Age may bring knowledge and intelligence, but it also has a tendency to bring a few bad habits that other people notice, even if they’re too polite to mention them.
Blaring TV
Over time, your television volume slowly increases. What you think is decent background noise can feel like a rock concert to anyone else who walks into the room. It often starts because you have a hard time hearing higher-pitched noises, so you compensate by turning up the volume in general.
Repeating stories
You find an epic memory/story or a hilarious joke. It becomes your new go-to piece for conversation. The problem is, everyone you love has heard you tell the exact same story three or four times this week. Since it feels fresh when you’re saying it, you forget who’s heard it.
Zero filter
Somewhere between there and here, the wall of manners between thinking and speaking begins to crumble. You suddenly find yourself making loud comments about someone’s weight, a stranger’s clothing or how fast a cashier is going. Most of the time, it comes from caring less about being polite, but it can catch people off guard.
Saving everything
Takeout containers, rubber bands, old newspapers and twist ties become treasures. There’s an embedded survival instinct that makes you want never to throw away something that could possibly be useful again.
It’s wonderful until your cabinets and drawers become accidental junk dumps that your family members desperately want to clean.
Health updates
Topics of conversation quickly turn into a play-by-play of your last doctor’s appointment, achy joints, or pill regimen. Health consumes much of our day-to-day living, but friends and younger family members may not know what to say about the minor details of a digestive problem or a strange rash over lunch.
Tech refusal
It’s perfectly understandable to yearn for the days when technology just had an on and off switch. But turning yourself off completely when your smartphone or tablet needs yet another update annoys those who are trying to assist you.
Claiming “I don’t do computers” forces others to do simple tasks for you.
Pocket fumbling
Looking for keys, spare change or your phone when it rings can become a long, frantic ordeal. Rather than methodically fishing things out, you end up patting down pockets, rummaging through piles of clothes, and holding up the grocery line while digging all the way down into a bag.
Talking over
Sometimes, because you’re afraid of forgetting what you wanted to say before they’ve finished talking, you blurt out whatever thought you’re having a second too soon. When you do this repeatedly, it can cause them to feel like you’re only listening just so you can speak.
Public napping
There are times when you get that desire to shut your eyes for a second. It could be during a family film, while sitting at your dinner table, or even mid-toast at a wedding.
Although a short power nap is perfectly fine, falling asleep while everyone around you is talking is unacceptable and leaves people around you quietly judging whether they should awaken you.
Past fixation
Nostalgia is great, but everyone else is exhausted by hearing you moan about how everything was better “back in your day.” You shut down meaningful dialogue when you conclude every observation by decrying how much better, cheaper, or easier something was 20+ years ago.
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