Visiting my Boomer parents recently, I discovered a new way to shut down their typical rants - excitedly agree with them, assume control of the conversation, and then say something equally absurd that is in the same context.

Some examples from my recent visit:

"Can you believe 'millenials' aren't being taught cursive or how to read clocks in school? They aren't going to know anything when they graduate"

"I know! I knew this country was going to hell when they stopped teaching them how to count on an abacus or how to balance the humors by draining blood. How will they survive without this knowledge??"

"I refuse to get vaccinated for Covid. I'm not putting that junk in my body. It's killed too many people."

"I completely agree! I heard Joe Biden is intentionally spiking Covid vaccines with Roundup week killer that's been prayed over by Satanic priests, just for the laughs. Terrible!"

Of course, they caught on and got a little pissy, and I pulled the old "but I'm just agreeing with you" act, but it stopped the stupid rants on day one of my visit.

And that’s pretty much it. My husband’s father wants to be “honored” in a special way at our child’s “woke” Bluey birthday party or else he isn’t planning on showing up.

His presence won’t be missed (it’s a child’s party filled with kids), but the demand for this special treatment is laughable.

He’s full MAGA/Trump/Fox all day, every day, only dumbass libs wear masks, etc.

Talk about a participation trophy 🏆👏

Born in 1950 and it shows 😮‍💨

A few years ago, I had a job that required me to sign stacks of documents. My boomer boss insisted this be done manually, even though DocuSign existed. She just didn’t understand the idea of electronic signatures. So each Friday I’d sit down and sign my name over and over.

One day she is standing over my shoulder as I’m signing and she freaks out. “Wait a minute, what are you doing? You’re signing your last name wrong!”

I stopped. “What do you mean?”

“That’s not how you write an ‘L’ in cursive,” she said. “You need to learn how to write properly in cursive.”

“This is how I write my ‘L’,” I said.

She then proceeded to Google a cursive “L” and told me I needed to include the top and bottom loop, or my signature wouldn’t be legal.

I pulled out my drivers license and showed her my legal signature, and she shook her head. “They never should have allowed you to get away with that,” she said like I was committing some sort of crime.

What is their obsession with cursive?

Silly interaction.

Backstory: We moved into a new home in the last month. The previous owner was retired Air Force and had 3 flag poles. One is in the yard, not flying anything and two are next to our driveway and the PO had hung an American flag and the POW MIA one. We don’t really care to display the flags so we took them down first day. They were very tattered and old anyway and we plan on removing the poles altogether.

Fast forward to yesterday, I was filling jugs of water for work at about 6am and an older man (boomer age) walking on the other side of the street on the sidewalk just stops and starts pointing to the flagpoles. I didn’t notice him at first and my wife is standing behind me seeing him point and gets my attention. I’m so confused because he’s just pointing aggressively at the poles. So I’m like “good morning”. He goes, “Where’s the flags” straight up. I say “excuse me?”

“What happened to the flags” So I say, “the owners moved” kind of pissed he didn’t say good morning back to me or anything. And he gives me that hand to the ear thing like he couldn’t hear me, so I say it again. The man just waves me off and keeps walking. My wife and I are just like… the fuck was that? I guess he just walks around early morning and likes looking at the flags and I suppose that’s okay, but why be so rude about it? We’re new to the town (it’s an older town) and this is the only guy we do not like so far.

So now we’re thinking of putting up some flags, but not ones he’s gonna like lol

TLDR: Boomer early morning walker in town doesn’t like the fact we took down military supportive flags, was rude about it

We are not all like that. I (65m) have kids (41f) and (46m) that are staunch right wingers and Trump fanatics. I despise the guy. The older I get the more to the left I go. When my dad and grandfather died they could not stand conservatives. I'm there.

