Post by underwaterrhymes on May 5, 2023 14:48:17 GMT -5
s/o publisher’s clearing house (and not to bring the thread down so pls skip if you’re seeking wholesomeness because this is not that) - I’m pretty pissed off at companies like this because they prey on older adults. My stepdad’s uncle told us one year he had won. And we all needed to watch (I want to say after the Super Bowl? Maybe?) to see him get his big check.
We were all so excited for him… except he had NOT won. He was just confused by the way they manipulatively worded their marketing materials.
When he died, my H and I cleaned out his apartment in the assisted living facility he was living in (a grim task for a number of reasons.)
The amount of mail he had stored away from companies that were promising him wealth was awful. So many deliberately deceptive corporations making millions off of people who desperately need money and think they’ve won something.
My boomer dad and his twin are big on flashlights and pockets. Small flashlights, keychain flashlights, flashlights with a hook so you can hang them on something, LED flashlights, flashlight gloves, a hat with flashlights. And gotta have a pocket on that shirt, or else where else would you put your flashlight when you’re just walking around??
My dad has gifted me so many flashlights over the years. He gets so excited to show me how they work, too
My dad too. One day I will open a closet and there will be one hanging from the bar. He likes to hide them for me to find because he knows I won’t take them if I know about them. I don’t need 15 mini flashlights!
Are all your boomer parents stressed out? They don’t have young children, don’t work, doing fine financially. So what are they stressed about?
My boomer ILs just make up things to worry about. They will stay home the entire day to wait for a Home Depot delivery and both of them will remain home if they are having work done at the house. They don't have enough hobbies so they just worry about things.
For a long time my parents had an iPhone and an iPad and both used the same Apple ID account. The iPad stayed at home with my dad and my mom carried the phone when she was out of the house. They couldn’t figure out how to set up two accounts to send messages to each other so they would text me, then the other would see it and respond.
I would finally get a break at work and have 17 messages about when my mom would be home from work, buying milk, a deer in the backyard, and fixing the brakes on my dads jeep.
Our boomer Aunt cannot figure out how to order anything on the Internet. She can find the item and send me a link, but she cannot figure out how to complete an order. She orders a lot from catalogs that come to the house because she can easily call and place an order.
Post by mccallister84 on May 5, 2023 21:25:00 GMT -5
My daughter’s teacher, who is definitely not a boomer (probably late Gen X) has now emailed us two QR codes. I have had to use H’s phone to scan the code on the email on my phone.
Apparently QR codes are hard for more than just boomers.
I ordered my dad some stamps online and had them delivered to his house. They were a sheet of sea creatures. I kind of forgot about it and he never mentioned them. I finally checked tracking and saw they were delivered like five days previous.
I call him and asked how he liked the stamps. He swears up and down he did not get stamps in the mail. I describe them to him, oh no, he didn’t get the stamps. I tell him I will have to contact USPS and see if we can get a refund etc but I keep asking if he is sure he didn’t get them.
Then he tells me he didn’t get stamps but he did get some odd mail—- a sheet of colorful stickers had arrived the week before. They must have come from some animal charity because they had fish on them. He didn’t think they were recyclable and they were pretty so he saved them.
Of course these were the stamps I ordered! I guess he wasn’t used to the kind that came in a flat sheet instead of a book. Oy! At least he didn’t throw them out!
This is what happens when your wife did all the shopping and bill paying for you and then she dies. You don’t recognize stamps.
My boomer dad and his twin are big on flashlights and pockets. Small flashlights, keychain flashlights, flashlights with a hook so you can hang them on something, LED flashlights, flashlight gloves, a hat with flashlights. And gotta have a pocket on that shirt, or else where else would you put your flashlight when you’re just walking around??
This is 100% my dad. He always wears a button-down shirt with a pocket, and that pocket usually has AT LEAST a highlighter, a pen, a little pill case with advil, and maybe a penlight. We joke that he’s the one you want to be around during the Zombie apocalypse, because he always has a flashlight and advil!
ETA: he also always has chapstick and fingernail clippers.
Therefore he is my sworn enemy. People who clip nails in public drive me into a murderous rage. Fair warning here
This is 100% my dad. He always wears a button-down shirt with a pocket, and that pocket usually has AT LEAST a highlighter, a pen, a little pill case with advil, and maybe a penlight. We joke that he’s the one you want to be around during the Zombie apocalypse, because he always has a flashlight and advil!
ETA: he also always has chapstick and fingernail clippers.
Therefore he is my sworn enemy. People who clip nails in public drive me into a murderous rage. Fair warning here
I’ve never actually seen him clip his nails with them! He uses them to open packages, cut strings from his clothes, strip wires… but never cut his nails. Or at least he never does it in front of people.
My boomer sisters feel the need to comment on every. single. Facebook post they see, even the ones that are clearly phishing and/or have 7k responses. Like, Ellen Degeneres doesn’t really care how you met your husband, Sue.
Re: anxiety, my sense is that it’s really anxiety about getting old, losing function, failing health, etc., so I try to give grace. But damn it can be irritating.
I love reading all these! I thought of a couple more.
A couple years ago, my dad randomly and inexplicably got super excited that he found these huge keychains at a gas station with mine and H's name on them. My dad is not AT ALL the type of person to normally even think about stuff like this. He was so excited when he gave them to us, but I could not bring myself to put a huge keychain with my name on it on my car/house keys, so H and I decided we would use them for the shed and gate keys at home lol.
