENTS!!! I’m Totally A Dipper/ Topper/ Adder!!! The fact that I have three types of mustard open in my fridge right now is because Cajun mustard is totally different-tasting than the blackened mustard & I needed the stone-ground German mustard for the Rouladen (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25194/german-rouladen/) I made for my friend’s Oktoberfest party, dammit. Stomps feet. I’ll use 90% of each bottle/ jar before expiring (which is when I ALWAYS toss!). But um, yeah, H is also super-anti-mustard & erm, most other condiments, sooo...
I hate to break it to you all, but much of what you all are describing are not just Boomer problems, they are most-of-America-regardless-of-age problems.
My H constantly refers to me as a condiment hoarder 😐 But ya know what: I LIKE CONDIMENTS!!! I’m Totally A Dipper/ Topper/ Adder!!! The fact that I have three types of mustard open in my fridge right now is because Cajun mustard is totally different-tasting than the blackened mustard & I needed the stone-ground German mustard for the Rouladen (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25194/german-rouladen/) I made for my friend’s Oktoberfest party, dammit. Stomps feet. I’ll use 90% of each bottle/ jar before expiring (which is when I ALWAYS toss!). But um, yeah, H is also super-anti-mustard & erm, most other condiments, sooo...
Post by cattledogkisses on Oct 29, 2018 17:20:51 GMT -5
We do the food-outside-on-the-porch thing at Thanksgiving/Christmas, but it's because when you're hosting 20+ people all that food ain't going to fit in one refrigerator.
My H constantly refers to me as a condiment hoarder 😐 But ya know what: I LIKE CONDIMENTS!!! I’m Totally A Dipper/ Topper/ Adder!!! The fact that I have three types of mustard open in my fridge right now is because Cajun mustard is totally different-tasting than the blackened mustard & I needed the stone-ground German mustard for the Rouladen (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25194/german-rouladen/) I made for my friend’s Oktoberfest party, dammit. Stomps feet. I’ll use 90% of each bottle/ jar before expiring (which is when I ALWAYS toss!). But um, yeah, H is also super-anti-mustard & erm, most other condiments, sooo...
How is this thread on page 4 and nobody has mentioned 60 Minutes?
I know lots of people in their 30s who like K-cups and SUVs and Fox and hoarding salad dressing bottles, but 60 Minutes is the one show that it seems only Boomers love. I suppose it is a CBS show, LOL.
Post by suburbanzookeeper on Oct 29, 2018 17:25:24 GMT -5
DH had a 90 minute discussion with my FIL last night about how to find someone to fix his lake pump because he hasn't been physically able to maintain it for the last eight years and it's all finally starting to fall apart around him. They bought a huge tree farm property when they left CA and they cannot wrap their heads around living in something smaller - more maintainable - for themselves because my FIL wanted "his space." They use 10+ k-cups a day (all decaf) and acted like I was the biggest asshole because I was perplexed that they don't recycle and offered to at least make an easy setup for them.
For the most part, my parents are pretty great. They are liberal, active, like to travel, etc. But I definitely see some of these behaviors in them. My dad has CNN on all day long. The fridge is packed, but I can't figure out what all is in there (same at my inlaws).
Here's what I really can't figure out. CNN is on all day if they are home, but as soon as the national news comes on in the evening, they have to turn over to watch the news. How do they need more news???
How is this thread on page 4 and nobody has mentioned 60 Minutes?
I know lots of people in their 30s who like K-cups and SUVs and Fox and hoarding salad dressing bottles, but 60 Minutes is the one show that it seems only Boomers love. I suppose it is a CBS show, LOL.
The only person I know who loves 60-minutes is my 45 year old friend who never misses it, but also worships Prince, loves jam bands, and complains about her boomer mom who hoards stuff and gives amazing guilt trips.
My H constantly refers to me as a condiment hoarder 😐 But ya know what: I LIKE CONDIMENTS!!! I’m Totally A Dipper/ Topper/ Adder!!! The fact that I have three types of mustard open in my fridge right now is because Cajun mustard is totally different-tasting than the blackened mustard & I needed the stone-ground German mustard for the Rouladen (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25194/german-rouladen/) I made for my friend’s Oktoberfest party, dammit. Stomps feet. I’ll use 90% of each bottle/ jar before expiring (which is when I ALWAYS toss!). But um, yeah, H is also super-anti-mustard & erm, most other condiments, sooo...
Three types of mustard is amateur hour, if you ask my H. But we live in a state with a mustard museum so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
We have three types of mustard and I don’t even like mustard (mostly use it in cooking).
My parents definitely have the stuffed fridge with nothing in it. Our fridge is practically bare and everything gets used, eaten, and replaced pretty frequently.
Oh yeah, the bottled water thing also drives me nuts. And they buy those little ones, which are only good for creating more waste. WHY ARE YOU BUYING ONE GULP BOTTLES.
The leftovers thing is 100% my parents too. I suggested halving recipes and you would have thought I had suggested they eat cat food now.
Three types of mustard is amateur hour, if you ask my H. But we live in a state with a mustard museum so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Wisconsin? Cause I visited one outside of Madison back in 2000. I can't even remember the name of the town, it's really tiny. I went to visit some relatives' graves in the cemetery.
Post by StrawberryBlondie on Oct 29, 2018 17:47:01 GMT -5
My H is the condiment guy. I think we currently have at least 5 barbeque sauces in the fridge. And 2 different ketchups. And like 3 different types of pickles.
ETA: and salsa! If there aren't at least 6 jars in the fridge right now I'll be shocked.
I'd love to read the thread "Can I rant about Gen-Xers/Millennials?" I bet it's just as obnoxious as these threads always seem to be.
Boomers aren't going to change shit, so why keep bitching about it?
I just think it’s funny because things I always thought were quirks of my parents turn out to be indicative of most of their generation. And yes, I’m sure they can say weird stuff about us too (“can you believe they use cloth napkins? What’s up with turning lights on with Alexa, would it kill them to get up and flip the switch?”).
My mom isn’t too much like these descriptions, but I think it’s because they’re dead broke. They live on food stamps and my mom has always had to scrounge, so the idea of using paper plates would never fly with her.
What bothers me is her general lack of interest in critical thinking. She’s always been conservative Christian, but not fundie. Maybe I’m just noticing it more that I’m being more outspoken with my liberalism. She just isn’t interested in looking beyond her bubble
The bedtime thing wouldn't bug me that much, pugz , but then, you are talking to someone who is probably going to bed at 8:30 tonight. LOL!
Oof. I went to bed at 6:30 last night. In my defense, I had misread the clock and thought it said 8:30 but when I confirmed with my son that it was, indeed, only 6:30, it didn't stop me.
This thread has given me a whole new appreciation for my parents. Aside from always having the TV on (all MSNBC all the time) they don't do any of this stuff. Although they're in their 70s so technically older than Boomers.
Except for the paper plate part, this is basically my parents too.
Ditto. I went through my parents fridge and pantry and threw away about 50+lbs of outdated food.
I had several arguments about how an expiration date from 10 years ago is not worth saving and needs to be tossed.
So gross!
Also my dad has every damn TV blaring at all times. When I call I have to tell him to turn it down otherwise I have to keep yelling so he can hear me. It’s crazy because he’s so stingy with having the AC at a reasonable temp (89 in a Florida summer is not reasonable) because of the electric bill.