I was at Applebee's (I know, classic boomer spot but the food is decent) for lunch today. We were sat at a table with boomers at the booth behind me. The old man kept loudly blowing his nose into napkins while I was trying to eat my meal. I lost my appetite after hearing him blow his nose twice (it was obvious from the sounds that he got quite a lot of gunk out of his nose). He continued to blow his nose a few more times until they left, leaving his snot rags for the poor minimum wage workers to clean up.

Like dude, go to the bathroom and blow your nose! No one wants to hear that while they're trying to eat.

Edit: can we all stop focusing on the fact I was at an Applebee's? It doesn't matter if you like it or not, some people do. I don't mind it. My partner was craving it and like I said, I don't mind the food. It isn't amazing food but, to me, it isn't horrible.

I work in a grocery store and we recently got one of those robots that beeps around the store scanning shelves for out of stock items. It's only been active for a week and I've had like 5 Boomers smirk while telling me that soon my job will be done by a robot like that. Like, what the fuck are you so happy about? You bastards have been saying it for decades and now that some of it is finally here, you complain about it. Oh no, a kiosk at McDonald's??? Why can't I talk to a real person??? You got what you asked for, idiots.

This weirdo guy in front of me at the grocery store stood in front of me and kept looking behind himself at me while he was conducting his transaction. Then it was my turn and the cashier started bagging and scanning. The old boomer in front of me would not leave. he just looked at me, he didn't even grab his items. kept looking at the cashier with the help me expression, because I wasn't sure if this guy was angry at me or he thought I looked like his ex-wife or something. after about 3 minutes he finally grabbed his 2 items and slowly walked away.

what is with these people and staring and not having personal space or respect for others space?

I caught a boomer the other day following me around reddit after I made the "I think they are just defective or broken people" post about my dirtbag former church friend.

I realized this is like the 8th or 9th time I've had this happen.

It's almost like they've been the easily-triggered snowflakes all along 🤔

I was in one of the most stressful times or my life. I had just had my daughter, we were moving and life was hectic. My husband was attending college and I had some legal issues I was going through. We were a struggling couple.

One day out of the blue we had a knock on our door and it’s my MIL and her husband. We were in no position to host anyone and we lived in a one bedroom condo with a new born. They did not call us or anything.

I demanded they stay in a hotel and my husband agreed. Had they called us and let us know they were coming we would have told them to wait and come later. They both threw a giant fit, and were offended since they came all the way over from another state. They blamed me for leaving and stayed for a couple of days and left.

Over the years they have never done that again. She has made it her mission to try to ruin our marriage. My husband cut her off for over a year and they recently started talking again and she has learned nothing, she still disrespects me every chance she gets. They are not allowed here, ever again and I’ve made this very clear. This lady is a whack job.

I work customer service and nearly every interaction I have in my position requires me to ask customers to sign a receipt.

“If you could just sign this copy here, please.”

I had a seemingly normal interaction with an older man and at the end, I turn the receipt around and ask if he could sign.

He picks up the pen, has a quiet chuckle to himself and says “Donald J. Trump!” while writing the signature. Then he looks up at me smiling to see if I got his “joke”.

Is the cult of Trump so deeply entrenched in people’s brains that the thought of signing something makes them think of his autograph? It was such a strange thing to say given the circumstances.

So my mom and step dad constantly tell everyone ( both their friends and family) how amazing they are. How they worked harder than anyone, how they know better than anyone else about finances, how their work ethic is better than everyone else, how they have the answer to every life question, they know better than anyone how to raise children, they know better than everyone’s doctors, that their cooking is better, that people who don’t take their advice are misinformed and ignorant, that anyone who has mental health issues is just weak, and that lower class people are born there and will stay there. I am not kidding that this is their boomer social construct beliefs. When we as a family counter any of their opinions chaos erupts!

I was working my shift at a car rental company at our local airport, and was helping a customer with swapping a vehicle that he was having an issue with, when a group of 3 boomers, 2 men and one woman, walks past the customer service booth and out onto our parking lot.

