Anyone else think the older generation are much ruder and have less manners than the younger generation?

Question

I work with the elderly and have done in he same place for he last 11 years and it never fails to suprise me how rude they are. They almost never say please or thankyou and they have the cheek to go on about the youth of today!

To the person that mentioned abuse in care homes hang on a minute I can assure you that there are many great care homes out there. There is NO abuse where i work neither would we tolerate it. Ours is clean odour and abuse free. Just because i think they may be ruder doesnt mean i would ever justify abuse in any form.

Answer 1

Your comment is Rick Dickulus and how can you say such a thing with the new ya get me chav culture. I am 37 so not sure if I am young or old as I can out party anyone and am never nasty I can`t believe the stupidity of your juvenile comment. I will prove how much smarter I am than everyone with this comment when your in town on the weekend who is it causing trouble the young or the old> I know I won`t win best answer as i am calling you a retard but i have a far higher IQ than everyone else so I spot things stupid people don`t

Answer 2

First, I admire your ability to work with the elderly, it takes a special gift of love and dedication. Much of what I am going to say I am saying to others, for I know you are probably already thinking these things.

Some can be quite rude and like to make others as miserable as they are. Maybe they were that way when young. I can not help but think that some elders are in care due to such ill manners.

We cared for my mother in her last days, she always had a smile, and was gracious to all. She was a rare darling.
I appeared later in her life, my only regrets were that we did not have more years together before I went off to uni this last round.

All I can say is try to give them the kind courtesy you would to an elderly relative, and maybe you can do something to make their lives a bit brighter. Those going into care have lost loved ones, their homes, and are now reduced to living in a facility.
No matter how lovely and clean it is, sadly, they are on the last portion of their life's journey. Many are grieving, many are afraid, and some perhaps more miserable than they ever dreamt they would be.

--That Cheeky Lad

Answer 3

When people get old they often feel frustrated with the fact that they need to be helped and are upset at themselves for being in such a needy way. They often have lost many loved ones and are upset with the unfairness of life. Unfortunately the way they feel is often the way they act. It's like when a young person looses a boyfriend/ girlfriend and then has bad manners and is rude towards their parents for trying to help them(because they feel their parents don't understand).

Old people often doesn't hear nor see the fact that someone is trying to be polite to them because hearing and vision gets bad when people age. Would you smile and thank someone if you thought(but couldn't be sure) someone was making fun of you?

Old people will talk about young people because life is different now compared to the way it was when they were young. Young people talk about the old people because life is different now. It's human nature(young and old) to talk about what is different. Don't we all talk about that person down the street that always manages to fall down doing something easy?

Remember that some day you will be the older generation and be hard of hearing, be able to see less clearly, and will mostly remember the way things used to be!

Answer 4

You are talking specifics while asking about generalities. While you may be working with a few rude elderly, the general trend is toward less and less consideration for others by the younger generation.

Also, put yourself in their shoes. They're old, tired, in pain, been dumped into a care facility by an uncaring family, lost all of their friends to death, facing death themselves, and now they're being dumped on by the person alledgedly 'caring' for them. I think you would be rude at times as well.

Answer 5

Well, it might just be because they are just that much older and have a complex like "I had to respect my elders when I was young, and now that I'm an "elder" yall should respect me" thing going on. It might also be because we are so much more afraid of "political correctedness" these days that we try to be as polite as possible to strangers. For example, there was much more racism in history than there is now, obviously. The folks who lived in the 30's 40's 50's etc might still have some of those discriminatory feelings lingering in them.
I believe we are equally rude though :)

Answer 6

Firstly, the fact you are working with the elderly has to be congratulated! If there were more like you in the UK, there would be a lot less unhappiness and misery amongst the older generation.
It must be very wearing to work and support fragile and frightened elderly folk all day, and especially those who suffer with dementia.
We fully understand your frustrations and concern at the behaviour of some senior citizens, but much of this is caused by pain and confusion in this mad world we live in! Let's face it, we will all be in their position one day, relying on caring people like yourself.
Keep up the good work and Good Luck!

Answer 7

I think the elderly have paid their dues and have the right to be rude... they put up with a lifetime of BS.....

The youth of today are spoiled rotten and get away with murder, I find them to be just as rude.

I think working with the same population for 11 years definitely has an influence on your perception ... if you were to work 11 years in middle school, you'd call them all brats, which they are.

Answer 8

Totally agree and most of them expect you to bend over backwards to be polite with them as they are older. I certainly dont push old people out of the way or anything but the other week when I tried to get a trolley in tescos an old woman with a walking stick managed to push me out the way with her stick while she grabbed the one I was going for. If it had been the other way round imagine the uproar that would have been caused.

They need to learn that maybe the youth of today would be a bit more respectful to them if they had manners in place for them.

Answer 9

well when you get to be that age youll be the same way, if youre in an old peoples home youll understand what the loss of independence is like and probably experience the abuse that alot of nursing homes inflict on the residents there.and the youth of today are ruder and have no manners as when i was coming up,they have no respect for parents , society , their elders or theirselves!

Answer 10

Glad i saw this one!. Right, my parents are pensioners, and they have excellent manners, especially my dad where women are concerned (gawd, he's such a tart, lol). Anyway, many of them have great manners, have smiles for you in the morning and just chat away to you even if they dont know you. Lots of them are brilliant and i have the upmost respect for many, but not all. This is due to an elderly woman threatening my son with her walking stick because he did not do as she told him!. He was around 100 yards in front of me, and walked on a small wall of the village flower bed. I was watching, and his sister was doing the same. Instead of shouting at them, i was waiting to be nearer to tell them to get down, but these 2 women told him instead. One of them in particular was extremely nasty towards him(he was 8yrs old at the time). I have brought my kids up not to cheek the elders etc, so my son didn't day anything to annoy her. This pensioner obviously didn't see me coming towards her like a steam train, but she knew about it when i stood in front of her. She had raised her stick to hit him and almost dropped it when i shouted at her, and then said she wouldn't have hit him!. How would she have felt if a child had threatened her with a stick?. There would have been uproar and police involved. Some pensioners do tend to stick their noses in when it's not wanted where children are concerned, and to be honest, they shouldn't unless there is cause for concern. As mentioned earlier, not all of them are like this, but the minority are spoiling it for the majority.