People Share The Most Out-Of-Touch Comments Their Parents Made

Buzz Feed

a day ago

Ever had a parent say something that made you realize just how much the world has changed since they were your age? You're not alone. Between asking members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the exact comments their parents made that made them realize how differently older generations see adulthood today, and u/Roblson240YT asking about the most out-of-touch thing an older person has said, the responses range from painfully relatable to surprisingly eye-opening. Here are some of the most memorable below:
"That 'AI art was the same as digital art.' I'm a digital artist, by the way, and I was pretty darn annoyed at that."
—anime_otaku66
"When I was a teenager, my parents kept pressuring me to get a summer job. My dad claimed that it was as easy as going door to door and applying. When I was a junior (11th-year student for non-Americans), my dad lost his job and found no one wanted to hire him — in spite of his decades of work experience. He shut up about that soon afterward."
"My grandpa's advice was: 'Your grandma probably said no to me 20 times before we went on a date. I made sure I was on her porch every day, knocking to see if she had changed her mind!' Yeah, Pop, I'm pretty sure I'm getting arrested on day two for that."
"One that stands out to me right now is when my mom — who is full of these — told me not to 'encourage' my son to be gay. She said that it's 'not natural.' Like my kids listen to me anyway! Not to mention that babies are born that way ... or not!"
"I was homeless a while ago, and my great-grandfather found out. He gave me $50 and said to rent a motel for a week. My heart completely broke."
"'Why are you renting? Why don't you just buy a house?'"
"Had dinner with my grandmother last week, and she genuinely asked why I don't just marry a doctor to solve my student loan problems."
"My dad got one of my gay friends blackout drunk one night, hoping (in his words) 'he'd start acting more like a man.' I told him that was BS, and it scared me to think what sort of behavior he wanted to see from my friend."
"My grandma (mid-80s) called me greedy and irresponsible for spending $250,000 on a house in 2024 ('affordable' in my area), when she only spent $10,000 on her first house and raised three children in it."
"I was a junior in high school. My father and I got into a heated discussion about teen pregnancies, and I was making the case that a teen could choose to have the baby and put it up for adoption. My father blurted, 'Nobody wants someone else's mistake.' I'm adopted."
"I was never a girly-girl and could never compete with my cute, flirty older sister. My mother was always sure that I knew my sister was the cute one and I was the smart one. My mother couldn't even let me have that either, going so far as to say that my sister could have done as well academically if she had studied. She also told me when I was 15 that no man would ever want me because I was too strong-willed. Well, I got a PhD, had a slammin' career, and more men than I could count. When I got married at 46 (had a brief marriage in my 20s), my mother then said she was relieved because I wouldn't be an old maid. I rolled my eyes and reminded her that I had been married and had a child, and that an old maid I was not."
"Between homes owned after a divorce, I was forced to rent for a year. A single mother, even in a professional job, money was tight in that area of the US. My family had zero empathy that having to pay for a decent apartment ate up almost half my income. I can't remember the comments made 40 years later, but I just remember their smug attitude and cluelessness. Everyone is now gone, and their attitude just became a memory."
—visionarybee33
"My daughter was 2 years old, and my marriage had been going downhill for the entirety of her lifetime. I knew I wanted and needed to get a divorce. I went to talk to my mom about it, telling her how miserable I was and how it was negatively affecting my parenting. She was not understanding at all. In fact, she said to me, 'Don't take that little girl away from her father!' She wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. She said if I went through with the divorce, she wouldn't accept it and would continue to treat him as her son-in-law, as would the rest of the family. In other words, they would choose him over me. She even said she wouldn't help me financially or with any childcare since I broke up the family and created my own hardship. I didn't have the courage to leave him after that, knowing I would lose my family as well. It was the biggest mistake of my life."
"Them: 'Congrats on your $500 scholarship! That should cover one of your two classes this semester!' Me: 'I appreciate it! But...that won't even cover a credit, which is $900. Each class is three credits.' Them: 'Are you serious!?' Cue the surprised Pikachu face."
"I was jumped and assaulted during my junior year of college. While in the hospital, I called my dad, a police officer. His comment to me was, 'Well, what did you do to encourage him?' I still have flashbacks 28 years later."
—savorypunk804
"About a year ago, I was being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. When I told my mom about it, she said that back in the day, his refusal to give up would've been seen as endearing. Like, no, Mom — that's harassment."
"Not understanding how much childcare costs and thinking you should just have more children."
Have your parents ever said something so out-of-touch it stopped you in your tracks? Share your thoughts or story in the comments below.