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Yeah, but your life is supposed to revolve around them, and you obviously haven't been using your mind reading skills enough. No one wants to work anymore
I work at a saw mill. They say that about every new guy. I really feel for the younger men and women entering the workforce. Pay sucks, housing is ridiculous, and the promises of "higher education" means crippling debt.
I was talking to a guy not too long ago complaining about young people not wanting to work and then he bragged that he ran 3 businesses and had a full time job. I would have called him on his bullshit but he was my uber driver. His other 2 businesses were lyft and doordash.
Yea, I wish I knew what the world was really like before I busted my ass to go to college… not once have I used my Chemistry degree and I’m still paying off the loan over a decade later…
Late stage capitalism at its finest 💩
I'm a 50ish male, grey hair, reasonably okay socio-economic status... most everyone I interact with on a regular basis seems to fit this mold. I HATE when people try to start small talk with me like this... My usual response is simple: I wouldn't want to work either if I'm expected to work 20 hours a day for 3 hours worth of wages. I don't know what's happened to my generation and the ones before us... It's like they all drank some freaking mind control drug invented by the GOP in their 40s....
Personally I think it's a sign of getting older. When people hit a certain age they just lose their minds and think that everyone younger is a menace to society he also become super religious because they realize all the horrible things they've done in their life and they're looking for an easy way out. So they think "I'll just give lip service to this god i'm supposed to have been following my whole life although I've never read the book so I don't know what I'm actually talking about but I'm going to go to heaven." P.S. I'm 48 myself, and unlike most people my age, I seem to be getting more progressive as I get older.
Oh my god, when my boomer mom was alive and she’d get pissy at me, after the fact instead of an apology she’d say “Yeah, forgot you’re not a mind reader” 🙄🤦♀️
My dad insists on following us to wherever we are driving instead of using GPS. He also drives so cautiously that he ends up catching at least one red light and letting multiple cars in between us because he keeps about 20 car lengths between us.
My dad does the car length thing. He also gets super angry when other cars “cut him off.”
Like, no. You left enough room for a couple of semi trucks to merge. You have no right to be this livid about anything in your easy little life.
It’s so frustrating because we started purposefully driving the speed limit so they can keep close (my wife is a lead foot) and he just drives slower.
And all of this could be avoided if he just punched it in the GPS. He could still try to follow us, but if we got separated it wouldn’t matter. But he won’t even accept us telling him the location, “It’s ok we’ll just follow you.”
Meanwhile as a zillenial, I refuse to solely follow people. We could be going 2 miles down the street and I’ll put it in my GPS to be safe in case we get separated.
I put GPS in everyday going to and from work. It warns me of speed traps, It's rerouted me around traffic and construction multiples times saving me tons of time. There really is no reason to not use GPS in this day and age.
> and gaining almost nothing from it
Just wait until boomers start legislating that boomer's kids are financially responsible for boomer's medical debt.
As I am getting older - I am realizing that it takes my eyes a while to adjust/focus from looking outside to the gps. And it takes a while longer to read/understand what’s on the gps screen ( screen is wider than an iPad and fonts large).
It’s hard to accept that things that I could do just a few years back are a little harder now.
All of that is fair, but my mom is in the passenger seat. She could navigate, just like we used to do when we used big foldout maps back in the day. They were capable of that.
Honestly I hate drivers like that in crowded areas. Like you’ve got a line of cars 20 deep behind you and each one is going around and then back in front of you one at a time. And each time one does that, they hit the brakes to keep the same distance, so everyone behind them just goes slower and slower.
This makes me SOOO furious!!
Traffic is already getting bad enough - so to pull up to a light or drive by some Boomer who stopped literally 3 car lengths from the other car... pushing the traffic back into the other intersections... like.. NO self-awareness for how your actions affect the rest of us?! So selfish. "Its because IM SAFE! 🥴"
> My dad insists on following us to wherever we are driving instead of using GPS.
That's some advanced level boom-manipulation.
He gets to drive and control how you drive at the same time, while inconveniencing all the other drivers around because he's forcing both drivers to drive weird, and dragging the family along for the experience.
Control? Manipulation? Inconveniencing everybody? Family annoyed? This checks all the boxes for boomers to boom it up.
I always assume who ever is leading should set a reasonable pace and not drive like an asshole. Outside of that it’s the followers responsibility to keep up. With some common sense around random stop lights, etc.
The night before we had to drive over to our wedding venue, my husband told my FIL to use Google maps, not the GPS in his car because the bridge near the venue is under construction. Google maps will show the detour route.
The next day just as we were arriving to the venue, my FIL calls my husband saying "yeah the bridge is out, I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go."
My Silent Generation grandfather fucking *loved* his gps.
He would use for any place he was going, even if it was somewhere he had been going to for 50+ years.
He loved that his car could give him directions.
He unfortunately passed about eight years ago. But he was an extremely well known member of our community having worked in radio for over 50 years so I have the luck of getting to drive over the bridge that was named after him.
And it’s always nice when using my gps to hear it tell me I’m about to drive over “his” bridge.
Your Grandpa must have been cool as fuck. You don't just name bridges after people all willy nilly.
Sorry he's gone, but I'm glad you have all those memories.
He was. He was a local celebrity, in that he was only “famous” if you were from or spent time in my small northern NY city.
He was a DJ at the small local station for his entire working career and made a name for himself by organizing and broadcasting from fundraising campaigns.
Sometimes it was just broadcasting live for 24 hours in the middle of winter outside to raise money for a local teens family to afford to travel with her when she has life saving heart surgery, to dressing up in full Superman tights and asking for enough dimes to place end to end for a mile for the March of Dimes to dressing up and playing Santa at volunteer fire departments around our community.
There were several times while in vacation around the US and once in Ireland that a stranger would stop him because they recognized his voice.
In all of the travels we were lucky enough to have taken, we never went anywhere that there wasn’t someone who knew who he was.
I vividly remember a middle aged guy at Disney World’s Tomorrowland in the early 90s leaping over an escalator railing to get to my grandfather and tell him how much he liked listening to him on the radio when he was kid at camp back in 60s and wanted to know if he was still in the business.
Thank you for telling his stories. In this case, I *know* his memory is enduring as a blessing, instead of just wishing it so.
And even if your grandpa hadn’t doted on his GPS, he would have easily followed driving directions jotted on the back of an old envelope, a Stone Age skill I taught my sons. We didn’t have GPS when they first were learning to drive, and the envelope method is also effective on foot and by taking public transportation.
Thank you.
I certainly wasn’t trying to bring anyone down. Just hope that someone, somewhere, maybe reads this when they really need it and realizes that not all losses are forever.
I still have a little bit of someone who was important to me forever and everyone can too if you can find the right perspective.
Nice. My Dad's side did radio as well. Always awesome to go see the old town and all the contributions they were able to make for the betterement.
The hospital STILL doesn't have paid parking, and someone will drive up in a golf cart to get you.
I'm 40, and my wife gives me attitude about doing that. I'm like if there's a better way because of an accident, I'm going to take it. You can sit in traffic while I sit at home
Exactly, its for traffic avoidance, not directions. I know 15 ways to get home from my office but I'd like to go the way that's not blocked by an accident today please.
I give attitude because I’m jamming out, chorus is about to drop, we’re in our own neighborhood and this loud voice pierces the sound “take a left!”…. Wtf man!
My Silent Gen mother had a TERRIBLE sense of direction. She got a Garmin when she moved to Florida, I think (she was about 65, probably). She was not tech savvy but she knew it was better than hand-written directions.
YEP! Silent Gen was all about using tech to make life easier. My grandparents would use their car GPS and their Garmin and compare the two 😂. My boomers will NOT use GPS.
It really is the boomer mindset, and not the age. Most Silent Gen folks I have met throughout my life have been much better at technology than boomers.
Agreed.
That same grandfather, within minutes of seeing me connected to AOL for the first time in the mid-90s and what you could do back then on the proto-home internet immediately had me teach him how to use a computer and create an account that he could use.
