The joys of the 21st Century

Concerned J

Registered User
Jun 15, 2014
68
0
London
The more I think about Mum and the state she gets in about things, I've realised that it is the "modern" contraptions that upset her most.
I have just returned from a mercy mission to her house as her TV wasn't working properly. It needed retuning. This wasn't a problem 20 or 30 years ago when there was only 3 or 4 channels. Currently out of the countless channels Mum probably only watches 3 or 4.
Her phone confuses her as it beeps when there is a message on 1571. I've suggest we cancel 1571 but she doesn't want to.
The microwave "doesn't work" but we've put that down to operator error!
Back when I were a lass (not that I'm that old) we didn't have these items and I assume we didn't have so many problems.
Sorry just a moan.
 

Cathy*

Registered User
Jan 4, 2015
42
0
Warwickshire
The more I think about Mum and the state she gets in about things, I've realised that it is the "modern" contraptions that upset her most.
I have just returned from a mercy mission to her house as her TV wasn't working properly. It needed retuning. This wasn't a problem 20 or 30 years ago when there was only 3 or 4 channels. Currently out of the countless channels Mum probably only watches 3 or 4.
Her phone confuses her as it beeps when there is a message on 1571. I've suggest we cancel 1571 but she doesn't want to.
The microwave "doesn't work" but we've put that down to operator error!
Back when I were a lass (not that I'm that old) we didn't have these items and I assume we didn't have so many problems.
Sorry just a moan.

When checking my mum's phone bill one day I noticed an awful lot of calls to an 0870 number. When I checked it was to the service department for her washing machine. Every time she used it she was having to ring them for instructions. How she found the number I don't know. We bought her a new machine figuring that would be cheaper. We never did find a microwave simple enough.
 

Concerned J

Registered User
Jun 15, 2014
68
0
London
Don't get me started on the washing machine!!!
That one of the first things that went "wrong". Thinking back alarm bells should have started ringing then.
 

mrsted

Registered User
Sep 18, 2012
39
0
leicestershire
My late FIL was just the same on numerous occasions he had tried to change the channel and ended up with a radio station on - He would then forget I was at work and call me on my mobile to ask to fix it. He hated the microwave to the point he would hide his food bless him

K
xx
 

Cathy*

Registered User
Jan 4, 2015
42
0
Warwickshire
He hated the microwave to the point he would hide his food bless him

K
xx

Ha Ha you just brought back a memory for me of the lost ginger pudding. My mum insisted she'd cooked a ginger pudding in the microwave and couldn't find it. We looked high and low without success. Now, 4 years on, if we lose something we say it must be with the ginger pudding. You have to laugh don't you?
 

Liz57

Registered User
Dec 22, 2013
184
0
Ha Ha you just brought back a memory for me of the lost ginger pudding. My mum insisted she'd cooked a ginger pudding in the microwave and couldn't find it. We looked high and low without success. Now, 4 years on, if we lose something we say it must be with the ginger pudding. You have to laugh don't you?

My mum lost a meat pie one day. Looked everywhere for it and eventually decided she must have eaten it and forgotten she'd had it. I eventually found it in the washing machine:confused:

More recently I've had to have her central heating time clock repaired as she'd turned it the wrong way when trying to "put it right" and mopped up a flood in the kitchen when she managed to open the washing machine door with the machine still full of water. She constantly tries to change channels on the TV with the telephone and then complains it isn't working.
 

joggyb

Registered User
Dec 1, 2014
119
0
The more I think about Mum and the state she gets in about things, I've realised that it is the "modern" contraptions that upset her most.
I have just returned from a mercy mission to her house as her TV wasn't working properly. It needed retuning. This wasn't a problem 20 or 30 years ago when there was only 3 or 4 channels. Currently out of the countless channels Mum probably only watches 3 or 4.
Her phone confuses her as it beeps when there is a message on 1571. I've suggest we cancel 1571 but she doesn't want to.
The microwave "doesn't work" but we've put that down to operator error!
Back when I were a lass (not that I'm that old) we didn't have these items and I assume we didn't have so many problems.
Sorry just a moan.

With hindsight, one of the first signs we had of Dad's decline was his apparent inability to operate the TV/vid recorder, computer (emails, most tellingly) and phone properly. To start with, we thought that it was just the equipment playing up from time to time, but then a kind neighbour contacted us to tell us of the frequency of Dad's problems, and how even leaving him with simple instructions didn't help :(
 

Rageddy Anne

Registered User
Feb 21, 2013
5,984
0
Cotswolds
We had an electric door bell once. Not since husband locked himself out for the Nth time and thought if he hit the bellpush hard enough the door would open!
 

Pottingshed50

Registered User
Apr 8, 2012
514
0
Thank you for your post. I have had a good old chuckle as it brought back lots of things that used to happen to our Mum before she went into residential care. As you say oh the joys of the 21st Century.

Our Mum used to unplug everything when she went to bed, regardless of its use, freezer, TV, phone, anything with a plug. Then of course there was the drama of food in the freezer going off, the phone used to go dead. We even had one of those wall phones at one time that went direct to a Care Department and she managed to wreck that.
 

Linbrusco

Registered User
Mar 4, 2013
1,694
0
Auckland...... New Zealand
Mums TV in her bedroom, some how became untuned. Wondered why she kept saying she only had 3 channels :) she was also having to get Dad to change channels for her as the buttons were too small.
I boought her an easier remote which only has 6 buttons.Volume up and down, channel up and down, mute, off/on. This has been great :)
The microwave I bought a simpler one with less buttons, but that has gone by the wayside. Although any suggestions to get rid of it are dismissed. Dad has never ever used a microwave.
The washing machine which has always been Mums domain, she is starting to struggle with. One day telling me it was broken nd she needed a new one.
She had simply turned one of the dials from Normal Wash to Drip Dry so it wasn't spinning the water out.

I even bought Mum & Dad a simple new radio player, too difficult for Mum, and Dad forgets the sequence of what buttons to press which is only 2.
Mum has AD and Dad has cognitive impairment. The day Dad dorgets to use the Sky TV Remote we will be doomed.
 

canary

Registered User
Feb 25, 2014
25,018
0
South coast
My mum also tried to change channels on her TV with the phone and one of the first signs (looking back now, as I didnt recognise it at the time) was the problem with the washing machine. She kept complaining that it was going on for too long and called out the repair man several times. I discovered that she had put the machine onto max wash with all the bells and whistles so that it would take nearly 2 hours, then she would stop it halfway through and then restart it (repeat several times)....
The worse thing though was when she was at my house and wrecked the flush on the loo by pulling the handle the wrong way :mad: