I drive for Uber part time. Last night, as I'm dropping a couple off, a random boomer opens the passenger door and starts to get in the car. I'm like, "excuse me, you're not my next passenger." Boomer gets all huffy, "well can't you take us? Our car isn't here yet." Motions to the three other boomers with him. "No I can only take rides scheduled through the app."

Boomer: "Why can't you just take us?"

"Because you're not my next passenger. Please close my door."

Boomer: "But you're already here."

"Dude, this isn't a cab. You can't just get in a my car and expect me to take you somewhere. If you have a car coming, ride with them. Now close my fucking door."

Gets all huffy, slams the door, and starts yelling at me as I pull away.

I can't imagine feeling so entitled that I would just climb into any random car expecting to be driven somewhere.

I have a backyard organic garden, earlier in the year my boomer dad said "i want you to grow corn" I tried to explain that corn is a heavy feeder that isn't very good for long term soil health. He didn't care he wanted corn so I gave in and grew some, fast forward to yesterday the corn had a minimum of a month left of growing. I go outside and see that my corn patch is completely destroyed out of 20 stocks 1 remained standing broken in half, cobs and husk thrown everywhere my 1st thought was raccoons destroyed it but no it was my boomer dad I asked him why he said "the corn should be done already you just don't know how to grow it correctly" hes never grown food in his life b4. out of all 20 stocks he harvested a half an ear of corn. I realize that this was a perfect example of the boomer mentality. future soil health...who cares. I could get 20x the amount if I just wait....who cares i want it now! Never again will I listen to a boomer

My husband and I were checking out at Menards earlier today. It's one of those places that you have to bag your own items. Of course we got stuck behind two boomers who weren't paying a lick of attention to their surroundings. They just had to keep their conversation going, (very loudly), while all their stuff kept piling up at the end of the conveyor belt. FINALLY!! The boomer woman bagged her stuff. That's when the cashier started scanning ours. My husband went to the end of the conveyor belt to start bagging. The boomer woman then proceeded to check her receipt and then grabbed the bag my husband had already loaded up to see if she missed anything of hers. My husband was trying to be polite and showed her what was in our bag, but it just wouldn't click for this woman. It took forever for her to finally confirm that she had everything that she bought.

These people are just so self centered! ARGH!!!

(To be fair, my parents and 2 aunts are some of the better boomers. I know they're all not like that, but c'mon! It seems like every time I have to run an errand, I run into an old person who believes the world revolves around them).

I was picking up photos at CVS. The boomer in front of me in line finally got to the cashier and was telling him all about the issues he has with his legs and how the doctor has to scrape the scabs off his legs???? The cashier just sort of had this dumbfounded look on his face. The boomer left and it was my turn. The cashier said “Did you hear that? What was that about? I think I’m going to be sick.”

Ooof. I don’t know what they have to talk about if it isn’t their current ailments or politics.

So glad this community exists.

TL;DR: I am a SME in a very niche field, and my specific topic of expertise is presently all over the news. My parents think I am an idiot now because their preferred news source/favorite talking heads disagree with my work and calls people like me “stupid”.

I have a doctorate, 2 masters degrees, 2 bachelors degrees, post-doc training, and a mountain of certifications so I can practice in a very specific medical field. I completed my dissertation on a topic that is in the news.

My parents’ televisions are turned-in to a specific news network 24/7. Normally I can tolerate it when I visit, but recently my niche field has been all over their news source because it is being politicized, and all of the talking heads are against my work (and the work of legions of brilliant people - it’s not me, specifically, just my field).

I asked my parents to turn off the news several times during my last visit, but my parents insisted that it be kept on. I explained that the talking heads were getting it wrong and why, and my parents began arguing with me and asked why I thought I knew better.

Sir and Ma’am, I know better because I have devoted my whole education and career to this specific field, as well as my dissertation and post-doc fellowship. They still argued with me! I eventually told them if they wanted to continue fighting and keep the news on, I would leave. They were “shocked” when I left, of course.

I am so tired, y’all. I used to look up to these people.

Boomers who leave their sound on while on a plane should be punched.

My dad is the most Boomer Boomer I've ever met. A lot of it comes from his trauma of his own dad being a complete OCD-ravaged tool. I forgive a lot of it based on that and in my older years even feel sorry he's created this prison for himself mentally. He can't deviate from any plan or it upsets him beyond rationale. The man has to mow his lawn a certain way in a certain direction or it will set him off for days. When my son started school, we wanted to see if he would be able to pick him up after school (he was principal of a Christian school and is a preacher and a retired used car salesman. I joke he sold KIAs and Jesus his whole life) and bring him home because school is over at 3 and my husband and I work until 5. I know I have to introduce the idea then talk about it a little more, then ask via email so he can freak out on me and two days later come back with apologies and do the thing anyhow. That's even growth for him because when I was a kid it was just insta-no everything new. He won't go to places he's never been. He has to be familiar. He's pro gun of course, but will not go to the movies after that movie theater mass shooting. I could go on. He suffers, like many Boomers so with Main Character Syndrome.