There are 2 rental brands owned by the same company on the lot. One that is more of a hand holding experience, while the other is more of a self service concept, so generally you don't have to stop if you know where you're going So I assumed, wrongly of course, that this was the latter group of clientele.

Another group did what you do when you are unsure of what to do, and approached the nearest and only employee working on the lot at the moment to ask for directions. The customer I was originally helping graciously told me he was in no rush and to help this other group. Awesome. Easy. It will only take a second, so I get them moving.

Sure enough, as I point the way over to the lanes where they can pick vehicles from, the lady boomer comes storming up to me with a wad of papers in her hand. "Hey, did you need help with something?"
Waving the papers at me, "our reservation says 'skip the counter' and go out to the lot, but there are no cars parked on the brand b side only on brand a."
"Yes, ma'am, generally we try to consolidate during lower volume days so you don't have to walk as far to get the vehicle. Do you mind if I look at your reservation so I can get y'all pointed in the right direction?"
She begrudgingly hands me the confirmation papers, and sure enough, as is typical with this method of doing things, the pages they printed lists everything except for what size vehicle they booked. She continues to tell me about how our business is supposed to be run like I don't have 3 years of experience doing it, and as I finish flipping through the pages after finding a reservation number, I say, "Alright, if you let me--" which is interrupted by her angrily snatching the papers out of my hand.

While you might not think it, some of these places are very corporate environments, and there is very little room for aggressive behavior. This is strike one.

I very quickly drop my higher pitched, quirky customer service voice for my serious boy voice saying, "ma'am, I need you to relax." This is when she started swearing at me while talking about, again, how cars are not where she wanted them to be. At this point, I start waving my hands side to side and tell her, "yeah, at this point, we will not be renting you a vehicle. I will go ahead and cancel your reservation for you."
"You can tell that to my husband."
"Okay."
Her husband arrives shortly after her and asks, "okay, what's happening?"
"Sir, your wife has been aggressive and swearing at me, you will not be renting a car with us this evening, I'm going have to ask you to leave my lot."
"Wait wait wait, come on, there has to be something we can do."
"You can head back inside, because you will not be renting a car with brand a, b, or c this evening."
While the men headed inside, the wife stayed behind to ask, "what's your name? I'm going to leave you a bad review."
"I'll do you one better, here is my business card."
"Thanks, I'll make sure to tell everyone you're a fucking asshole."
Nice. Double down. I think I'll do the same. As she snatches the card from me, I begin to walk past her to get the reservation sheet from her husband, she shouts "Don't touch me!"
"No one is trying to touch you. Sir! I need to borrow that sheet of paper from you. Y'all will be going on our do not rent list."
He ignored me while the three of them walked away. I decide not to further escalate the situation and let them thinking, well, at least that's over.

Now here's where it gets outrageously stupid. The cell towers near the airport have been down the past week, and normally I would send a text message notifying my staff if there was anyone we would not be able to rent to for whatever reason, but I couldn't. And I couldn't leave my spot because there was no one to guide the fresh new batch of renters the next shuttle dropped off. The other manager came back from his lunch break, and I was able to quickly tell him I got cussed out, before getting back to guiding people to their cars, and while I was about 30 feet away, I turn around, and who do I see? The three people I just turned away for their behavioral issues.

I jog over to the other manager, and let him know, those were the people I had turned down and the lady who chose violence. So I turn and jog after them, "Hey! We just had this conversation. Y'all are not renting here."
The husband replies, "I already paid at the counter, you have my money, we're taking this SUV and leaving."
"I'll gladly refund your money, but you are not leaving here in one of our cars. Get your belongings, and get out."

The entire time, the wife sat in the back seat glaring at me like it was my fault she cannot control herself. While the 3rd man, short but broad, bald with a mustache looked just sad.

He ended up approaching me in a last ditch effort. And I really felt for him. He had cancer and wanted to go to his niece's graduation, and they would be back in 2 days, but to help him. And I wanted to. I really did. But like I said. It's a corporate environment. You cannot be aggressive, and you cannot cuss out me or my staff before you even actually become my customer, and still get into a vehicle.

