What stereotypes about retirees and seniors do you think are true/false? (husband)
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I think a lot of that comes from the uncertainty in the world today.
It feels like no one is in charge and we're kind of just drifting along, possibly hitting an iceberg at any moment. Look at the news. Climate change. Frequent mass shootings. Complete political dysfunction. Employment stressors. Companies that were institutions like Sears are just going by the wayside. There's a lot of anxiety out there about technology. News and information comes at you at all times. We're overwhelmed.
I can see why people want to back to the simpler "old days."
Oh please. I could come up with just as many rotten things in my time that were overwhelming and to be anxious about. Boohoo. It's just that I don't see the point. Wallowing in the past doesn't make it better.
I think it is a false belief that all grandparents ADORE their grandchildren and live for them. That is true for many senior retirees, but not all. I also think it is a false belief that all seniors are stubborn.
In fact, I think that traits of retirees/seniors are very individual, and that not anything is true for ALL retirees/seniors except that in all likelihood, they are over the age of 25, lol. (I think that also applies to all age groups except, possibly, newborn infants.)
I think it is a false belief that all grandparents ADORE their grandchildren and live for them. That is true for many senior retirees, but not all. I also think it is a false belief that all seniors are stubborn.
In fact, I think that traits of retirees/seniors are very individual, and that not anything is true for ALL retirees/seniors except that in all likelihood, they are over the age of 25, lol. (I think that also applies to all age groups except, possibly, newborn infants.)
I think a lot of that comes from the uncertainty in the world today.
It feels like no one is in charge and we're kind of just drifting along, possibly hitting an iceberg at any moment. Look at the news. Climate change. Frequent mass shootings. Complete political dysfunction. Employment stressors. Companies that were institutions like Sears are just going by the wayside. There's a lot of anxiety out there about technology. News and information comes at you at all times. We're overwhelmed.
I can see why people want to back to the simpler "old days."
No one is in charge?? Really??
How about being in charge of YOURSELF??
I'm a grown up. I am in charge of myself.
Sure there is insanity in this world. Heck, I lived in an insane house when I was a kid. But I learned how to survive.
Stereotypes? That we are slow of wits. That we are baffled by computers.
Sometimes people resent the fact that we are retired, and that we draw social security benefits, and that therefore we receive entitlements—as if we are on welfare. Never mind that we paid into SS for all our working lives. That is a harmful stereotype.
There definitely is a small subset of seniors that talk endlessly about their aches & pains - kind of understandable when one has lived life relatively healthy & then your body begins to turn on you with more & more painful surprises reminding you of your mortality closing in, everyone deals with this differently but a few obsess & are needier.
I think a bigger true stereotype is older folks talking about "when things were better" in the past, because our memories tend to filter out a lot of negativity & rely on nice, rose-colored filtered memories. I suspect this is just some evolutionary trait to help us carry on despite our reality. Plus as young'uns we had an incomplete comprehension of what was really happening, we were concerned with ourselves, our immediate wants. I remember the assassination of JFK as my first wake-up call of disturbing reality, this was soothed by the arrival of The Beatles a few months later, a more pleasant & now more frequent memory.
I guess I find that one of the worst traits of some seniors, always talking about how things "were better" when they clearly weren't if one were to stand back & view the entire time with a clear eye. I know I would hate to repeat my jr high & high school days when I think of those times honestly.
In practical terms to me this means dismissing any politicians, preachers, etc... who try to sell this pipe dream to me for their own purposes or folks who constantly repeat this myth.
There definitely is a small subset of seniors that talk endlessly about their aches & pains - kind of understandable when one has lived life relatively healthy & then your body begins to turn on you with more & more painful surprises reminding you of your mortality closing in, everyone deals with this differently but a few obsess & are needier.
I think a bigger true stereotype is older folks talking about "when things were better" in the past, because our memories tend to filter out a lot of negativity & rely on nice, rose-colored filtered memories. I suspect this is just some evolutionary trait to help us carry on despite our reality. Plus as young'uns we had an incomplete comprehension of what was really happening, we were concerned with ourselves, our immediate wants. I remember the assassination of JFK as my first wake-up call of disturbing reality, this was soothed by the arrival of The Beatles a few months later, a more pleasant & now more frequent memory.
I guess I find that one of the worst traits of some seniors, always talking about how things "were better" when they clearly weren't if one were to stand back & view the entire time with a clear eye. I know I would hate to repeat my jr high & high school days when I think of those times honestly.
In practical terms to me this means dismissing any politicians, preachers, etc... who try to sell this pipe dream to me for their own purposes or folks who constantly repeat this myth.
This is so true. The older I get (I'll be 60 soon) the more I look back at memories and think about the good old days. One only needs to look at the titles of some of the threads in this forum to see that many here spend a lot of time going down memory lane.
They fart in the presence of others without a care in the world?
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