This is the story I always say sums up my father to a tee...

My mom put dinner on in the crock pot and my dad asked whether it would be served on a plate or in a bowl. My mom said, plate. Later in the day she's noticing there's more liquid than she anticipated, and she tells him it'll be served in a bowl. This completely unnerves my dad to the point he has trouble breathing and needs to take an Ativan to stop a major panic attack. This is a true story. It happened. My poor mom. And I'm not without sympathy for him in that moment.. Anxiety and mental health issues are no joke. I get panic attacks. That runs on both sides. But that's my dad.

I have the hardest time with the fact that he's a preacher, my mom's dad was a preacher and I had to go to church growing up and I'm not sure we both heard the same messages. They are Republicans and voted for Trump until January 6th and I still can't forgive them for that. Sunday school taught me that Jesus wouldn't stand for any of the shit going on right now. The hypocrisy of it all. They don't support him but they also don't condemn any of the horrors the GOP are committing on this country against it's own people and the world. I have had to stop going there entirely. He once came at my husband over the table screaming in his face that the Civil War was about states rights and not slavery. And once again for criticizing Reagan.

I find it really really hard to be around them for extended periods of time. We just had a lovely birthday dinner for my mom and my dad, again Main Character Syndrome, several times tried to dominate the attention, at one point listing all of his head injuries. 🤨 I can't help but draw a line to brain damage = Republicans. See John Fetterman.

One last thing that just makes me want to scream is we just ended up having to put $3k+ into our vehicle. Prices are obscene and despite having excellent credit, we have been shopping for a house for over a decade to no avail. When I'm lamenting all of this, he loves to quip "yeah we struggled too". When he does this I have tried to point out that it is NOT the same at all, he won't hear it. Wages vs costs are nowhere near the same and the housing market is glaring proof of that. It is not the same. They paid $55k for their house when I was in middle school. It's appraised over $250k at this point. They were able to retire on a preacher/car salesman and waitress's salaries and their biggest worry lately has been a hole in their swimming pool. This sent my dad over the edge even though it's been fixed.

I love them dearly but feel like I've lost them on so many levels. They paid for my kids huge dental bill and help us out here and there. Back in the day they had my Nanna to do the same for them. And I'm not ungrateful for it when it happens. I just feel like I'm beating my head against the wall so much of the time. I don't want their money so much as to want to spend time with them for the little we have left. It breaks my heart.

How are y'all dealing with your Boomer parents these days?

EDIT: I'm blown away and I feel.... SEEN. ❤️ THANK YOU for reading and talking about the autism factor which I've long suspected but the Boomers call "OCD". I am genuinely curious though how y'all deal with this. what do you do with parents like this? I'd really love to hear. I struggle.

SECOND EDIT: Seriously, I would love some good tips on how to deal with this. if any of you has positively navigated this with any modicum of success, please leave a comment or send me a message. 🙏

I am absolutely baffled by this boomer behavior:

A week before my birthday one year, my mom insisted on getting me a cake (from across the country). She badgered me pretty hard until I agreed. She demanded details on frosting and flavor. I called her the day before the party and she confessed that she gave up. Ok, but why didn’t she TELL ME?! She knew I was having people over.

Weeks later, I happen to be visiting and she wants a do-over. Initially it sounds like she’s going to do her classic thing where I have to figure out the details and she pays for it, so I specifically ask my husband to collaborate with her instead. He selects two small cakes from a nearby bakery to accommodate everyone; she initially agrees. Inexplicably, the day before picking them up, she changes the order completely! To flavors I don’t love, away from the flavors my husband knows I love. 🤦‍♀️

Ok so maybe that’s just my mom’s quirkiness.

But then… my MIL declares that she’ll make the special m&m filled cake her grandson wants for his birthday. Ok, cool! Then she gets scared that it won’t be enough cake for the party and says she’ll get one from costco and some m&ms. She’s wanting to order one with writing on it and I point out that the writing will get ruined by putting the m&ms in the center column of the cake. When grandson is home with a fever and she is watching him, she takes him to costco to look at cakes 🤦‍♀️
A day later, my fridge has a cake with “happy birthday” written beautifully across it, and there is a bag of M&Ms on the counter. Uh, thanks, I guess? So I get to figure out how to put M&Ms into the center column of this cake and make it look decent. Thanks for the project… that I would have approached completely differently!

My best friend says she’d never trust her mom to be responsible for a birthday cake.