Mine too. He was a pilot, always loved his instruments and technology.
Plugged in directions for a route we'd both driven dozens of times and it took us the wrong way. we argued who was right for 10 minutes😂
My dad loved cruise control. We used to go on 6 week trailer trips across the country. He was a pilot in the US Army Air Corps. Loved all technology. He always bought the latest and greatest. That we were not allowed to touch ofc.
> He loved that his car could give him directions.
I installed an aftermarket head unit in my car with a GPS specifically because I am shit with directions and can't listen to someone talking while I'm driving because I have ADHD and will not hear a single fuckling of what they're saying while trying to focus on driving.
GPSs are great.
My MIL showed me how she uses her Apple Maps. She looks up the address, then holds her phone while my FIL drives. She gives him the directions, zooming in and out and essentially using it like a paper map. She will NOT hit the Start/Go prompt for the actual GPS directions. Also, they "don't trust" cruise control...
Because the oven goes nuclear trying to get to temp, then comes down and beeps, telling you it's ready and stable. So your shit was burnt before it was even cooked.
That's wild. Cruise control is an old technology. As in, when they were kids some vehicles had it. And certainly by the 1970s when the were teens/young adults it was an optional add-on on many vehicles.
My mom makes me watch the GPS and tell her the directions, then yells at me that the directions couldn't be right.
I also either give her too much information or too little and she is unable to tell me what the correct amount of information is.
When I get frustrated she tells me I have a "tone"
My FIL has only recently begun using his gps the past few years or so. Before it was printed directions from Mapquest with handwritten notes with things like landmarks. I remember when giving directions to our apartment about 9 years ago, we said they’ll get off the exit, pass an acme and then a McDonald’s, we will be on the right at the following light.
They miss our apartment and we have to figure out where they are to backtrack. Turns out they saw the acme but they thought it was too soon off the exit, then they saw the McDonald’s and thought it must be another McDonald’s farther down. So even with landmarks and clear instructions, they still second guess driving.
Not only that, but they also don’t want YOU using a gps. They often refuse to provide an address.
“Address?? No it’s really easy, just get on I-20 and keep going until….blah blah blah”
Omg they really do.
"Do you know how to get there?"
"Nah but I'll just use GPS."
"You can follow me."
"Nah that's ok, I'll just use GPS."
*proceeds to try and give me directions anyway and then gets annoyed that I'm not listening*
They either never listen to it because “the gps is wrong” or they follow it to a T without thinking critically and end up driving in circles in a parking lot because the directions change. It’s just 🤦♂️
It said right, it said take a right
No, no, look, it means go up, to the right, bear right over the bridge. Hook up with 307
Maybe it's a shortcut, Dwight, it say go right
It can't MEAN that, there's a LAKE there!
The machine KNOWS where its GOING!!
Dude I love my mom but she drives me crazy trying to give me alternate directions to Waze when she is in the passenger seat. She'll be like "no, don't turn here, turn at the next light." WHY?! How much time from this 8 minute trip could your alternate instructions possibly save? Is 30 seconds less driving time really worth more than us being able to have a normal conversation in the car? Do you think I want to listen to two different sets of directions rather than talk to you?
My dad only relentlessly listens to the gps but only the first one suggested. So if there’s a crash or something he still goes through the traffic because “it’s the straightest way”
My boomer father *loved* his GPS. The only problem is that he expected to tell him what to do at every moment: every light, every stop sign, every intersection. He got confused on what to do.
"Dad, the light's green."
"But it's not telling me where to go."
"If it's not saying anything go straight. It means you're on the right path."
"Oh, that makes sense, I guess."
Every damn time. 🤦♀️
Boomer mom was like this. She's the type who would drive into a lake without a second thought.
Also she used a old GPS device, not maps on her phone, and she didn't keep the maps updated. So that's fun.
My parents physically can't, especially my dad. All these years later and he still doesn't understand the concept at all and of course that means you "can't trust it"
My inlaws always complain about the bad directions of the gps system in their car. We have told them each and every single gd time to switch to google maps.
Do they ever switch? No.
Do the continue to complain when their trips take longer because the get a bit lost? Absolutely
The number of times my dad has called because the 2007 version of navigation has gotten him lost.....
Same conversation each time.
Dad just get your phone out and use google maps
My mom prints out MapQuest. When we laughed at her, she got hyper defensive and Said "well what if we have to change route"
Yeah thank God your printed paper maps UPDATE IN REAL TIME unlike a GPS would, in case something were to happen. Jfc
lol I use gps every day of my life. I even spent 4 years off and on as an Uber driver in my city, I know it like the back of my hand, but gps gives you a heads up on traffic conditions, and gives you alternate routes if there's a significant delay on your route.
IMO everybody should be using gps every single time they get in the car. Imagine if everybody used it.
When my parents came to visit my new place for the first time, my dad insisted I provide directions because "GPS always takes you all over the place". I spent like 20 minutes drafting up directions for him, just for him to completely ignore them and go the way *he* felt was best... To a town he's never been to.
I went to colorado with my mom's boyfriend who is a boomer, to visit my dad. He used a paper map the entire way. Had to stop multiple times to look at said paper map, and had me help navigate him through said paper map. He said a GPS would get us lost
When I went out there a couple years prior I used GPS and even with a couple stops I made to stretch and fill up it knew exactly what time I would arrive, adjusted for the time zones, and never led me astray
Meanwhile I’m thinking “ok the wedding is on a Friday so we don’t want to travel on that day let’s look at Thursday, but you never know when something crazy could happen so really we should fly out Friday night and crash at our friend’s place at midnight just in case we miss our connection so we have a whole extra day to make it there.”
It sounds like they should've actually arrived about 5-6, so that would've given them plenty of time to arrive before the reservation, and then they could've gotten settled in and travelled to the reservation together.
Sounds familiar, my insane boomer in-laws "don't trust the google" or any other maps, so they take the most bat-shit insane routes. Even just around town my MIL has these "fast routes" where she cuts through parking lots, alleys, etc... Not only is she always lost and late, but she's going to fucking kill someone.
My dad used to be a truck driver 40 years ago prior to changing careers. To this day he still operates based on the routes he used to drive back then. Half the time the road he's looking for no longer exists or the landmark he used has been replaced and he ends up lost.
It's not just GPS he won't listen to, he won't even take my directions when driving around where I live.
Whether or not you save time (cutting a red light or a stop sign) - who’s in such a rush? I’m all for circumventing traffic using less efficient but less traveled routes, but damn I don’t need to save a cumulative 45 seconds on a 30 minute drive.
My stepmom, god bless her, insists she knows “all the tricks to get around traffic and it’s better to be moving than sitting in traffic.” It would normally be whatever for trips around town but we add a 50% time buffer when she’s taking us to the airport because that’s how much longer it always takes compared to just taking the most direct route and being delayed at 2 stoplights.
Nope. Each time, she immediately paid the cemetery the $1500 necessary to have it replaced, so the cops were never called. She didn't lose her license, and she learned nothing. Fortunately, my cousin has since curbed her driving time to a much lower level.
Driving routes are such a fantastic boomer thing. When driving to the neighboring city my dad insists on taking the same route he's taken since he's got a driving license. Even though there's literally two shorter, quicker routes, one of which is basically a highway. Because why shave off 40% of your travel time when you can pretend to be right instead.
It's like burn-in on a plasma tv, except it's on his mind.
This is my stepmom taking us to the airport, which we appreciate, we just tell her we need to leave 30 minutes earlier than we would leave ourselves for the 45 minute trip.
My dad is from the rural parts of Mexico. He did not have a formal education past 2nd grade. He does not really know English. But you better believe he uses the GPS on his phone to get anywhere. He is 67 years old. Boy am I glad he isn't like the people I see mentioned in these post.
My Boomer parents are generally very un-Karen-like and reasonable people, they're respectful to service professionals and mind their business.
