Have you ever done something completely normal and an older adult sighed at you? Perhaps you weren’t doing it the exact way they would have, or you weren’t moving fast enough for their liking. A woman in Illinois explains that, among the boomer era, this is known as ‘boomer condescension.’ She puts it into perspective in a way that actually makes a lot of sense. It really goes to show that some older people have toxic personalities, plain and simple.
Catherine (@aladywholovespplfr on TikTok) starts her video by saying, “boomers are so condescending for absolutely no reason at all, okay.” She said that it’s second nature for people born during this generation to show younger people that they’re better than them. She said, “They’ve spent the last 65, 70 years climbing up that high horse buckle. You’re not pulling them down, okay?”
Catherine goes on to say that boomers especially mistreat service workers and fail to treat them like humans. She said they see it as this: “If you wanted to be treated like a human, you should have thought about that before you applied to be treated like a servant.” She pointed out that it is true that not every boomer will be mean to a server. However, in every group of boomers, she said there’s at least one person who is rude to their server. She said that one of the ways they show their dissatisfaction with you is by sighing loudly. She said that you should beware if you’re taking too long, because they’ll hit you with that boomer sigh. It shows that they like being the ‘only important person’ in the room. This is just one more example of boomer condescension in action.
She goes on to say that boomers will see their food at a restaurant and ask, “That’s it?” Her response is a hilarious, “Yes, I’m sure you’ve had better when you dined with the Queen of England. This is all we have to offer in our meager establishment. Okay, suck my a*s.”
If you’ve ever worked in customer service or have boomer parents, you can probably relate to what Catherine is saying. One person shared their own experience, “My mother loves to do the ‘boomer sigh’ if she’s not acknowledged or you’re not doing things fast enough for her. And what’s hilarious is that she brings the least to the table in any group. Yet she thinks she’s the most important and center of attention.” Another server commented, “I act like a robot at work cus I know that they treat us like servants.”
Another commenter made a very valid point: “I heard that people go to restaurants for two reasons: the food or to be served. I have never in my life gone to a restaurant ‘to be served’ and I think it’s weird that some do.” It seems like a boomer that loves control would like the idea of someone submitting to them even if it’s in the workplace. Normal people just go to the restaurant so that they can grab a nice bite to eat.