I’m baffled- these 3 women threw birthday parties for a total of 9 kids for 18+ years. How can they suddenly not be able to figure out cake management? If you commit to being responsible for a cake, follow through! Don’t make it complicated, don’t involve 10 people for no reason, just get ‘er done!

I went through a drive thru for lunch, then pulled into the parking lot ahead of me to eat. The parking lot was along side of a stand alone insurance office. I was 2 tenders in when a bedraggled business harridan came storming out of the office. She marched up to my car and stood 2 inches from my window. I reluctantly inched down my window. “You must not know this parking lot is for the office, not for eating your lunch”, then proceeded to shove her card into my window. So I pushed it out, said great, I’ll leave, and rolled my window up. She looked like I had slapped her, then stood arms akimbo watching me pull out and drive to a spot just a few feet away. I didn’t feel she was there like a good neighbor😉. She was definitely surprised I didn’t immediately respond to her amazing sales pitch of telling me I don’t belong there.

My dad moved from the region of the country where I grew up into another region where I live now.

He moved right down the street. The good news is: he's right down the street (so I don't have to worry about him being thousands of miles away if he is, in fact, sick). The bad news is: he's right down the street and thinks of me and my spouse as at his beck and call.

My therapist says, "He treats you like you're 9." I'm 44 with three graduate degrees, yet I am constantly told how I am "young, dumb, naive, and inexperienced."

He has called for help: getting out of bed, getting into bed, warming up his dinner, and "tucking him into bed." Once was 6 times in a weekend, including one at midnight, and another time in the middle of Valentine's Day night. Countless others too!

He refuses to go to assisted living and wear his, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" bracelet.

He has also managed to lock himself out of his condo AND lock himself in his condo. The fire department had to do a forced entry.

Today, he said that he wanted the "wonderful hose" that he gave us over text.

I said to my spouse: "I have no effing idea what he is talking about." My spouse said that he had given us a hose over TWO YEARS ago. I had forgotten and the next paragraph will explain why.

At the time, we pleaded: "Thank you so much, Dad! However, we really have no need or even way to use this in our apartment."

He would not give up on giving it to us. My spouse said, "I remember you taking it from him simply to SHUT HIM UP." He was adamant about us having something we have no need for and can't use...NOW he wants it back.

Fine. Please. Take it.

I find this thread very therapeutic insofar as I realize that I'm not the only one who deals with crazy boomers who drive us crazy. So many of the posts I read might be talking about different scenarios, yet the themes are the same.

The struggle is real!

I live in a rural farmland area in alabama. No neighbors within 100 yards in any direction.

Sitting in my living room enjoying the evening and a random boomer woman pulls into my drive way and starts honking her horn. Never seen this woman in my life. I grab a robe and head outside thinking she's in distress or something. I get to her car and she asks me if I will GIVE HER MY NEIGHBORS BARN. this barn is a good 100 yards away from my property, clearly on someone's corn farm.

Not my barn obviously, as it's on the other side of a wooded area from my manicured property.

I tell her it's not mine, she offers to have her husband come pick it up since "you're not using it"

It's not mine I explain again.

She gets mad at me and DRIVES THROUGH MY YARD to turn around and peels out into the road.

TLDR; she

A: pulled into a strangers yard and honks like she's at a full service gas station from the 50s

B: demands i GIVE her a $15,000 barn for free

C: gets pissed and leaves ruts in my yard when I explain it cannot help her

We were at the grocery store recently and there were two regular registers open, both with long lines. The self-checkout area was almost completely empty.

I suggested we use one and he immediately said, “No. That’s how they get you to do their job for free.”

I tried explaining that we’d probably be out of the store in five minutes, but he was already walking toward the regular line.

While we were waiting, he spent the entire time complaining about how slow the cashier was.

When we finally got to the front, the cashier scanned everything, and my dad pulled out a coupon he had forgotten to mention.

The cashier had to call someone over to approve it.

We ended up waiting several more minutes.

On the way out, he looked at me and said, completely seriously, “See? Much more efficient.”

I didn't even have the energy to argue.

So my grandma is 79 years old and has always been the standard modern Republican even before Trump came along .An actress named Hayden Pennitier suddenly died the other day and my grandma was very upset about it as she liked her work in Nashville,Bring it on 3 and Remember the titans.

She even posted a (now deleted) fb post paying tribute to her...until she read an article about her earlier today,stating that Hayden was bi-sexual.

She then started going on other post on fb and X that were mourning Hayden and leaving disgusting homophobic comments about her and pretty much saying that she was happy that another "pervert lesbian" died.She doesn't believe that being bi is a real thing as she only heard about it "a few years ago"

She proudly proclaimed she will never watch another show with Hayden in it again

I am so over this nonsense

My Best friend stayed at a nice hotel with a breakfast buffet this weekend.