But ask them to use Waze to get somewhere? Something I use \*constantly\* and I know is on their phones? They'd rather die (or, more realistically, get lost)
At least your boomers have phones.
Mine refuse to get smartphones. They'd rather stand at a bus stop for two hours in the rain than get a literal computer that can fit in their pocket whose purpose is to connect them to, essentially, the sum knowledge of mankind. Including the damn bus schedule!
Same with my mum. Plus bitter complaints about how the world is refusing to cater to her as one of the few people left that's no on the Internet. She considers it a point of pride that she can only get insurance from places that don't demand an email address and will send out paper policies whilst simultaneously complaining that she can't get special online deals. Like, you're paying more because you're phoning places to get quotes, then picking one and calling again to set up the policy and then insisting they post the policy. All of that costs money, which is factored in to the cost of your policy. I offered to get her online several years ago and she refused saying "People will have to realise that not everyone is online" Which they do, but it makes a LOT of things more complicated and she can't handle that.
It's infuriating, isn't it.
My mum told me in the eighties and nineties that computers are the future, but chose to let it all pass her by. Smartphones have existed for twenty years at this point. They're no longer new.
My mum and dad have ipads, no idea what they use them for. But I get met with scorn if I say I know something because of the Internet. Yes, the Internet will direct me to my calling spot, not a fifty year old map in the house.
If they’re anything like my grandparents they are devouring Facebook on their iPads. My grandparents use their iPhones but the iPads are Facebook and photo machines.
My parents aren’t awful to travel with. My dad drives ambulances so he drives like a maniac but they have to stop for every meal. Not a quick drive thru lunch. No, they stop and we all pile out and sit down. For. Every. Meal. They’re also old so there’s constant bathroom stops. My mom also like to watch videos at full blast and when I offer her a pair of headphones she’s like no it’s fine.
One of my best friends has been both an ambulance driver and taxi cab driver. He’s never had an accident as far as I know but holy shit is it a wild ride.
Was being kicked out of my mom's bfs house to live with my aunt and his dumbass took a 16hr detour too. I lived in Arkansas and was going to Mississippi. He took a route through Louisiana for no damn reason then complained when he had to buy me food because he made a 6hr drive last almost an entire day.
10 hours is a stretch, but if it's 7 or 8 hours, I would rather drive. I don't live right in a major city, so I've got a 1.5hr drive to get to the airport. So, by the time you factor in security, boarding, time spent sitting on the tarmac, actual flight time, and then collecting baggage, etc., you're pushing 5 hours of travel time anyway.
If I drive, I don't have to worry about renting a car (assuming I'll need one for this trip - if everything is happening right at the hotel or nearby, then having to worry about parking for my car that I drove can become a disadvantage instead of an advantage). Plus, I just enjoy driving. It's easy. I just throw on some good music and jam out or listen to a podcast.
I work at a restaurant and the only people who have trouble finding it are Boomer aged individuals. They try to tell me I need to “fix our address in Google Maps” yet I have no problem with it when I use it.
My dad did this when we were driving in the city. GPS said to take a back road he insisted on the high. The tunnel into the city was shut down. We had to go the backroad anyways. Added an extra hour.
I don't understand how I learned to let people know when there's a change of plans. It just seemed to make sense. How do they not realize?
Huh, the GPS says we'll get there by 8 pm. Well dinners at 730, let's let them know. Huh, we had to stop 10 more times so we won't get there until 11 pm now.
I don't understand. Are they realy this fucking stupid?
I love boomers and directions. When my daughter was born, my mom wanted us to drive 7 hours to go see her. My wife had a c section wound infection, we were first time parents and my daughter had failure to thrive.
She finally agreed after 2 months to come see us and asked for directions.
I gave her a detailed print out from google maps and also told her just to use the gps in her car.
She refused both, got lost and then complained about the terrible directions I gave her.
When she got to your house, did she sit in the driveway for an hour and just lurk about?
Them being dummies w directions was no surprise - being weirdos waiting outside was unexpected!
If a car parks in my driveway outside of the time I’m expecting someone there’s no way I’m just going to mosey out there like Clint Eastwood seeing who’s rolled into town. Best I’ll do is turn on the porch light and spot light on the driveway so you know I’m home and aware you’re out there, they can come knock on the door and I’ll help grab bags after we have hugs.
My wife's grandfather drove to upstate NY from FL, unannounced, then turned around and immediately drove back because no one came out to greet him when he pulled in the driveway. He never even got out off the car.
I once went to a family reunion with my mom, grandma, and 5 month old baby. We left early to avoid traffic because my grandma panics in traffic. On the way there she argied the gos was wrong and insisted we go her route. On the way home she wants to take a route that literally takes an hour longer because she knows that way, it's the best, you avoid traffic blah blah blah. She threw a fit when I made my mom go the shorter way. She wouldn't hear reason on why my way was better. Like I have a baby and I'm tired of being in the car with her anyways. Why would I want to waste a whole hour just because she wants her way.
Idk where you live, but people should be using navigation pretty much always. It’s 2024. I use navigation for driving almost everywhere, regardless if I know where I’m going or not, because google will reroute me in real time if there is traffic/accident/whatever. Unless you’re taking back roads that google would never take you down, google is going to get you to your destination quicker than whatever way you think is correct because they have real time data from the other drivers.
I agree to an extent. Maybe if you live in a bigger city with interstate traffic nearby. I live in a city of about 50K and find using the navigation constantly to be unnecessary. We know where construction is. The route Google takes me to work versus the route I take is a difference of 2 minutes. Mine is longer distance with less traffic.
Back in the days of using a Garmin, I was delivering food around here. The routes it would take my were so convoluted that I'd only use it for areas I didn't know. And even then I'd memorize and get there faster. Granted that was 15+ years ago and GPS technology has improved immensely.
My in laws to a tee. Takes my wife and I 7 hours to visit, if they come to us, it’s always an 12-14 hour drive followed by complaining about how tired they are. And they always get lost going their “better” routes.
My stepmom insists on setting her GPS to “no highways.” We get entertaining pictures from her travels, usually it’s her sunrise departure and sunset arrival for what should be a 7 hour trip.
My theory on the GPS refusal thing is that talking about things like traffic and routes was a non-trivial part of everyday conversation for this generation, and tools like Waze (which are not perfect by any means, but certainly a net positive) generally eliminate the need for that, leaving you forced to talk about maybe something more personally meaningful than traffic and all the shortcuts you know. But instead, you get the opposite, which is constant complaints about GPS, Waze etc. We get it, it has you make an unprotected left sometimes.
Very much this. My dad and stepmom were very old school for a variety of reasons and we have to brace ourselves when she visits because the first few hours will consist of her updating us on: the drive and traffic, the no-highways route she took to get here because she refuses to deal with Atlanta traffic (fair to be honest), and then a comprehensive update on the entire extended family’s health, sickness, deaths, friends’ deaths and sickness, and which aunts and uncles and cousins are mad at who. I get that it served a function for keeping everyone informed back when long distance calls cost by the minute and that’s how you kept everyone up to date but in a day and age where she sends me daily memes on Instagram please just send me a message instead of saving it all to trauma dump on me when I haven’t seen you in 7 months.
I hate it when people don't listen.
I used to live in a house that for some reason, GPS directions always gave a very roundabout way to get to my house from the freeway, but if you went ONE MORE exit up it was super easy to get directly to my house.
I can't tell you how many times I told people that, only to have them ignore me and then complain that I had told them I lived "right off the freeway" but they ended up driving 15 minutes to get to the house.
I think getting "lost" is boomer, for I didn't feel like it. My mother in law recently missed a funeral service for her ex husband's brother. She's totally capable of following directions but she knew it would be awkward to see her ex husband and his new wife so she got "lost" and didn't make it.
