Do You Use "old people" excuses? The Dog Ate My Homework

W

WhatInThe

SF VIP
Do you use "old people" excuses? Do you rationalize or justify when something negative happens to you?

I know seniors all though old are capable of many things, especially physical things yet they act old like they are supposed to play the role or something. Every mishap or mistake they make is justified/rationalized with a old person excuse. Even worse they are dragged down by people rationalizing for them with "old people" excuses-old people excuse enablers. Perfect example is the driving dingbat senior who trys to justify their poor driving with things like a mini stroke but the damage on their car says otherwise. They are quick to use the mini stroke excuse but will not give up their license. Actually if the doctor knows they are that stroke prone they are supposed to revoke their driving privileges. So which is it, do want to drive and/or do other things or rationalize like a two bit junky begging for money.

Some happenings can be written off as old people stuff but there is a lot of stuff that is YOUR fault, not your age, not your physical condition etc. So do you use old people excuses? Did the dog eat your homework?
 

I use the crazy old lady excuse when I want to flirt shamelessly with some cute young doctor. I can get away with it because no one takes me seriously.. in fact, they think it's cute.. A young woman could never say what I say..
 
I do use a lot of Post-It Notes to remind me of things to do. I guess the "excuse" that would be used for that is...........age, which would be true.
 

No, I never use any age related excuse. Actually I was quite forgetful even when I was young, so everyone is used to my memory lapses.Husband... 'Do you remember that hotel we stayed in on holiday last year?'...... Me... 'what holiday?'
I still do the same amount of household chores, though less of the gardening [ I plant things in pots though] and still walk about as much, though probably not more than 4 miles now if we go for a walk.I don't think there is much that I didn't do at any age, so no need yet for excuses, although the time will come, I know.:(
 
Nope -- to use old people excuses I'd have to admit I'm over the hill, and I'm not. I never could find my keys half the time, and I still can't -- no difference from when I was 25 and couldn't find my keys.

If you're using old people excuses for driving poorly then you shouldn't be driving.
 
oakapple said:
No, I never use any age related excuse. Actually I was quite forgetful even when I was young, so everyone is used to my memory lapses.Husband... 'Do you remember that hotel we stayed in on holiday last year?'...... Me... 'what holiday?'
Click to expand...

You've just described ME to a Tee , I'm exactly the same, I have an absolutely shocking memory from about when I got to my 30's I think...but then I can't remember for sure...:p
 
I like how young folks just assume an older person is senile and to be given a lot of slack. You can use it to your advantage too.. They have no idea that most Seniors know exactly what they are doing and saying.. lol!! I think it's funny.
 
oakapple said:
No, I never use any age related excuse. Actually I was quite forgetful even when I was young, so everyone is used to my memory lapses.Husband... 'Do you remember that hotel we stayed in on holiday last year?'...... Me... 'what holiday?'
I still do the same amount of household chores, though less of the gardening [ I plant things in pots though] and still walk about as much, though probably not more than 4 miles now if we go for a walk.I don't think there is much that I didn't do at any age, so no need yet for excuses, although the time will come, I know.:(
Click to expand...

This describes a lot of people I know including family. I have family that was always frail. They had an anorexic crackhead body before there was crack. In wishpers in a different setting people was always pass comments on their "frailty" but now they'll do it in their presence, not necessarily to their face but it's not treated as a dirty little secret anymore. In the meantime people that didn't know them when young are blaming everything that goes wrong on old age and we can't convince them this is how they always were and actually they are in good shape for their age. But this "frail" person is acting the part falling right in line with the comments that old people really know what's going on. This enables them to be lazy and try to get away with stuff. Are we looking at senior teenage rebel that never grew up?

Me I always had days where I couldn't find squat. Keys-pffft, the word spare was probably put in the dictionary because of me.
 
No, not yet anyway. I speak with people all day in my work. Many are seniors. When I ask if they want something by email, alot of them say "No, I'm in my 60's, 70's whetever; I dont use computors".

Come on, now- what has age got to do with that? Of course, I never say it, though.
 
my family uses it enough so I don't have to. They do it teasingly and loveingly every time I do something like use a wrong name. But that's okay. When something rolls off my tongue wrong they just bowl over laughing and half the time I don't know what is funny.
 
I've always been a ''writer-downer'' - seems like the physical act of writing something helps me remember whatever. Seems like I need it more than ever now. I'm no computer whizz, but have been involved with them first via my late xhusband back in the days when computers needed acres of tape drives to do what a hand calculator does now, and had to put the data for my MS thesis onto IBM punch cards (anyone remember ''do not fold, spindle or mutilate!'')? to load into a mainframe. Worst part of that was that there is NO way to correct a punch card, don't find the errors till the data doesn't come out right. So I will sometimes shock a young person by what I know how to do, and enjoy doing it. So far, none of the younger folks have commented on any of my memory lapses, etc, they might have noticed, but I don't volunteer any information about any they haven't actually witnessed. I do use age and ''frailty'' to get out of stuff I don't want to do, like moving heavy boxes at my part time tax job, working evening shifts, that sort of thing. Also, don't have any interest or inclination in trying to ''prove'' anything any more.
 
This is an excellent example of playing up the senior citizen thing. This 78 year old women driving a 2013 Fiat got outed while panhandling on a street corner. Although not directly making excuses per say she is playing up the poor little old lady thing for money.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews...furious-man-who-gave-her-money-191826600.html

But this also goes back to threads about change or lack there of. Did this women actually change/do what she needed/wanted or was she a closet grifter her entire life. There was this one McDonalds I used to go to and an old couple came in an always took about a dozen and half creams and sugars after the fixed their coffee. I think they got away with it because they were old.
 
Some people have no concious! I think she should be required to wear a sign that says "I am not broke, just a legal panhandler". In the first place can people actually get a license to do this?
 
My grandmother and Great Aunts always "took things" from restaurants... butter, jelly, creamers... and they weren't poor.. They weren't wealthy, but not destitute little old ladies either. I think some of that stems from living through the Great Depression of the '20's and then WWII and rationing. I think many older folks of that era were frugal and reused things and took advantage of anything they could get.
 
If there is such a thing as the "Age Card", we all use it, from time to time, when it is to our advantage.

cheer-up-old-age-card-1.jpg
 
I remember my Mother, who lived through the depression years, QuickSilver got very angry with me because I gave a pair of curtains to Goodwill that wouldn't fit mine or her windows. She walked down there (it wasn't a blockaway) and got them back. Her remark "I guess a quarter wasn't to much to pay to have them washed and ironed". This was in the sixties. She also got mad when I got a second hand couch. When mine was only 15 years old. I later learned that she had willed me her couch, which was second hand to her and she thought she would die soon. She was 80 then and lived to be 90.
 
We always think of Peer Pressure, as something only teenagers have to deal with. Its definition reads: Peer pressure is an influence when a peer group, or individual encourages another person to change their values, or behaviors to suit other peoples convenience. Could this thread be an example of Senior peer pressure? Some posters expect everyone to behave a certain way because they do? Hey, all generations have "excuse makers" in their numbers. Seems we always trip over stereotypes!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top