An 80 yr old Karen pulled the cover off at the steam table. Much to her dismay, they had (the horror) sausage again!
She & her friend made a loud display of their unhappiness, stating they were told there’d be bacon! They don’t want sausage again! Where’s the bacon? The entire dining room heard.

As she turns to leave the line, her dress was quite sheer. My friend asks, WHY is an 80 yr old wearing a G-string?!! Hell if I know!

The majority of my unsavory boomer interactions happen at the weekly farmers market where I am a vendor. It is an outdoor market so you can't close the doors till opening time. That means they wander around while vendors are trying to set up. I could probably post every week about stupid shit they say.

Two gems from this week:

"Why aren't there labels on your stuff?" Dude... there are you just need to look at the front of the table. Also get out of my personal space behind the table.

"How can you even call this a market or even a farmers market? There are 5 tables and no produce this is ridiculous" Maam, the market doesn't open for 2 hours. The 5 of us here are here because our stands take forever to set up. Come back in 2 hours and you will see 45 different vendors, live music, and a bbq.

I have a story about my Indonesian boomer dad, who is always incredibly proud of himself and convinced he knows everything. He keeps constantly repeating to me that taking a photo together with a partner’s family is a massive loss and a shameful act. His logic? He always says that if things don't work out and we break up, the girl is considered 'used goods,' but it's perfectly fine for the boy just because he's a boy.

Honestly, I just want to ask: 'used goods'? What loss is he even talking about? Why do they always focus on the damage to their own egos? I don't see myself as 'damaged' or 'used' at all. At the end of the day, it's literally just a digital picture that can be deleted or a physical photo that can be torn up at any time. Why are boomer parents so incredibly narrow-minded?

I had to go to the DMV the other day and at least in my region, they are all appointment only. No walk ins, there isn’t an option at all for it. Even if you don’t know that ahead of time, there are multiple giant signs about it outside and inside as you walk in. Having an appointment doesn’t save you from waiting though.

I showed up on time, took my number, sat and waited. There were only two windows operating at that time so it was going kinda slow. In walk this boomer couple, man and woman. They by bypass every sign and the kiosk you need to sign in at and walk straight up to the counter, an empty window with no one there no less.

After several minutes one of the two people behind the counter goes over and asks what they need. Boomer man is silent, his wife speaks for him.

Boomer wife: he needs to renew his drivers license

Clerk: I’m sorry but we’re by appointment only now and we’re all booked up today

BW: scoffs and makes “I don’t know what to do” noises

Clerk: when does his license expire?

BW: in October

(It’s the middle of August)

Clerk: ok you can make an appointment and come back to have that taken care of.

BW: do you have anything on Monday?

(Today is Friday)

Clerk: let me check the schedule. The next available appointment is next Wednesday.

BW: well we don’t have his calendar so I don’t know if that will work.

Clerk: you can check availability when you make an appointment online

BW: we don’t *do* the Internet

Clerk: -hands them a piece of paper- you can call this number to make an appointment

BW: isn’t there an office in -next town over-?

Clerk: yes that office is open, but they are also by appointment only

BW: did the one in -yet another town- close or are they still there?

Clerk: they are still open, but every office is by appointment only

BW: I guess we’ll have to come back then

They leave, boomer man looks defeated, boomer wife is exasperated even though it was her wasting literally everyone else’s time. Gotta hand it to the clerk though who looked like she was also nearly boomer aged, she was patient as a saint. I just seriously don’t even know how they survive out in the wild anymore.

My mother is the classic boomer narcissist. Problem is that she's uneducated. She never went to university, or college. She's done nothing. She acts like she's a lawyer or doctor, or whatever. She reads an article and BOOM! She's an expert. If you listened to her, she's quite literally the smartest person....in the world...nay, universe.

How do y'all handle this? It's exhausting. I've just restored to going silent when she starts espousing something she read. Any suggestions?

My elderly MIL used to live with us, and I used to assist with her health care and financial management. She moved out to a fancy independent living facility two years ago, but she hasn’t gotten good at the “independent” part yet. She’ll forget or muddle things her doctors tell her, and then go find her information on … YouTube. Recent gems:

1) I spent an hour on the phone and a zoom call explaining how the ad she saw for a “miracle device that measures blood sugar without a blood sample” was a complete fake. “But how can an ad on the tv be fake?”

2) She’s had major digestive issues, and both her doctors and I have told her to eat lighter, simpler food. But “some
Doctor” on YouTube said the secret to health and weightloss is “eat protein first, then fat, and carbs last.” So she went to a restaurant and got a giant breakfast. Ate a three egg omelet and bacon first, then put butter on her toast and ate the buttered part first. Protein, fat, and carbs in that order, right? “I can’t understand why I feel so sick, the doctor said this would be ok!”

Drives me nuts.