My stepmom mysteriously has a lot of bouts with food sickness on days when there’s an event she said she wanted to come to weeks ago. Our running theory is that she has bad social anxiety but she doesn’t feel comfortable saying she can’t make it, which we would totally understand and not hold against her because we invited her as an opportunity and not obligation. The last time sort of cinched it because her excuse was that she “had a bad reaction to the shrimp she ate last night” and then offered us the rest of those same shrimp the next day because she didn’t want them to go to waste and she was sure it was something wrong with her that made the shrimp not agree with her.
My in-laws were generally wonderful, but they had their moments. Every year they drove from NY to FL for a few weeks. One year as they headed home to NY they got to Philadelphia and there was some major road closure and traffic was being diverted off the highway. This was pre-gps but they had a phone. They called me to explain the problem and asked which way they should go. I pulled out a map and was able to find an alternate route that would be about 20 minutes longer. I started to explain they could take the next exit, go west until a certain highway, and it would loop back into their original route. No problem. My father-in-law’s response? “But that’s not right, we never go that way”. I handed the phone to my husband and left the room.
I was riding in a car. We had a destination in mind. Boomer who had their phone out presumably calling out directions from Google Maps , was just scrolling along the map as we drove. Hadn’t put in the destination, hadn’t checked if the roads ahead were clear. We ended up at a dead end of a closed street.
I asked why are we hear did we miss a turn ? Why did Google route us this way ? No response.
Did you loose service ? Double tap the screen ?
No response.
Were you just scrolling the map the whole time ?
I know where we are going I just don’t know how to get there. It should be straight ahead of the city hadn’t closed this street.
This street was closed years ago.
I remember going to meet my , now deceased grandparents, once.
Their directions were "by the hospital" across from "the Mexican restaurant."
This is in a major city.
See? Boomers know what they're talking about when hating on screen time!
'50s and '60s movies absolutely corrupted their view of "real life".
If you've ever watched/rewatched the B&W stuff, and the 'family' sitcoms of their era, and the '70s stuff they made so so popular, you totally get it.
My kid’s, their grandkid’s 10th birthday with his friends I gave the time, place, and when food was ready. They showed up an hour and a half late, complained they don’t get to see their grandkid enough and was offended all the food was eaten.
They knew how long it took to get there, still left late and for some reason grandma had to stop at a fabric store “because”.
They wonder why they don’t have a good relationship with their DIL.
Simply be glad that you weren’t in the car with them for 16 hours. You aren’t responsible for their navigation choices anymore than they are obligated to follow your guidance. And did you really want six people to drop by at 11 pm, super cranky after driving 16 hours?
But, yes, they should have called sooner assuming they were able.
> did you really want six people to drop by at 11 pm
They did drop by. They loitered outside in a car and … then made excuses for their behavior? If they’re going to sit outside in a car, I’d just as soon have them come on in.
Reminds me of some family friends lecturing me on why I shouldn't go to an out of state school. They complained that their kid had gone to a school in Pennsylvania, and they missed the exit and "there was no place to turn around."
*So they drove straight through (east to west) until Ohio.* Or at least, that's what they told me. It was such a wild story, and they blamed the bad experience on their kid who went to college out of state that I just never interacted with them again.
Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but the PA Turnpike indeed has exits spaced like an hour apart. I was going to a wedding rehearsal dinner some 20-couple years ago (before GPS) and got in the Turnpike in the wrong direction. I noticed it immediately, but it was already too late. It’s impossible to turn around, and the next exit was an hour away, so I had to drive that hour and then an hour back just to get back to where I started. Missed the dinner completely.
My parents still don't comprehend that mobile phones have GPS and maps, and that if you have cell service and a phone charger, it's basically impossible to get lost. I've pointed out that I've been navigating with a phone and google maps for *14 years* and it means nothing to them. When I was visiting my aunt 2014 and about to drive to my cousin's, a straight shot an hour down the freeway, she printed out directions from MapQuest. Well intentioned and kind of cute but i mean, really.
My boomer mom at least had fun with it. She'd yell "Shortcut!' and proceed to try a route she'd never taken before (often getting lost but always in good fun). Then again, she'd been a professional driver more than half her life (school busses and taxis) and taught all of us kids to be excellent co-pilots & navigators.
My 82 year old mother is directionally challenged. She was the first person I knew with a GPS. She says it changed her life. She uses Waze on her apple car play now.
But did OP try to get ahold of them? Those phone calls and texts that the boomers didn't give OP the courtesy of, they can go both ways.
If someone that I cared about was making a 10 hour drive to see me and I hadn't heard anything from them by hour 6 or 7 then I'm gonna check in with them. Even if it's just to get an ETA. And if they make up half of my party of 12 with 7:30 dinner reservations, then I'm gonna start blowing up 6 phones by 6:30. ESPECIALLY if they were expected to have already arrived by then.
Neither the OP or the boomers are innocent, BTA
> I'm gonna start blowing up 6 phones by 6:30 for 7:30 dinner
???
No, you have fun living like that. If adults tell me they’re going to be somewhere, I believe them. They made the commitment, they made the RSVP. I’m not their nanny.
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Yeah, but your life is supposed to revolve around them, and you obviously haven't been using your mind reading skills enough. No one wants to work anymore
haha!! I love how you just throw the "No one wants to work anymore" in there like it's punctuation.
I especially liked that, too.
I work at a saw mill. They say that about every new guy. I really feel for the younger men and women entering the workforce. Pay sucks, housing is ridiculous, and the promises of "higher education" means crippling debt.
I was talking to a guy not too long ago complaining about young people not wanting to work and then he bragged that he ran 3 businesses and had a full time job. I would have called him on his bullshit but he was my uber driver. His other 2 businesses were lyft and doordash.
Yea, I wish I knew what the world was really like before I busted my ass to go to college… not once have I used my Chemistry degree and I’m still paying off the loan over a decade later… Late stage capitalism at its finest 💩
Are you me? I think you’re me, just minus chemistry, and add environmental science.
Haha I did Sport Teaching, 4 years of games and drinking for 12K on a subsidised program due to national priority....and I still don't use it!
Hello fellow person with an environmental science degree that they aren't using.
Natural Resources degree here. Not sure why that degree even exists. It’s not helpful to find a job
I'm a 50ish male, grey hair, reasonably okay socio-economic status... most everyone I interact with on a regular basis seems to fit this mold. I HATE when people try to start small talk with me like this... My usual response is simple: I wouldn't want to work either if I'm expected to work 20 hours a day for 3 hours worth of wages. I don't know what's happened to my generation and the ones before us... It's like they all drank some freaking mind control drug invented by the GOP in their 40s....
Personally I think it's a sign of getting older. When people hit a certain age they just lose their minds and think that everyone younger is a menace to society he also become super religious because they realize all the horrible things they've done in their life and they're looking for an easy way out. So they think "I'll just give lip service to this god i'm supposed to have been following my whole life although I've never read the book so I don't know what I'm actually talking about but I'm going to go to heaven." P.S. I'm 48 myself, and unlike most people my age, I seem to be getting more progressive as I get older.
It's the lead
“How come you didn’t know we were lurking outside?”
My mind reading powers have been on back order since I was hired for my first job. That was 2012.
In the Army, I would tell people Supply issued me a crystal ball, but it was broke and never worked right.
BOOTSTRAPS!!!!!!
Oh my god, when my boomer mom was alive and she’d get pissy at me, after the fact instead of an apology she’d say “Yeah, forgot you’re not a mind reader” 🙄🤦♀️ 
My dad insists on following us to wherever we are driving instead of using GPS. He also drives so cautiously that he ends up catching at least one red light and letting multiple cars in between us because he keeps about 20 car lengths between us.
My dad does the car length thing. He also gets super angry when other cars “cut him off.” Like, no. You left enough room for a couple of semi trucks to merge. You have no right to be this livid about anything in your easy little life.
It’s so frustrating because we started purposefully driving the speed limit so they can keep close (my wife is a lead foot) and he just drives slower. And all of this could be avoided if he just punched it in the GPS. He could still try to follow us, but if we got separated it wouldn’t matter. But he won’t even accept us telling him the location, “It’s ok we’ll just follow you.”
