Question About Boomer Parents

[NATI BENGALS]

I wanted to know if it was just my Dad. Or if it is most boomers.

Do your boomer parents whine and complain non-stop about everything?

Or if you are a boomer. Do you find yourself bitching and complaining non-stop about everything?

[*Nately120*]

I have an orange cat that I named Boomer, and I do complain when he jumps up on the counter because he's so baaaad!  But I can't stay mad at him, he's so damn cute!

On a more related note, it is just human nature for people to see their cohort age group as better than that which came before and after and lash out as the world they knew leaves them behind.  Everyone who is older than me is an out of touch fossil, and everyone who is younger than me is an entitled wimp.  My age, something I can't change and something the people I look down upon can't change is what makes me right.  How convenient. 

[NATI BENGALS]

I think what I was trying to get at is this age group grew up in a different time and helped give rise to the media power houses we have today. Back when a breaking news story actually meant something. Now I think they are the main enablers of the monstrosity that is the sensationalized outrage media machine.

I just imagine many retired boomers sit a home consuming massive amounts of this sensationalized bullshit click bait and 24/7 breaking “news channels” running stories that are just complaint after complaint.

It’s just really toxic and sad

[Au165]

My parents aren't bad, I'd say they aren't "this generation..." like 50% of the time.

[SunsetBengal]

My father is a boomer, born in '47. He'll definitely let you know what's wrong with things in this day and age, but as for whine and complain? Hell naw, that ****er's still hard as nails, and at 75 will still outwork many a younger man.

[*Nately120*]

Honestly, my boomer parents were too busy complaining about me to focus on their disappointment with society as a whole.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(01-21-2022, 02:47 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: My father is a boomer, born in '47.  He'll definitely let you know what's wrong with things in this day and age, but as for whine and complain?  Hell naw, that ****er's still hard as nails, and at 75 will still outwork many a younger man.

My mother is no longer with us, but my father is technically part of the "silent generation" as he was born in 1942 (I think granddad made a baby as soon as the US entered the war in case he didn't come back).  He's definitely not a complainer, the exact opposite.  The man is still so goal and task oriented, he loves to have some chore to complete.  He walks around ten miles a day as well.  But I will say, in general, old people complain more because everything they're used to, and grew up with, is unrecognizable now.  In some ways that's a very good thing, in other ways it is not, but to them it's still residing in a world that is very alien from the one they grew up and raised a family in.  That's got to be uncomfortable at best and downright scary at worst.

[basballguy]

(01-21-2022, 02:21 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: I think what I was trying to get at is this age group grew up in a different time and helped give rise to the media power houses we have today. Back when a breaking news story actually meant something. Now I think they are the main enablers of the monstrosity that is the sensationalized outrage media machine.

I just imagine many retired boomers sit a home consuming massive amounts of this sensationalized bullshit click bait and 24/7 breaking “news channels” running stories that are just complaint after complaint.

It’s just really toxic and sad

I think no matter the time frame, teenagers will always complain the most.  

The behavior you're describing is not limited to any age group.  You posted a thread with the sole purpose of complaining about your parents and their demographic, which is ironic.  It's also a little disappointing that you would use "sad and toxic" as a way of describing your parents (dad) behavior.  

Everyone complains...depending upon age they complain about different things.  Young adults love complaining about work salaries, job opportunities, cost of living.  

The only thing my parents complain about is I don't call, text, or visit enough.  

[CKwi88]

Only the white straight cis-male boomers in my experience

[NATI BENGALS]

(01-21-2022, 03:45 PM)basballguy Wrote: I think no matter the time frame, teenagers will always complain the most.  

The behavior you're describing is not limited to any age group.  You posted a thread with the sole purpose of complaining about your parents and their demographic, which is ironic.  It's also a little disappointing that you would use "sad and toxic" as a way of describing your parents (dad) behavior.  

Everyone complains...depending upon age they complain about different things.  Young adults love complaining about work salaries, job opportunities, cost of living.  

The only thing my parents complain about is I don't call, text, or visit enough.  

My hobby wasn't complaining when I was teen.

I know everyone complains. That is why I tried to emphasize the non-stop about everything part. But 75% of my conversation starters are not a negative topic emphasizing something that is wrong with this world.

I don't know why you would say it is disappointing. Yea it's not very nice but it is also truthful. In the USMC I was taught attitude is contagious. I still believe it. I can be in a great mood. Then I get hit with negative topic after negative topic and it is an enormous emotional drain and can quickly put me in a foul mood.

[samhain]

Giving grief to outgoing generations for bitching about the state of things is a slippery slope. Yeah, it's annoying to hear, but the current generation will inevitably find themselves in the exact same spot. Their children will fail to live up to all of their unrealistic expectations, society will change in ways once unimaginable to them, and advertising/marketing will shift from catering to their demographic to a younger one, which will make it seem like their long-held viewpoint on what's "cool" is irrelevant.

I thought my parents were cranks when I was a kid, but now I'm finding myself to be a not-much-different Gen X crank, who tells his kid how much better everything was when I was his age.

"A man once told me that time is a flat circle"

[Arturo Bandini]

(01-21-2022, 01:07 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: I wanted to know if it was just my Dad. Or if it is most boomers.

Do your boomer parents whine and complain non-stop about everything?

Or if you are a boomer. Do you find yourself bitching and complaining non-stop about everything?

Yes and they are right every time for every matter.

The problem with boomers is that they only have compassion for themselves. 