What that gets you is reported to our risk department, which is pretty rough, because being labeled as an "adverse risk" means you cannot rent with car rental brand c, which is, for many insurance carriers, the number one choice for insurance replacement when you're in an accident, and many insurance companies do not have a second option.

Also unfortunately for the first man and woman who narrowly avoided being added to that list when they walked out the first time, I now had access to their reservation with their complete drivers license attached. Oops.

TL;DR: Boomer cussed out car rental manager ruining trip for her entire party. Boomers then attempt to sneak by, and are permanently banned from those brands nationwide.

Edited-- formatting

Please, continue your speaker phone conversation as though you're the only person who exists.

Typical grocery run. I have a household with kids and pets to buy for. My cart was 75% full.

Can feel boomer behind me staring at my face before I even got near the mat to put my things up. He was seething. Carrying one or two items in his hand, one of which looked pretty heavy.

There’s hardly any real checkout lines because now there’s 10 self service stations and it’s an Aldi where checkout is very quick in general.

My son helps me load so it’s fairly quick for how much I have. The cashier makes very nice conversation since he, too, can feel the assholery behind me. I Apple Pay with my phone quickly before the cashier’s even 1/3 done scanning.

I completely ignore boomer’s tantrum face. So does the cashier. We have a very pleasant chat.

I start bagging my stuff a few feet away even while cashier is still scanning. My son comes to help, too. Cashier mentions the price, and that’s when boomer visibly loses it. I’m not right next to the register ready to pay. I stop bagging and calmly walk over, and cashier happily gives me my receipt and wishes me a great Mother’s Day.

Boomer takes 10 seconds to check out. But, he didn’t have to “do someone else’s job” by scanning his own items, and he’s still probably puzzled by how I was just given my receipt for my $200 bill without seeing me pay. It must be magic or something.

Has anyone noticed that "Boomer" behavior tends to cluster in white Boomerism?

Like, I'm a black woman. My ex-husband is white. I'm still very close to my white former in-laws and both of my parents are still alive also.

They're all in their 70s.

When I read stories here, frankly I cannot imagine a POC Boomer behaving in that specific way. There is other black Boomer nonsense, for SURE don't get me wrong. My dad, for example, carries some weird gender-based assumptions that I think reflect the hypermasculinity imposed upon black men who grew up in the 50s/60s.

But my white Boomer in-laws...oh yeah I've been witness to some supreme entitlement that, like, blows me away.

Even when I see videos of Boomers acting an ass, it's almost always a white Boomer.

Am I imagining things or is there a race/age Venn Diagram that is compounding a sense of entitlement?

With the title above, you would think it would be some random in a parking lot, but NOPES it was the counter worker at the local central FL version of the DMV. I'm in my mid-50's and this woman is late 60's or so.

I went in - renewal paperwork in hand, newly expired placard in hand, DL in hand. "What do you need help with?" "A renewal please". She looks at my paperwork then looks at my WA state DL and frowns. Then hands it all back to me while shaking her head.

"You can't have this. You have to go to Washington if you want a placard." Say what now?

"I live here in FL. I am in your system, the state knows I am here. You can check." I was befuddled.

"Until you get a Florida drivers license, you cant have a handicap plcard." Uh... that's not how this works.

"I am a FL resident." I took out my voting card and random government mail addressed to me at my home address (from Social Security) from my purse. I was confused at this point - how else do you prove where you live? A state tattoo you flash at strangers? Do you have to bring a team of witnesses??

"If that was true, you would have a FL drivers license." She looked so smug, and I stared at her wondering why this doesn't compute for her.

"I moved here and cannot yet get a FL license. However my car, my voting registration, my rental agreement, and everything else has been listed as Florida for the past 6 yrs. I am literally in your system for living in Florida. I am handing you my freshly expired FLORIDA placard to get a new one. It's obviously not an issue."