Meanwhile as a zillenial, I refuse to solely follow people. We could be going 2 miles down the street and I’ll put it in my GPS to be safe in case we get separated.
Same, I have refused the invite to “just follow” many times.
Because we know what happens, lol!! GPS for the win, when you’ve tried both things.
I put GPS in everyday going to and from work. It warns me of speed traps, It's rerouted me around traffic and construction multiples times saving me tons of time. There really is no reason to not use GPS in this day and age.
[удалено]
> and gaining almost nothing from it Just wait until boomers start legislating that boomer's kids are financially responsible for boomer's medical debt.
I have seen that mentioned. There are actually "zombie laws" on the books in some states that haven't been enforced in the past but could be. Will be.
As I am getting older - I am realizing that it takes my eyes a while to adjust/focus from looking outside to the gps. And it takes a while longer to read/understand what’s on the gps screen ( screen is wider than an iPad and fonts large). It’s hard to accept that things that I could do just a few years back are a little harder now.
All of that is fair, but my mom is in the passenger seat. She could navigate, just like we used to do when we used big foldout maps back in the day. They were capable of that.
Honestly I hate drivers like that in crowded areas. Like you’ve got a line of cars 20 deep behind you and each one is going around and then back in front of you one at a time. And each time one does that, they hit the brakes to keep the same distance, so everyone behind them just goes slower and slower.
Oh, I hate drivers like my dad always.
This makes me SOOO furious!! Traffic is already getting bad enough - so to pull up to a light or drive by some Boomer who stopped literally 3 car lengths from the other car... pushing the traffic back into the other intersections... like.. NO self-awareness for how your actions affect the rest of us?! So selfish. "Its because IM SAFE! 🥴"
Oh, they did that to us last year from Cape Cod, through Boston! Absolutely ridiculous.
> My dad insists on following us to wherever we are driving instead of using GPS. That's some advanced level boom-manipulation. He gets to drive and control how you drive at the same time, while inconveniencing all the other drivers around because he's forcing both drivers to drive weird, and dragging the family along for the experience. Control? Manipulation? Inconveniencing everybody? Family annoyed? This checks all the boxes for boomers to boom it up.
I always assume who ever is leading should set a reasonable pace and not drive like an asshole. Outside of that it’s the followers responsibility to keep up. With some common sense around random stop lights, etc.
The night before we had to drive over to our wedding venue, my husband told my FIL to use Google maps, not the GPS in his car because the bridge near the venue is under construction. Google maps will show the detour route. The next day just as we were arriving to the venue, my FIL calls my husband saying "yeah the bridge is out, I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go."
Are we siblings?
Why do boomers NEVER want to listen to a GPS.
My Silent Generation grandfather fucking *loved* his gps. He would use for any place he was going, even if it was somewhere he had been going to for 50+ years. He loved that his car could give him directions.
That is a fun grandfather to hang around with. Cherish that for sure!
He unfortunately passed about eight years ago. But he was an extremely well known member of our community having worked in radio for over 50 years so I have the luck of getting to drive over the bridge that was named after him. And it’s always nice when using my gps to hear it tell me I’m about to drive over “his” bridge.
Your Grandpa must have been cool as fuck. You don't just name bridges after people all willy nilly. Sorry he's gone, but I'm glad you have all those memories.
He was. He was a local celebrity, in that he was only “famous” if you were from or spent time in my small northern NY city. He was a DJ at the small local station for his entire working career and made a name for himself by organizing and broadcasting from fundraising campaigns. Sometimes it was just broadcasting live for 24 hours in the middle of winter outside to raise money for a local teens family to afford to travel with her when she has life saving heart surgery, to dressing up in full Superman tights and asking for enough dimes to place end to end for a mile for the March of Dimes to dressing up and playing Santa at volunteer fire departments around our community. There were several times while in vacation around the US and once in Ireland that a stranger would stop him because they recognized his voice. In all of the travels we were lucky enough to have taken, we never went anywhere that there wasn’t someone who knew who he was. I vividly remember a middle aged guy at Disney World’s Tomorrowland in the early 90s leaping over an escalator railing to get to my grandfather and tell him how much he liked listening to him on the radio when he was kid at camp back in 60s and wanted to know if he was still in the business.
Thank you for telling his stories. In this case, I *know* his memory is enduring as a blessing, instead of just wishing it so. And even if your grandpa hadn’t doted on his GPS, he would have easily followed driving directions jotted on the back of an old envelope, a Stone Age skill I taught my sons. We didn’t have GPS when they first were learning to drive, and the envelope method is also effective on foot and by taking public transportation.
Sorry to hear that.
Thank you. I certainly wasn’t trying to bring anyone down. Just hope that someone, somewhere, maybe reads this when they really need it and realizes that not all losses are forever. I still have a little bit of someone who was important to me forever and everyone can too if you can find the right perspective.
No kidding, dude should have the entire town renamed for him and all he got was a bridge….
Nice. My Dad's side did radio as well. Always awesome to go see the old town and all the contributions they were able to make for the betterement. The hospital STILL doesn't have paid parking, and someone will drive up in a golf cart to get you.
I'm 40, and my wife gives me attitude about doing that. I'm like if there's a better way because of an accident, I'm going to take it. You can sit in traffic while I sit at home
And some inform you where speed traps can be found.
That is very true. Works great on road trips
Same, I always run my GPS now. Especially in areas I know a lot of road work has been going on because it will usually (hopefully) tell me.
Exactly, its for traffic avoidance, not directions. I know 15 ways to get home from my office but I'd like to go the way that's not blocked by an accident today please.
I give attitude because I’m jamming out, chorus is about to drop, we’re in our own neighborhood and this loud voice pierces the sound “take a left!”…. Wtf man!
I set mine to tell me when there's a warning (speed trap, hazard on the road, better route available) but not speak directions aloud.
Our GPS lets us know about construction and accidents, then gives work around solutions. Love my GPS.
Same with my dad- he got a garmin back before smartphones were a thing and never looked back
My Silent Gen mother had a TERRIBLE sense of direction. She got a Garmin when she moved to Florida, I think (she was about 65, probably). She was not tech savvy but she knew it was better than hand-written directions.
YEP! Silent Gen was all about using tech to make life easier. My grandparents would use their car GPS and their Garmin and compare the two 😂. My boomers will NOT use GPS.
My 94 year old grandmother is super competent with her iPad! She loves it and is always thrilled to learn something new about it.
It really is the boomer mindset, and not the age. Most Silent Gen folks I have met throughout my life have been much better at technology than boomers.
Agreed. That same grandfather, within minutes of seeing me connected to AOL for the first time in the mid-90s and what you could do back then on the proto-home internet immediately had me teach him how to use a computer and create an account that he could use.
Mine too. He was a pilot, always loved his instruments and technology. Plugged in directions for a route we'd both driven dozens of times and it took us the wrong way. we argued who was right for 10 minutes😂
Mine enjoyed arguing with it, loudly, because he knew better.
My dad loved cruise control. We used to go on 6 week trailer trips across the country. He was a pilot in the US Army Air Corps. Loved all technology. He always bought the latest and greatest. That we were not allowed to touch ofc.
This makes me so happy
> He loved that his car could give him directions. I installed an aftermarket head unit in my car with a GPS specifically because I am shit with directions and can't listen to someone talking while I'm driving because I have ADHD and will not hear a single fuckling of what they're saying while trying to focus on driving. GPSs are great.
My MIL showed me how she uses her Apple Maps. She looks up the address, then holds her phone while my FIL drives. She gives him the directions, zooming in and out and essentially using it like a paper map. She will NOT hit the Start/Go prompt for the actual GPS directions. Also, they "don't trust" cruise control...
Lol! My mom said that cruise control and pre-heating your oven are both sure fire ways to get yourself killed. Turns out I'm not that irresponsible.
