How old were you when you started realizing that older people really did 'know better'?

Question

Im 38 yrs old. Ive come to realize that I really enjoy talking with older folks. I find them more insightful and interesting. I had a friend who was about 60 who I could talk to for hours with. I know most young people just blow off those who are more 'mature', thinking "yeah, but times are different now". Times are always different, but lifes' experiences are not to be ignored. They should be learned from. You think?

Answer 1

probably in my mid 20s.. about the same time I got married and got my own house..

Answer 2

When they are honest and start giving me truthful answers and I sense it....I really understand that they know better. I am 31 and it wasn't until the last few years that I have met older men and women that make me laugh and cry with their brutal honesty. This group includes my folks. I think it is a little like being initiated into a group and it happens to everyone at a different time. I only wish my parents had been this honest with me the way they are now, but I guess that that is fairly unrealistic since they spend time trying to protect us when we are young...but in the end, that is why when we are young adults we don't think they are very wise...we sense the BS. Happy are those that are initiated at an early age! ;)

Answer 3

It would seem wise to make a distinction between "Know better" and "know more". Certainly as kids, we think that since dad's opinion doesn't wash when compared to our understanding, he doesn't know- and we reject some very good advice.

That's because we don't know what we don't know yet.... and we don't even realize it's out there. Somewhere along the way, you realize that people who have 20 years more experience than you just might know something you don't, and have an edge. I was probably about 16 when I figured that out.

However- Dad wasn't all right, and I wasn't all wrong. I also figured out that my real job was to take what my parents gave me as their wisdom and improve it- throw out the errors as I came to understand them, and add new truth. This is what you pass on to your children, and once again- it's not perfect.

If you don't listen to those with more experience, you won't know what they know- good or bad. That leaves you at a serious disadvantage.

I'm 65 now, and still learning. I hope my children and grandchildren will have confidence in themselves, but at the same time use the experience of those who came before to make their journey more successful.

Answer 4

Just recently. Although even as a teenager I would listen to their stories, but I didn't realize they were trying to teach me now life works and what I should be doing.

I've tried to teach it to young people and they tell me "that's old, things don't work like that anymore."

One of the reasons they say that is their friends, who are the same age and "think" they know better.

I eventually got paid for writing, $35. That was 25 years ago. Starting pay is still the same $35!

I write a piece on something as a newbie I get $35. Gore Vidal writes that same piece and 10 magazines are walking over each other offering to pay him $100,000 so long as they can exploit name and likeness, because he sells an extra 5% more magazines.

I try and expalin it to young people and they don't listen.

I got one to go along with the program for three years and she was getting somewhere and she pulled the plug do to family and peer pressure and I warned her that would happen.

People don't like success. It makes them feel small. You don't want to say I work in a factory, but my Daughter is doing LEtterman tonight as first guess singing her new hit song and plugging the movie she did with Brad Pitt.

Recently a young woman I know happened to mention to me the Wal Mart door greeter had invented a lens. Most people would scouff at that.

So I asked him about it and he showed me a clipping from the newspaper. Turns out he has a degree in Optics and was a dispensing Optician and he invented the first soft contact and bifocal contact and sold it to a Canadian firm after the US wouldn't grant him a patent because Baush and Lomb were blocking it.

It paid off his house and left him with money in the bank.

Answer 5

If there was a single day, it was the day I returned home from Basic Training. I graduated high school in 1966. We had the draft in those days and my folks weren't able to fund a college education so I didn't have any deferment. I joined the Air Force. When I returned it was very close to my 19Th birthday. My Dad treated me as man, not a boy, it was so obvious that even a 19 year old kid could see it. That was the day I knew I liked my Dad, as a friend, I actually liked the guy. I learned a great deal from that man and I do miss him.

Answer 6

I am 45 and at one time I believed that, for a short time. You may perhaps enjoy story telling time or perhaps gossiping with older folks, but there is no one you cannot learn from, including younger people. There are many areas of knowledge, far too many for any one age group to dominate. Although I enjoy talking to older folks and even those my age, I do not appreciate what I see as being more bigoted and intolerant. As a whole I see them as being an age group who want to complain or selfishly take what they can get and dismiss the younger generation without offering to help protect them.

Answer 7

I stopped thinking I was a know it all when I was in my early 20's, but I look at my friends and i often think I matured at an earlier age than they did.

Your question reminds me of the lyrics for a song

So this is how it feels
To get a little older
And some would say
Wiser
We know what that means
Maybe not
Maybe that's what that means
Maybe not

I think we are truly wise when we realize that being wise is knowing when to admit we don't know everything.

Answer 8

I am 30 and I realize about 2, 3 years ago that the elderly definitely are wiser. Old ppl have experience wisdom and they can solve any problem. They always have the perfect advice and because they had a life harder than the last 2 generations, they can make your problems seems petty..........and they always are.

Answer 9

Actually, I think its an ongoing process. I thought I knew it all in my 30's. I'm now in my 40's and see my 35 year-old boss make the same mistakes I made at his age - mistakes I wouldn't make now.

I think the trick is to keep yourself young. Do not exclude any age group. We have much to learn from the youth of today because they are the people who will be taking care of us tomorrow. We need to understand their values and live in their world.

Answer 10

I was probably about 26 when I realized that my Dad wasn't just full of hot air. It isn't just his advice, but as you get older you figure out that it isn't just advice, but living history. Now that I have a teenage daughter I find myself relaying the same advice to her. You know when I stop and think about it I have turned into my Father. Things really haven't changed that much that the words of wisdom he gave me they do actually apply to situations now.

Answer 11

I"m 49, and I was fortunate enough to learn that lesson early. My father turned 63 the year I was born, and I got so much valuable information from him, and hours of entertainment to boot! I love talking to old people!