GOGS...Grumpy Old Gits Society..

That's because the wunnerful world you inhabit today is all down to their hard work, suffering and belief in the future so it's quite right that you owe them......allegedly.

I'm 70 in April and am rather pleased that both of us decided early on that we didn't want kids. We have no-one to annoy apart from nieces and nephews and they are at a respectable distance.

Being retired makes me far more relaxed than I have ever been but also horribly aware that there is a rapidly diminishing time left. Maybe it's this sense of urgency that makes the old need it done now and wonder why their needs are unappreciated.

A bit of give and take on both sides seems a good compromise between two opposing sets of needs.

gus3049 said:

I'm 70 in April and am rather pleased that both of us decided early on that we didn't want kids. We have no-one to annoy..............

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I'm glad that I've only ever had step-sons and -daughter. Mind, I could probably cope better with them if they were my own. I've regularly said that I don't want to be a burden to what relatives I have.

gus3049 said:

That's because the wunnerful world you inhabit today is all down to their hard work, suffering and belief in the future so it's quite right that you owe them......allegedly.

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Both my mother and Wor Lass's parents are worse than 3 year olds. We regularly get "......... but I want........" followed by a sulky tantrum.

gus3049 said:

A bit of give and take on both sides seems a good compromise between two opposing sets of needs.

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Again like 3 year olds - very little "give" but a great deal of "take". All 3 of them are over 80 now and have been getting progressively worse for the last 15 or so years. Even my brother has started to notice now and he's always very laid-back.

PAY-BACK TIME

O Lord, let me be a burden on my children
For long they've been a burden upon me.
May they fetch and carry, clean and scrub
And do so cheerfully.

Let them take it in turns at putting me up
Nice sunny rooms at the top of the stairs
With a walk-in bath and lift installed
At great expense.....Theirs.

Insurance against the body-blows of time
Isn't that what having children's all about?
To bring them up knowing that they owe you
And can't contract out?

What is money for but to spend on their schooling?
Designer clothes, mindless hobbies, usual stuff.
Then as soon as they're earning, off they go
Well, enough's enough.

It's been a blessing watching them develop
The parental pride we felt as each one grew.
But Lord, let me be a burden on my children
And on my children's children too.

© Roger McGough

gordonzz said:

a guy I used to work with couldn't wait to get into an old folks home (he still had 30+ years to wait)...he reckoned he was going to be the dirtiest ******* in there!! beats annoying the kids I suppose.

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I don't suppose you can get away with very much these days (and I'm only I'm thinking bum-pinching/-patting.........) by playing the playful-little-old-man card a-la Terry-Thomas. Isn't there a group of people with far too much time on their hands attempting to get wolf-whistling designated as a "hate crime"? For pity's sake!! You can't even spend more than a second on an admiring glance without running the risk of being branded "pervert" now.

Be careful what you wish for!

Remember that you were once that age, and remember too that one day you'll be old and those "feral little illegitimate wastes of dna" will be the ones you rely on to run our shops, hospitals, schools etc. Alienate them at your peril. What goes around comes around, as they say.

Whats wrong with wanting to leave something you didn't sign up for ? When we went into the Common Market it expanded from 6 to 9 countries and life was a bit easier for travel, exchange of goods, etc. I liked it at the time and voted for it.

I did not vote for a 'community' that seems to have about 50 countries (some of which were not even countries when we went in), makes rules and laws that the UK seems to be the only country that takes notice of them, lets us hand out money to 'people from member countries' many of whom seem to send it back to where they came from instead of spending it here, pay loads of tax to support our NHS which is now overloaded with 'visitors' who don't have the same facilities 'back home', and (in this area at least) get regularly cut up by cars sporting Euro identities of places where the steering wheel and road sense apply to the 'wrong' wide of the road. Don't get me going on uninsured drivers..........

There are many other things that irritate me, the above are just a few, and none of them are what I signed up for when the UK joined the Common Market. I agree that not all of our 'imports' (regulations or people) are within the above criteria, but I think I have the right to change my mind when things have changed so much and are not what I agreed to in the first place.

Sorry, but I'm back on older people again - specifically my 80 y-o mother. She's currently staying with us.

I'm a habitual early-riser, and mother is well aware of this. She, quite frequently, doesn't come downstairs until well after 09hr00. We accept this.

We have a shower room upstairs, right next to the room she sleeps in, which has a toilet which she uses on a regular basis. We also have a downstairs bathroom, again with toilet.

This morning, I'm in the living room just before 07hr00, and I hear someone coming down the stairs - I thought it would be Wor Lass. No, it's mother, in her nightie.

Me: "Oh! Morning"

Mother: "Why are you up so early?"

Me: "It's not early for me"

Mother: "I've just come down for the toilet" (Goes and gets on with it)

Mother: (Now standing in the middle of the living room) "Why don't you go back to bed?"

Me: "Because I don't want to and I have things to do"

Mother: (In a disapproving tone) "Well I'm going back"

I'm sorry, but words fail me. This is the same person who when I was a child instilled in me a very strong sense of 'if you've nothing constructive to say, keep quiet'.