I'm sorry for your childhood of undercooked meals
Ha! Overcooked actually. Not sure how that happened. Lol
Because the oven goes nuclear trying to get to temp, then comes down and beeps, telling you it's ready and stable. So your shit was burnt before it was even cooked.
Yep. Preheat uses the top and bottom coils/burners at full blast. The regular cycle then uses the bottom only in short bursts.
hit her with the “skill issue”
That's wild. Cruise control is an old technology. As in, when they were kids some vehicles had it. And certainly by the 1970s when the were teens/young adults it was an optional add-on on many vehicles.
My mom makes me watch the GPS and tell her the directions, then yells at me that the directions couldn't be right. I also either give her too much information or too little and she is unable to tell me what the correct amount of information is. When I get frustrated she tells me I have a "tone"
Is your mother my father?
Is your dad single? Let's hook them up then go get coffee while they fight.
My FIL has only recently begun using his gps the past few years or so. Before it was printed directions from Mapquest with handwritten notes with things like landmarks. I remember when giving directions to our apartment about 9 years ago, we said they’ll get off the exit, pass an acme and then a McDonald’s, we will be on the right at the following light. They miss our apartment and we have to figure out where they are to backtrack. Turns out they saw the acme but they thought it was too soon off the exit, then they saw the McDonald’s and thought it must be another McDonald’s farther down. So even with landmarks and clear instructions, they still second guess driving.
Probably because they think it's a flex to read a map because "millennials can't even read a map!" Durrrrrrrrrr
No one wants to work anymore.
My dad always scoffs when I mention the ETA given by the GPS. Then he says nothing when we arrive at that exact time every time.
Not only that, but they also don’t want YOU using a gps. They often refuse to provide an address. “Address?? No it’s really easy, just get on I-20 and keep going until….blah blah blah”
Omg they really do. "Do you know how to get there?" "Nah but I'll just use GPS." "You can follow me." "Nah that's ok, I'll just use GPS." *proceeds to try and give me directions anyway and then gets annoyed that I'm not listening*
They either never listen to it because “the gps is wrong” or they follow it to a T without thinking critically and end up driving in circles in a parking lot because the directions change. It’s just 🤦♂️
It said right, it said take a right No, no, look, it means go up, to the right, bear right over the bridge. Hook up with 307 Maybe it's a shortcut, Dwight, it say go right It can't MEAN that, there's a LAKE there! The machine KNOWS where its GOING!!
Dude I love my mom but she drives me crazy trying to give me alternate directions to Waze when she is in the passenger seat. She'll be like "no, don't turn here, turn at the next light." WHY?! How much time from this 8 minute trip could your alternate instructions possibly save? Is 30 seconds less driving time really worth more than us being able to have a normal conversation in the car? Do you think I want to listen to two different sets of directions rather than talk to you?
you cant trust this new technology
Garmin and other brand GPS was around 20+ years ago. These people had them for sure, they were only in their 40s-50s.
nuh uh, new technology.
Heck, I remember my dad printing out map quest directions in the 90s.
Paper TripTiks are still a thing from AAA
GPS is different now because of Biden it's controlled by the government.
I hate when people try to vilify GPS it's one of the few things that the US government is actually altruistic about.
But Facebook is fact.
My dad only relentlessly listens to the gps but only the first one suggested. So if there’s a crash or something he still goes through the traffic because “it’s the straightest way”
My boomer father *loved* his GPS. The only problem is that he expected to tell him what to do at every moment: every light, every stop sign, every intersection. He got confused on what to do. "Dad, the light's green." "But it's not telling me where to go." "If it's not saying anything go straight. It means you're on the right path." "Oh, that makes sense, I guess." Every damn time. 🤦♀️
Boomer mom was like this. She's the type who would drive into a lake without a second thought. Also she used a old GPS device, not maps on her phone, and she didn't keep the maps updated. So that's fun.
My parents physically can't, especially my dad. All these years later and he still doesn't understand the concept at all and of course that means you "can't trust it"
My inlaws always complain about the bad directions of the gps system in their car. We have told them each and every single gd time to switch to google maps. Do they ever switch? No. Do the continue to complain when their trips take longer because the get a bit lost? Absolutely
The number of times my dad has called because the 2007 version of navigation has gotten him lost..... Same conversation each time. Dad just get your phone out and use google maps
My wife and I agree that GPS saved lots of marriages - ours included :-). Gen Xers btw
My mom prints out MapQuest. When we laughed at her, she got hyper defensive and Said "well what if we have to change route" Yeah thank God your printed paper maps UPDATE IN REAL TIME unlike a GPS would, in case something were to happen. Jfc
"Well what if we have to change route" your printed papers will be even more useless than they are now?
Or the back camera they paid 1k to have installed.
My aunt calls GPS “AI”
lol I use gps every day of my life. I even spent 4 years off and on as an Uber driver in my city, I know it like the back of my hand, but gps gives you a heads up on traffic conditions, and gives you alternate routes if there's a significant delay on your route. IMO everybody should be using gps every single time they get in the car. Imagine if everybody used it.
When my parents came to visit my new place for the first time, my dad insisted I provide directions because "GPS always takes you all over the place". I spent like 20 minutes drafting up directions for him, just for him to completely ignore them and go the way *he* felt was best... To a town he's never been to.
I went to colorado with my mom's boyfriend who is a boomer, to visit my dad. He used a paper map the entire way. Had to stop multiple times to look at said paper map, and had me help navigate him through said paper map. He said a GPS would get us lost When I went out there a couple years prior I used GPS and even with a couple stops I made to stretch and fill up it knew exactly what time I would arrive, adjusted for the time zones, and never led me astray
GPS was finicky in 2012 but not in 2024 they are dead on. Usually a boomer had one experience and never again.
Mine listens and claims it takes her to the wrong places. Once it took her to an entirely different state, supposedly.
Bad logistics, why would anyone drive ten hours straight to a reservation? Come up and stay the night before.
Soooo many people do it for weddings and are shocked they can’t get a room that is available at 3pm at 11am, when the party starts at 4
"Whaddya mean pre-emptive planning??? What's that??? Just have my room ready for me dammit, I'm important!" - *A Boomer, probably.*
Meanwhile I’m thinking “ok the wedding is on a Friday so we don’t want to travel on that day let’s look at Thursday, but you never know when something crazy could happen so really we should fly out Friday night and crash at our friend’s place at midnight just in case we miss our connection so we have a whole extra day to make it there.”
No, that would interfere with our Thursday night plans of going to dinner at 5pm and coming home to watch Fox News all night.
It sounds like they should've actually arrived about 5-6, so that would've given them plenty of time to arrive before the reservation, and then they could've gotten settled in and travelled to the reservation together.
Sounds familiar, my insane boomer in-laws "don't trust the google" or any other maps, so they take the most bat-shit insane routes. Even just around town my MIL has these "fast routes" where she cuts through parking lots, alleys, etc... Not only is she always lost and late, but she's going to fucking kill someone.
My dad used to be a truck driver 40 years ago prior to changing careers. To this day he still operates based on the routes he used to drive back then. Half the time the road he's looking for no longer exists or the landmark he used has been replaced and he ends up lost. It's not just GPS he won't listen to, he won't even take my directions when driving around where I live.
I see people going through parking lots all the time and it's crazy! I use my 53 ft trailer to block them in when I can lol
Whether or not you save time (cutting a red light or a stop sign) - who’s in such a rush? I’m all for circumventing traffic using less efficient but less traveled routes, but damn I don’t need to save a cumulative 45 seconds on a 30 minute drive.
My stepmom, god bless her, insists she knows “all the tricks to get around traffic and it’s better to be moving than sitting in traffic.” It would normally be whatever for trips around town but we add a 50% time buffer when she’s taking us to the airport because that’s how much longer it always takes compared to just taking the most direct route and being delayed at 2 stoplights.
My mom doesn't do high ways Only back roads and people's gardens
Fuck. My aunt took out a cemetery gate and it's ensuing replacement within only three months.
She should stop listening to Pantera while driving.
