Now most parents as they get older probably go to bed earlier. Not my dad, notorious nighthawk. Used to be horrendous in high school coming home high and drunk and he’s up making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for no reason. Don’t think I’ve ever seen him in bed before midnight. Will send text messages out on family group message at 2am, like anyone awake at that hour to this day.
Mom- Loves rambling on the phone, could talk for hours on end if necessary. Has this weird thing where she always says “whatchamacallit” when talking on the phone EVERY time. Just rambling, lost her train of thought and keeps on chatting.
My dad is a very strange man in many ways. His relationship with the dog is probably the most obvious thing. He doesn’t speak to it in full sentences. We’ll be up at their house, just chatting away and then out of nowhere he’ll just loudly exclaim “YOU ARE!”, “WHO’S THE?!” or “SUCH!” and the dog will spring up from wherever it is and jump into his lap.
Over the years “you are the best dog”, “who’s the best dog?” and “such a good dog” just got shortened and loudened.
My ex’s parents from years ago had a great deal of idiosyncrasies.
They had favourite films and TV shows which they watched in rotation, and they were NOT interested in any new ones. The cut-off point seemed to be about 1995. They would not entertain any suggestion that they watch something new to them.
Whenever they were driving over a speedbump, they would slow down to about 0.2mph every single time. Very safe of them, but really nausea-making, especially when you had a bunch in a row.
Lots of other things around routines, change and familiarity, but tbh as I’m writing this out now I realise they probably had something undiagnosed going on.
Whenever someone is saying something that involves them needing to make a particular sound, or make a particular gesture to describe what they’re saying, my dad will respond immediately after “how’s it go?”, forcing the person to make the gesture / sound again, which draws attention to its silliness in isolation, makes everyone chuckle and derails the entire conversation.
The opposite is true, I think. The older people get, the less sleep they need, and the more they’re likely to nap during the day, so they stay up watching TV later and later.
My Mum reports life events in chronological order.
This may not seem like a big deal, but it becomes one when the life event is significant (or even when you have no idea whether or not what she’s reporting might be significant).
Normal person: “Oh my god! You won’t believe what happened to me! I got abducted by aliens last night!!! Let me tell you what happened…”
My Mum: “Well, now, yesterday evening. I decided to wear my purple coat as it didn’t really look cold enough to justify that fleece-lined thing I found in a charity shop in Wincester that time. And I got in the car and headed out on the A414, this must have been about 9pm I think because I always have my coffee at 8:30 and I’d definitely had it. Anyway, there wasn’t a huge amount of traffic, they’ve finally got rid of those roadworks by the new bypass but there were some strange lights in the sky…”
My parents are both fussy eaters, especially my dad. He has some stomach issues which means he can’t have garlic. He also won’t eat cheese or other dairy products, is suspicious of most foreign food or veggie / vegan stuff. There’s ton of vegetables I don’t think he’s ever eaten. I don’t eat meat and most of my meals tend to be “foreign food” (curries, stir fries, stuff with tofu etc). So finding places to eat when they visit is often tricky, trying to accommodate everyone’s diet and preferences. The idiosyncrasies come in when he keeps proclaiming “I’m not fussy!” when it comes to food. I think what he’s getting confused by is he doesn’t like “fussy food” - he’d love to just eat meat and two veg for every meal. But that’s being fussy!
I’ve had the “…but what do you eat?” conversation so many times. No matter how many times I say: stews, curries, pasta, stir fries etc etc., the concept is still clearly baffling to them.
I think part of that is being suspicious of tofu and other vegetarian protein sources. Plus not having a super wide variety of vegetables in your diet. Think my parents mostly eat potatoes, carrots and peas. So I kind of get that they’d think subsisting off those would be miserable.
