Dear LPG,

Have you ever been accused of this one?  It seems that when I am with my friends we do a lot of sitting around a cup of tea, coffee or something stronger, depending on your inclination and what your health will allow, while we pass the time of day putting the world to rights.

The general chat will quickly gravitate towards one subject or other and we will all put our opinions into the conversational melting pot.  It is interesting that my friends and I have dispensed with the weather as a place to start and, even though we usually attack the topic of the day from the varying but similar points of view, having a bit of a moan about it goes down really well with whatever beverage we are ingesting.

I have also observed that we usually start with some larger more wide-worldly subject that most of us have a similar perspective on when commenting.  There will often be one contributor to the conversation that might need a bit of an explanation as to the details, and a couple of clarifying comments from the others will also help the time to pass.    

The problem is that wherever we start, we nearly always end up having a bit of a moan about something or someone that has become a personal annoyance to one or other of us, and it is nearly guaranteed that there will be similar aggravations that each of the participants can throw into that conversational mix. 

  
The younger generations of my family often accuse the older ones of being Moaning Minnies.  It is as if offering any opinions about what we prefer, having been given the wealth of their experience, puts us in that category.  Mine will call me out when I mention that they have brought me something that they have decided will be better for me even though they know I would prefer an old fashioned alternative or, when they visit, I mention that they have used something in my home and then put it back somewhere else where I know I will not be able to find it the next time I need it.  Then there is the classic one time too many that you mention that pain in your back or your hip…

We older people have been there and we know that they will soon understand the flip side of their point of view.  They will get to our age and, though we are not likely to be around to witness it.  The classic answer to such a situation is, ‘one day you will be my age and you will understand...’ which nearly always provokes rolled eyes…

The big question is, while nearly all of us face similar reactions from the younger generations of our families, the years have helped us to forget our reactions to the older generations when we were young enough not to be counted as the seniors.

Tolerance is needed on both sides of this contentious coin perhaps…

PC, Catford