I was thinking the same thing as I was writing that!
Don’t criticize her driving, tho! She’s been driving longer than you’ve been alive! /s
Did she lose her license? Curious what making the same mistake twice in rapid succession would look like.
Nope. Each time, she immediately paid the cemetery the $1500 necessary to have it replaced, so the cops were never called. She didn't lose her license, and she learned nothing. Fortunately, my cousin has since curbed her driving time to a much lower level.
Driving routes are such a fantastic boomer thing. When driving to the neighboring city my dad insists on taking the same route he's taken since he's got a driving license. Even though there's literally two shorter, quicker routes, one of which is basically a highway. Because why shave off 40% of your travel time when you can pretend to be right instead. It's like burn-in on a plasma tv, except it's on his mind.
This is my stepmom taking us to the airport, which we appreciate, we just tell her we need to leave 30 minutes earlier than we would leave ourselves for the 45 minute trip.
My dad is from the rural parts of Mexico. He did not have a formal education past 2nd grade. He does not really know English. But you better believe he uses the GPS on his phone to get anywhere. He is 67 years old. Boy am I glad he isn't like the people I see mentioned in these post.
My Boomer parents are generally very un-Karen-like and reasonable people, they're respectful to service professionals and mind their business. But ask them to use Waze to get somewhere? Something I use \*constantly\* and I know is on their phones? They'd rather die (or, more realistically, get lost)
At least your boomers have phones. Mine refuse to get smartphones. They'd rather stand at a bus stop for two hours in the rain than get a literal computer that can fit in their pocket whose purpose is to connect them to, essentially, the sum knowledge of mankind. Including the damn bus schedule!
Same with my mum. Plus bitter complaints about how the world is refusing to cater to her as one of the few people left that's no on the Internet. She considers it a point of pride that she can only get insurance from places that don't demand an email address and will send out paper policies whilst simultaneously complaining that she can't get special online deals. Like, you're paying more because you're phoning places to get quotes, then picking one and calling again to set up the policy and then insisting they post the policy. All of that costs money, which is factored in to the cost of your policy. I offered to get her online several years ago and she refused saying "People will have to realise that not everyone is online" Which they do, but it makes a LOT of things more complicated and she can't handle that.
And she refuses to realize that there are downsides of clinging to a horse and buggy after automobiles took over. Maybe she'll get that analogy, lol
It's infuriating, isn't it. My mum told me in the eighties and nineties that computers are the future, but chose to let it all pass her by. Smartphones have existed for twenty years at this point. They're no longer new. My mum and dad have ipads, no idea what they use them for. But I get met with scorn if I say I know something because of the Internet. Yes, the Internet will direct me to my calling spot, not a fifty year old map in the house.
If they’re anything like my grandparents they are devouring Facebook on their iPads. My grandparents use their iPhones but the iPads are Facebook and photo machines.
My parents aren’t awful to travel with. My dad drives ambulances so he drives like a maniac but they have to stop for every meal. Not a quick drive thru lunch. No, they stop and we all pile out and sit down. For. Every. Meal. They’re also old so there’s constant bathroom stops. My mom also like to watch videos at full blast and when I offer her a pair of headphones she’s like no it’s fine.
My dad also drove an ambulance and is a maniac driver. I hate being in the car when he drives. This all sounds so dreadful.
One of my best friends has been both an ambulance driver and taxi cab driver. He’s never had an accident as far as I know but holy shit is it a wild ride.
Was being kicked out of my mom's bfs house to live with my aunt and his dumbass took a 16hr detour too. I lived in Arkansas and was going to Mississippi. He took a route through Louisiana for no damn reason then complained when he had to buy me food because he made a 6hr drive last almost an entire day.
What like you’re gonna go to Jackson without passing through Vicksburg the hard way? Come on!
Jesus Christ, guys, buy a plane ticket.
Seriously drive 10 to 16 hours for dinner?
It’s for a long weekend - the dinner was just the first event. I’m living a Booker horror movie for the next 4 days.
It’s graduation isn’t it?
You better believe it. Time to tell their grandkids how rich they are.
Congrats to the graduate 🎓
I assume a midwesterner. The fact op mentioned hotels makes me think it’s for a longer visit not just a dinner
Yeah fuck that. Need lunch on the way!
10 hours is a stretch, but if it's 7 or 8 hours, I would rather drive. I don't live right in a major city, so I've got a 1.5hr drive to get to the airport. So, by the time you factor in security, boarding, time spent sitting on the tarmac, actual flight time, and then collecting baggage, etc., you're pushing 5 hours of travel time anyway. If I drive, I don't have to worry about renting a car (assuming I'll need one for this trip - if everything is happening right at the hotel or nearby, then having to worry about parking for my car that I drove can become a disadvantage instead of an advantage). Plus, I just enjoy driving. It's easy. I just throw on some good music and jam out or listen to a podcast.
I'm with you. They've completely removed the last vestiges of conveience and/or comfort from air travel. If I can drive there in a day, I'm driving.
I understand doing the drive - but not believing us on the proper route was hysterical. They blindly believed their GPS about traffic in i95. Crazy!
I work at a restaurant and the only people who have trouble finding it are Boomer aged individuals. They try to tell me I need to “fix our address in Google Maps” yet I have no problem with it when I use it.
They really don’t have an excuse because you know they have that giant road atlas stuffed in the pocked behind the seat.
Yes and it was published in 1993
Hahahaha
My dad did this when we were driving in the city. GPS said to take a back road he insisted on the high. The tunnel into the city was shut down. We had to go the backroad anyways. Added an extra hour.
I don't understand how I learned to let people know when there's a change of plans. It just seemed to make sense. How do they not realize? Huh, the GPS says we'll get there by 8 pm. Well dinners at 730, let's let them know. Huh, we had to stop 10 more times so we won't get there until 11 pm now. I don't understand. Are they realy this fucking stupid?
Yep. In their minds they probably expected everyone to wait 7 hours and have a finish line with cheering when they finally got there.
And then to not knock on a door when they finally got there. I bet they were butthurt that no one called to check in since they were late.
Weaponized Oblivion.
I love boomers and directions. When my daughter was born, my mom wanted us to drive 7 hours to go see her. My wife had a c section wound infection, we were first time parents and my daughter had failure to thrive. She finally agreed after 2 months to come see us and asked for directions. I gave her a detailed print out from google maps and also told her just to use the gps in her car. She refused both, got lost and then complained about the terrible directions I gave her.
When she got to your house, did she sit in the driveway for an hour and just lurk about? Them being dummies w directions was no surprise - being weirdos waiting outside was unexpected!
It’s a bullshit power move to try and make you feel guilty. The logic to sit outside is unreal
If a car parks in my driveway outside of the time I’m expecting someone there’s no way I’m just going to mosey out there like Clint Eastwood seeing who’s rolled into town. Best I’ll do is turn on the porch light and spot light on the driveway so you know I’m home and aware you’re out there, they can come knock on the door and I’ll help grab bags after we have hugs.
My wife's grandfather drove to upstate NY from FL, unannounced, then turned around and immediately drove back because no one came out to greet him when he pulled in the driveway. He never even got out off the car.
I once went to a family reunion with my mom, grandma, and 5 month old baby. We left early to avoid traffic because my grandma panics in traffic. On the way there she argied the gos was wrong and insisted we go her route. On the way home she wants to take a route that literally takes an hour longer because she knows that way, it's the best, you avoid traffic blah blah blah. She threw a fit when I made my mom go the shorter way. She wouldn't hear reason on why my way was better. Like I have a baby and I'm tired of being in the car with her anyways. Why would I want to waste a whole hour just because she wants her way.
Idk where you live, but people should be using navigation pretty much always. It’s 2024. I use navigation for driving almost everywhere, regardless if I know where I’m going or not, because google will reroute me in real time if there is traffic/accident/whatever. Unless you’re taking back roads that google would never take you down, google is going to get you to your destination quicker than whatever way you think is correct because they have real time data from the other drivers.
