We've all heard stories of how things were "Back in my day," from an older family member.
Whether it was walking uphill both ways to school, or having to live without any of this "newfangled technology," there's always that one family member who has a tall tale to tell about how they had it worse.
Reddit user u/heuristic_x asked:
"Kids of 'back in my day' parents, what's the most annoying thing they ranted about?"
Some responses have been edited for content, clarity, or profanity.
20.
Dad: back in my day, if your dad made a joke about you and you make one back, he'd take you out back and beat you for disrespect!
Me: that doesn't seem respectable, beating people who you don't like up? Didn't you teach me to not do that?
Dad: that was extremely disrespectful and in my day I would have whipped you with my belt for that.
19.
It always drove me nuts when my parents would complain about how we never spent any time outdoors, because back in their day they'd be tramping through the woods at all hours of the night. I wanted to do that, but I wasn't allowed outside.
18.
Apparently there was actual stuff you could buy for a quarter. Like great. There's not anymore. What significance does this have to me? Nothing? Thought so.
17.
Having to listen to the "getting to school and back" stories. I know darn well that you didn't walk 10 km in snow that reaches your waist, through a forest with wolves and no proper winter boots.
16.
My dad and uncles/aunt like to rant about how young people don't have any honesty or work ethic. My oldest and youngest uncle made moonshine. My middle uncle stole cars. My dad built moonshine running cars out of the parts and my aunt ran off with a 50 year old sugar daddy at 15. It took the car stealing uncle going to jail to straighten them out.
15.
Back in their day, only complete losers had cars in high school. According to them, the cool guys were on the school bus with all the pretty girls. And they told me that lie with straight faces.
14.
"Back in my day, a woman stood by a man, even if he beat the garbage out of her"....... no, mom, no.
My mom used to tell me that she believed a woman's place was in the home and kitchen, and that she wished women had never fought for the right to vote.
She refused to do the majority of cleaning or cooking when I was growing up because she wanted to teach me and my brother how to take care of ourselves, when we moved out her house went to trash for a while before she remarried and now my sisters are in the same boat as we were.
She blows my mind.
Parents: Well, you sent in the application three days ago. Why don't you give them a call and see what the status is? Employers like to see you taking initiative!
Employer job site: Please do not contact us regarding the status of your application. We will contact you if we wish to move forward with your application.
Me: Uh, idk, if I called in they might care a lot more about my apparent inability to follow instructions than my "initiative" for making a phone call...
12.
My stepdad always rants about me not buying a home when he bought one at 21 years old. He always forgets to mention that it only cost him 22 thousand dollars.
11.
The most annoying thing to me is how my parents complain that nobody (from my community) speaks our native language anymore. They say 'back in my day, everyone spoke our language and today none of you kids can.' Guess what? The adults never taught it. It wasn't used in the homes. So how the heck are we supposed to learn it?!
And then I have people from the home country call me and speak and I'm like you know I barely understand? I can speak better than my siblings but not that much better. And they yell at me. Don't blame me, blame my parents. And my parents and my friends parents they can all blame themselves and not their children.
10.
My friends dad used to always tell us that if we were motivated we could go to the nearest grocery store, get a job as a bagger and become store manager in a matter of months
9.
My step dad was a newspaper boy at 14. I wasn't able to get a job until 16 and heard about it every day until then. People don't want to/can't hire under 16 most places, and if they do/can then you're doing literally nothing because of the child labor laws.
8.
That their parents were way stricter and more overbearing so we had no room to complain.
7.
My father likes to ramble about how back in his day he went to school, and also managed to work to provide sustenance to his mom and siblings. I think it's possible to study and work, but you have to be extremely lucky to earn enough to provide for a family these days while also studying.
6.
The most annoying thing they rant about is us not providing our kids the same life they had. My great grandparents owned several thousand acres at the turn of the century. They passed down land, heirloom furniture, a thriving farm, etc. The next generation split that all up. Sold a lot of it to start their own business. The next generation the same. The last little plot of that is my mom's acre.
Each generation inherited less and less. I will inherit nothing. I got no land to start my family with, unlike them, no heirloom furniture, no money, nothing. My family looks down on me and my cousins for struggling, pretending they worked harder than we do, but they'll never know how hard our generation works for our kids.
5.
My grandparents:
"You can't trust anybody in this world anymore. Back in my day there were no murders. Everyone was nice and cared for each other, no one hurt each other".
First of all, that's a lie. There were murders and horrible people back in your day, you just never heard of them because A) they went unreported to the police B) you didn't have tv to report on them C) you just never paid attention and pretended it didn't exist.
My grandma also tries saying stuff like "Oh, such and such city is dangerous, you can't ever go there!" Any place can be dangerous. There have been murders and HUGE heroin problems just miles from my house. But the news only likes to report on the "exciting" problems in exciting areas. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen everywhere.
4.
My mother would try and claim my siblings and I were lazy because when she was 14 she used to come home from school, walk the dogs then dance all night. Turned out this translated to she would go out drinking and clubbing underage.
3.
Carseats. I don't care if you drove around with a baby laying in the front seat of your car, you aren't taking my toddler anywhere without a carseat.
2.
When they get nostalgic over things like Encyclopedias and catalogs.
Don't play. You hated searching and waiting as much as we do. You love Amazon and Wikipedia too.
1.
"You kids get a trophy for everything now. You never learn how to try hard." Yes, when I was a child I got participation trophies. And they felt very patronising. Also, I was 7. I didn't ask for the damn trophies. It was your generation who was giving them to me.
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