One time in college, I was visiting H (then boyfriend) for the weekend at his college, which was a 40 min drive from my hometown. I got up to go to the bathroom at H's college house at like 7 AM and while walking past the window that looks out over the parking lot, I saw my car was gone! I woke H up and he thought I was just out of it but nope. My car was not there! I started bawling my eyes out, thinking someone stole my car. So I called my mom in tears. She was trying to calm me down and was like, "Your dad's gone out somewhere; let me call him and see what to do." She called me back two minutes later - "OMG I'm so mad at your dad. He drove up there to take your car and get an oil change, check the tires, and put gas in it for you without telling me." LOL! Ten minutes later, we see him dropping the car back in the lot. He didn't think I'd be up that early and would have the car back before I even knew he had taken it.
My daughter’s teacher, who is definitely not a boomer (probably late Gen X) has now emailed us two QR codes. I have had to use H’s phone to scan the code on the email on my phone.
Apparently QR codes are hard for more than just boomers.
I hate to tell you this but you can also just screenshot the QR code and then press on the QR code to open the link on an iPhone so it’s not completely crazy to send a QR code in an email.
My daughter’s teacher, who is definitely not a boomer (probably late Gen X) has now emailed us two QR codes. I have had to use H’s phone to scan the code on the email on my phone.
Apparently QR codes are hard for more than just boomers.
I hate to tell you this but you can also just screenshot the QR code and then press on the QR code to open the link on an iPhone so it’s not completely crazy to send a QR code in an email.
But wouldn't it be much easier for everyone to just send a link?
I hate to tell you this but you can also just screenshot the QR code and then press on the QR code to open the link on an iPhone so it’s not completely crazy to send a QR code in an email.
But wouldn't it be much easier for everyone to just send a link?
I vote still crazy.
Yea I mean this was my thought. I had no idea you could screenshot a QR code so thanks for that info, but it’s still an extra step when I could have just clicked on the link. I did try to click on the QR code in the email and couldn’t.
Are all your boomer parents stressed out? They don’t have young children, don’t work, doing fine financially. So what are they stressed about?
My boomer ILs just make up things to worry about. They will stay home the entire day to wait for a Home Depot delivery and both of them will remain home if they are having work done at the house. They don't have enough hobbies so they just worry about things.
i think this is a lot of folks as they age. Their worlds just seem to get smaller. I do appreciate that my mom will at least say “it’s nothing like your level of busyness” when she spends 90% of our conversations chatting about her week.
My boomer sisters feel the need to comment on every. single. Facebook post they see, even the ones that are clearly phishing and/or have 7k responses. Like, Ellen Degeneres doesn’t really care how you met your husband, Sue.
Re: anxiety, my sense is that it’s really anxiety about getting old, losing function, failing health, etc., so I try to give grace. But damn it can be irritating.
Probably. It’s just hard when they have 1 thing to do and are so stressed about it when we have the same thing plus 14 other things including work, childcare and helping them (the boomers).
s/o publisher’s clearing house (and not to bring the thread down so pls skip if you’re seeking wholesomeness because this is not that) - I’m pretty pissed off at companies like this because they prey on older adults. My stepdad’s uncle told us one year he had won. And we all needed to watch (I want to say after the Super Bowl? Maybe?) to see him get his big check.
We were all so excited for him… except he had NOT won. He was just confused by the way they manipulatively worded their marketing materials.
When he died, my H and I cleaned out his apartment in the assisted living facility he was living in (a grim task for a number of reasons.)
The amount of mail he had stored away from companies that were promising him wealth was awful. So many deliberately deceptive corporations making millions off of people who desperately need money and think they’ve won something.
I definitely agree! I’ve been cleaning out their house and have found old banking mail from 10 years ago that was never opened. Also, so much junk and spam promising money.
DH and I have been married for nearly 17 years and MIL is still mad we met online and not in a “traditional” way.
My boomer sisters feel the need to comment on every. single. Facebook post they see, even the ones that are clearly phishing and/or have 7k responses. Like, Ellen Degeneres doesn’t really care how you met your husband, Sue.
Re: anxiety, my sense is that it’s really anxiety about getting old, losing function, failing health, etc., so I try to give grace. But damn it can be irritating.
Probably. It’s just hard when they have 1 thing to do and are so stressed about it when we have the same thing plus 14 other things including work, childcare and helping them (the boomers).
It is hard, I try not to get annoyed because they were in our position and we will be them
Probably. It’s just hard when they have 1 thing to do and are so stressed about it when we have the same thing plus 14 other things including work, childcare and helping them (the boomers).
It is hard, I try not to get annoyed because they were in our position and we will be them
But were they? I think about this a lot. They raised us in simpler times. My mom didn’t have to work. Boomers didn’t have student loans. Now if I don’t work, it will be harder to give my kids the standard of living I had. Life keeps getting more complicated. I remember how old my grandfather used to act. I watched my MIL start acting the same way the minute she turned 60, like it was her duty to now be old and fully embrace the part. It’s my life mission to maintain my mental health to not become them.
It is hard, I try not to get annoyed because they were in our position and we will be them
But were they? I think about this a lot. They raised us in simpler times. My mom didn’t have to work. Boomers didn’t have student loans. Now if I don’t work, it will be harder to give my kids the standard of living I had. Life keeps getting more complicated. I remember how old my grandfather used to act. I watched my MIL start acting the same way the minute she turned 60, like it was her duty to now be old and fully embrace the part. It’s my life mission to maintain my mental health to not become them.
My mom has a physical ailment that is currently not diagnosed. She has been working hard to get it diagnosed but keeps waffling that maybe it’s mental health manifesting as a physical ailment but is not seeking out any counseling or medication for mental health. Honestly I’m not sure what it is. They thought Crohns and now saying allergies but she hasn’t gone for allergy testing. This has been going on for 2 years. If she really thinks it’s mental then get mental health help. It wouldn’t hurt either way.