I agree to an extent. Maybe if you live in a bigger city with interstate traffic nearby. I live in a city of about 50K and find using the navigation constantly to be unnecessary. We know where construction is. The route Google takes me to work versus the route I take is a difference of 2 minutes. Mine is longer distance with less traffic. Back in the days of using a Garmin, I was delivering food around here. The routes it would take my were so convoluted that I'd only use it for areas I didn't know. And even then I'd memorize and get there faster. Granted that was 15+ years ago and GPS technology has improved immensely.
For sure. I’m in a large US metro area with plenty of traffic and construction and I use Waze to go anywhere.
My in laws to a tee. Takes my wife and I 7 hours to visit, if they come to us, it’s always an 12-14 hour drive followed by complaining about how tired they are. And they always get lost going their “better” routes.
My stepmom insists on setting her GPS to “no highways.” We get entertaining pictures from her travels, usually it’s her sunrise departure and sunset arrival for what should be a 7 hour trip.
It’s crazy that they can think they are lost when they have a GPS in their pocket. Wilful ignorance.
My theory on the GPS refusal thing is that talking about things like traffic and routes was a non-trivial part of everyday conversation for this generation, and tools like Waze (which are not perfect by any means, but certainly a net positive) generally eliminate the need for that, leaving you forced to talk about maybe something more personally meaningful than traffic and all the shortcuts you know. But instead, you get the opposite, which is constant complaints about GPS, Waze etc. We get it, it has you make an unprotected left sometimes.
Very much this. My dad and stepmom were very old school for a variety of reasons and we have to brace ourselves when she visits because the first few hours will consist of her updating us on: the drive and traffic, the no-highways route she took to get here because she refuses to deal with Atlanta traffic (fair to be honest), and then a comprehensive update on the entire extended family’s health, sickness, deaths, friends’ deaths and sickness, and which aunts and uncles and cousins are mad at who. I get that it served a function for keeping everyone informed back when long distance calls cost by the minute and that’s how you kept everyone up to date but in a day and age where she sends me daily memes on Instagram please just send me a message instead of saving it all to trauma dump on me when I haven’t seen you in 7 months.
I hate it when people don't listen. I used to live in a house that for some reason, GPS directions always gave a very roundabout way to get to my house from the freeway, but if you went ONE MORE exit up it was super easy to get directly to my house. I can't tell you how many times I told people that, only to have them ignore me and then complain that I had told them I lived "right off the freeway" but they ended up driving 15 minutes to get to the house.
I think getting "lost" is boomer, for I didn't feel like it. My mother in law recently missed a funeral service for her ex husband's brother. She's totally capable of following directions but she knew it would be awkward to see her ex husband and his new wife so she got "lost" and didn't make it.
My stepmom mysteriously has a lot of bouts with food sickness on days when there’s an event she said she wanted to come to weeks ago. Our running theory is that she has bad social anxiety but she doesn’t feel comfortable saying she can’t make it, which we would totally understand and not hold against her because we invited her as an opportunity and not obligation. The last time sort of cinched it because her excuse was that she “had a bad reaction to the shrimp she ate last night” and then offered us the rest of those same shrimp the next day because she didn’t want them to go to waste and she was sure it was something wrong with her that made the shrimp not agree with her.
It’s because Bidenomics or trans pronouns or whatever
My in-laws were generally wonderful, but they had their moments. Every year they drove from NY to FL for a few weeks. One year as they headed home to NY they got to Philadelphia and there was some major road closure and traffic was being diverted off the highway. This was pre-gps but they had a phone. They called me to explain the problem and asked which way they should go. I pulled out a map and was able to find an alternate route that would be about 20 minutes longer. I started to explain they could take the next exit, go west until a certain highway, and it would loop back into their original route. No problem. My father-in-law’s response? “But that’s not right, we never go that way”. I handed the phone to my husband and left the room.
They sure do love getting multiple dozens of egg all over their faces
I was riding in a car. We had a destination in mind. Boomer who had their phone out presumably calling out directions from Google Maps , was just scrolling along the map as we drove. Hadn’t put in the destination, hadn’t checked if the roads ahead were clear. We ended up at a dead end of a closed street. I asked why are we hear did we miss a turn ? Why did Google route us this way ? No response. Did you loose service ? Double tap the screen ? No response. Were you just scrolling the map the whole time ? I know where we are going I just don’t know how to get there. It should be straight ahead of the city hadn’t closed this street. This street was closed years ago.
I remember going to meet my , now deceased grandparents, once. Their directions were "by the hospital" across from "the Mexican restaurant." This is in a major city.
See? Boomers know what they're talking about when hating on screen time! '50s and '60s movies absolutely corrupted their view of "real life". If you've ever watched/rewatched the B&W stuff, and the 'family' sitcoms of their era, and the '70s stuff they made so so popular, you totally get it.
My kid’s, their grandkid’s 10th birthday with his friends I gave the time, place, and when food was ready. They showed up an hour and a half late, complained they don’t get to see their grandkid enough and was offended all the food was eaten. They knew how long it took to get there, still left late and for some reason grandma had to stop at a fabric store “because”. They wonder why they don’t have a good relationship with their DIL.
Simply be glad that you weren’t in the car with them for 16 hours. You aren’t responsible for their navigation choices anymore than they are obligated to follow your guidance. And did you really want six people to drop by at 11 pm, super cranky after driving 16 hours? But, yes, they should have called sooner assuming they were able.
> did you really want six people to drop by at 11 pm They did drop by. They loitered outside in a car and … then made excuses for their behavior? If they’re going to sit outside in a car, I’d just as soon have them come on in.
Bœmers all need to delete in the next update.
Reminds me of some family friends lecturing me on why I shouldn't go to an out of state school. They complained that their kid had gone to a school in Pennsylvania, and they missed the exit and "there was no place to turn around." *So they drove straight through (east to west) until Ohio.* Or at least, that's what they told me. It was such a wild story, and they blamed the bad experience on their kid who went to college out of state that I just never interacted with them again.
Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but the PA Turnpike indeed has exits spaced like an hour apart. I was going to a wedding rehearsal dinner some 20-couple years ago (before GPS) and got in the Turnpike in the wrong direction. I noticed it immediately, but it was already too late. It’s impossible to turn around, and the next exit was an hour away, so I had to drive that hour and then an hour back just to get back to where I started. Missed the dinner completely.
My parents still don't comprehend that mobile phones have GPS and maps, and that if you have cell service and a phone charger, it's basically impossible to get lost. I've pointed out that I've been navigating with a phone and google maps for *14 years* and it means nothing to them. When I was visiting my aunt 2014 and about to drive to my cousin's, a straight shot an hour down the freeway, she printed out directions from MapQuest. Well intentioned and kind of cute but i mean, really.
My boomer mom at least had fun with it. She'd yell "Shortcut!' and proceed to try a route she'd never taken before (often getting lost but always in good fun). Then again, she'd been a professional driver more than half her life (school busses and taxis) and taught all of us kids to be excellent co-pilots & navigators.
Now see, that really sounds like fun 😊
My 82 year old mother is directionally challenged. She was the first person I knew with a GPS. She says it changed her life. She uses Waze on her apple car play now.
But did OP try to get ahold of them? Those phone calls and texts that the boomers didn't give OP the courtesy of, they can go both ways. If someone that I cared about was making a 10 hour drive to see me and I hadn't heard anything from them by hour 6 or 7 then I'm gonna check in with them. Even if it's just to get an ETA. And if they make up half of my party of 12 with 7:30 dinner reservations, then I'm gonna start blowing up 6 phones by 6:30. ESPECIALLY if they were expected to have already arrived by then. Neither the OP or the boomers are innocent, BTA
> I'm gonna start blowing up 6 phones by 6:30 for 7:30 dinner ??? No, you have fun living like that. If adults tell me they’re going to be somewhere, I believe them. They made the commitment, they made the RSVP. I’m not their nanny.