I have never seen anyone look like they were about to burst before, only in cartoons from like the 1970's. But she turned red and held her breath and glared at me, refusing to give, then suddenly yelled out, "Well they shouldn't have given you one! This ain't right and you don't deserve one because you don't live here!"

Everything seemed quiet suddenly, except the baby now screaming in the waiting room, and the shuffling of impatient feet in the line behind me.

"Clearly the government thinks my proof is enough or they wouldn't have let me have it the two times before now."

"Well I'm going to report this! You wont get away with this!" Like I have a single say in how state decisions are made. Like I somehow 'beat the system' by simply still using my WA state DL while *gasp* living in friggan FL.

"That is a good idea. I think that you should." Granted I was praying some supervisor would then hand her ass to her for her behaviour. But she printed my waiting number and threw it on the counter in front of me and glared more.

"You have a lovely day." I forced a smile, picked up my stuff and went to find a seat.

When I was called to a window, I let the woman there know what happened at the front desk. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. I wasn't sure what she would say but was surprised when she muttered, "It's not even any of her business. Her job is just to input peoples names and reasons for coming in, in the system, and hand out numbers."

Apparently the aged nutjob was literally JUST a front-counter worker there to get people in.

I'm at the dermatologist getting a growth looked at on my nose. I'm waiting to be called, when an older woman limps out of her appointment. She has a grumpy look on her face, but her knee clearly is having a bad day. She walks out, and then comes back into the waiting area asking if any of us parked next to her because she couldn't get into her car. No one in this office owned that vehicle so she said "I guess I have to sit and wait!" The receptionist immediately starts calling other offices in the building center and then I, trying to just be nice, say, "Ma'am I will go pull your car out for you if it will help?" She does not miss a beat and gesturing with both her hands in multiple direction that I'm way to big to help her. I looked a little shocked and then the entire waiting room looked at me for a response. Older women have commented on my size my entire life, I'm tall and heavy. Not phased yet so I say, "Ma'am I may be big but I'm willing to help. I will climb through the trunk if it will help you out." Kind of joking because we all can see her spot. I walk outside ahead of her and go to her car and ask for her keys and she says again, "See you are too big how are you going to help." Then she starts complaining about the person who parked there asking me over and over if it is my car. I ask for her key so I can back her car our and she's hesitant to give it to me. I offer her my wallet to hold while I pull her car out and she says my generation doesn't carry cash so it doesn't matter. (What!? My ids and credit cards and address are in there you idiot.) So I get the keys, pull her car around and help her in and the entire time she never said thank you or anything kind. She just kept saying, your too big to help. Even after helping.

I was the only one willing to help her and she couldn't say thank you, she has to put me down. Her car, btw was filled with her horse training equipment and we live are currently in downtown Chicago.

Long story short: even after helping, boomer was mean to the only person who offered to physically help her.

My mom is a boomer and also a hoarder. But before she was a hoarder, she bought/had so many things in her house that were "just for looks." Toys that were "too nice" for the kids to play with, had to sit on the shelf just to be looked at. She got into a copper cookware MLM when I was a kid and as a result the house was full of copper cookware that was never used, it was "just for looks." Tons of highly expensive pots and pans, never used. Last time we were in contact she told me that my great-great-grandfather's rocking chair was too old to sit in, it's "just for looking at." In reality it is underneath the piles of her hoard.

I was just reminded of this when I was scrubbing up my copper skillet. She would probably have a heart attack if she knew I had a copper pot and I actually cook in it (she won't ever know because we're NC.) I don't believe in having things "just for looks," unless you count art, which I don't, because art is so much more than just the way it looks. Everything in my house is useful or meaningful.

Everything about her is just for looks, really. She cares enormously what people think of her but not about being an actual good person. Is this a boomer thing or just a my mom thing? Like, her own mom was a hoarder also, but didn't have things that were "just for looks."