[bjf123]

I’m a boomer. Do I whine and complain about everything? I don’t think so. Life’s too short. I do think people in general whine and complain more today. A big part of it is social media, which has given everyone a platform to show everyone else why they’re right and why you’re an idiot if you don’t agree with them. Am I whining about social media? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


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[Dill]

(01-21-2022, 01:07 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: I wanted to know if it was just my Dad. Or if it is most boomers.

Do your boomer parents whine and complain non-stop about everything?

Or if you are a boomer. Do you find yourself bitching and complaining non-stop about everything?

Well I'm a Boomer, and I do whine and complain to my wife and to this message board.

But not really about "everything": my arthritis in the first case and anti-democratic politics in the latter. 

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(01-23-2022, 08:13 PM)Dill Wrote: Well I'm a Boomer, and I do whine and complain to my wife and to this message board.\

No shit.  

[Rotobeast]

Complaining is the cheapest and most convenient form of therapy.
Boomers are generally frugal, so I expect them to take advantage of any "willing" audience that cannot outpace their stride.

[*Nately120*]

BOOMERS - No one takes responsibility for their actions anymore!

GOD - Adam, did you eat the apple?
ADAM - Well yea, but it's not my fault...Eve told me to do it!
GOD - Eve, is this true?
EVE - Well yea, but it's not my fault...a snake told me to do it!
GOD - Snake, is this true?
SNAKE - Well yea, but it's not my fault...the devil made me to do it!

[CJD]

I think comparing Boomers and Gen Z/Y is hard because they grew up in completely different circumstances.

When Boomers were growing up, they could legitimately work part time while in college and pay off their entire college debt before they graduated.
That's impossible for Gen Z/Y. So I think it's natural that boomers, when they hear about free college proposals, think "What, they can't work part time like I did? Lazy Millennials...."

This basically applies to a ton of economic scenarios due to the different economic circumstances of the generations.

For Boomers, buying a house in the city was relatively low cost. My parents bought a house for $50,000 dollars in the 1980s. It's now worth about $300k. I don't think inflation accounts for that increase in property value. When I was shopping for a house, there was a house my wife and I were looking to buy and it had the sale history on the website. The owners bought it for 90k in 1990, selling it for 330k in 2018. They said they made minor updates to it over the years, but nothing that would realistically account for that increase. Property is just really expensive nowadays.

On the flip side, I don't believe the minimum wage (or wages in general) kept up with inflation. So younger generations are getting hit coming and going.

So, given these different economic circumstances, I think it's natural for an uninformed boomer to, reactively, condemn younger generations because they had opportunities that don't really exist anymore. So their slant is "the kids just aren't taking the opportunities presented to them, whereas I did. This is a reflection on their work ethic, not the times we live in" which then makes them sound stupid as shit to younger generations who are living through these times.

Just my 2 cents. My parents are both boomers and they are liberals/progressives so they are sympathetic to these changing circumstances, so it isn't all boomers. It's probably a 60/40 or 75/25 type thing.

[*Nately120*]

(01-26-2022, 01:23 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I think comparing Boomers and Gen Z/Y is hard because they grew up in completely different circumstances.

When Boomers were growing up, they could legitimately work part time while in college and pay off their entire college debt before they graduated.
That's impossible for Gen Z/Y. So I think it's natural that boomers, when they hear about free college proposals, think "What, they can't work part time like I did? Lazy Millennials...."

This basically applies to a ton of economic scenarios due to the different economic circumstances of the generations.

For Boomers, buying a house in the city was relatively low cost. My parents bought a house for $50,000 dollars in the 1980s. It's now worth about $300k. I don't think inflation accounts for that increase in property value. When I was shopping for a house, there was a house my wife and I were looking to buy and it had the sale history on the website. The owners bought it for 90k in 1990, selling it for 330k in 2018. They said they made minor updates to it over the years, but nothing that would realistically account for that increase. Property is just really expensive nowadays.

On the flip side, I don't believe the minimum wage (or wages in general) kept up with inflation. So younger generations are getting hit coming and going.

So, given these different economic circumstances, I think it's natural for an uninformed boomer to, reactively, condemn younger generations because they had opportunities that don't really exist anymore. So their slant is "the kids just aren't taking the opportunities presented to them, whereas I did. This is a reflection on their work ethic, not the times we live in" which then makes them sound stupid as shit to younger generations who are living through these times.

Just my 2 cents. My parents are both boomers and they are liberals/progressives so they are sympathetic to these changing circumstances, so it isn't all boomers. It's probably a 60/40 or 75/25 type thing.

That reminds me of a meme where it was about how much cooler the older generation was and it has an entry that says "My mom at 16 with her new Camaro in 1975."

So let's see here (and I think my math is right)...a 2022 Camaro costs $35,195 and assuming you start work at age 16 (that was the law when I got my first job) and assuming you are working minimum wage at $7.25 (because minimum wage jobs are for teenagers) an hour that would be 4854.5 hours of labor and that would be if you didn't pay any taxes or spend any of your earnings on anything other than this new car.

So if you worked a full time 40 hour work week and spent zero money on living expenses or taxes, you could earn that car in 121.4 weeks, or 2.34 years.  I have to go out on a limb and assume that if you tell a boomer that you spent over 2 years salary on a car they would tell you that you are poor because you spend too much money on stuff you don't need.

[bjf123]

The money is a huge difference. My parents bought me a new car while I was still in high school in the mid 70’s. I think sticker on the car was under $3,000, so it was less than 10% of my dad’s salary. I think he was making mid $30’s. Tuition at X was what, $2,500 for the year?

What’s the sticker on a nice, new, small car today, at least $15K and X is what, $40K? You need to be making a LOT more today to have the same things that we Boomers were able to enjoy.


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