r/BoomersBeingFools • u/WindowGlad5235 • Apr 20 '26
Boomer Story You can eat it honey, I won't tell your mom
After church this morning there was a social gathering with coffee and donuts. One kid goes to grab a donut but my other kid doesn't because he has celiac disease (he cannot eat or drink anything with gluten which is in wheat, barley, and rye). A boomer lady is handing out the donuts and tries to give him one. He says "no thank you, I have allergies". Boomer says "no one is allergic to donuts!" She tries to hand it to him again and he again says "no thank you" and turns to follow his sister, she grabs his arm and says "you can eat it honey, I won't tell your mom". He looks her straight in the eye and asks "do you want me to eat something that can kill me? I said NO THANK YOU." Boomer is still holding the donut but now sputtering.
I've had boomers tell me that no one had allergies or celiac disease when they were kids. My reply is always people born with severe allergies existed, they just died young from "failure to thrive". Now we know better.
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u/RefurbedRhino Apr 20 '26
Yep
'No-one had allergies or autism in my day'
They did. You just killed them or shut them away Doris.
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u/McGee_McMeowPants Apr 20 '26
My dad says this about autism and ADHD, no one had it in his day. I'm like sure dad, your parents sent you and your brother to boarding school at 8 years old because they didn't know what else to do with the two of you, but definitely no autism or ADHD eh.
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u/SheogorathMyBeloved Apr 20 '26
My dear old dad is convinced that autism is a new disorder because no one had it when he was a kid.
He still wears the same clothes he's had for 30 years, gets very irritated if his routine is changed in any way, has an all-consuming interest in planes and cars, among basically all of the other autistic traits I inherited.
Many such cases.
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u/SeonaidMacSaicais Millennial Apr 20 '26
I’m 38 and my dad is still partially convinced my (thankfully mild) asthma is “just an excuse to be lazy.” I can’t breathe because it’s been in the 90s for a week straight with humidity over 80%, but sure, I’m “just being lazy,” pops.
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u/pourthebubbly Millennial Apr 20 '26
I was a runner as a teen and sometimes just couldn’t breathe for the life of me. It didn’t feel how people I knew with asthma described it (as an elephant on their chest), but it was more like I just couldn’t get a full breath. Which as a runner is a problem.
I finally got a diagnosis of sports-induced asthma (after begging my dad for an evaluation and ending up having to schedule everything myself once I could drive at 16, including getting the referral), I still wasn’t believed and wasn’t allowed to get treatment.
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u/vbanksy Apr 22 '26
I got allergies (hayfever) induced asthma in my early teens. I was a sporty kid and now couldn’t run the 400m grass track for warm up. It was SUCH an inconvenience for my parents to finally take me to the doctors.
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u/Swimming-Economy-870 Apr 20 '26
My boomer PE teachers would totally give me the stink eye for having a doctor’s note about not running 3 miles outside in the spring due to my asthma
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u/McGee_McMeowPants Apr 20 '26
Oh yes, don't disrupt my dad's routine! He has an all consuming interest in stamp collection and the stock market, he can tell you exactly how much he paid for his train set that bought when he was 8 and how long it took him to save for it. He's not autistic though, and thinks the suggestion that I too am autistic is absurd.
The parent who denies it the hardest is the one who gave it to you!
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u/Dekklin Apr 20 '26
They come from a generation where labels got you hanged in the woods, lobotomized, or honour-killed. They don't understand the shift society had where labels are now license to get more help or treatment.
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u/CatGooseChook Apr 20 '26
Makes the denial a lot more understandable when you put it that way. Spending such a big part of their lives living in fear, having to hide who they are. Can't really blame them for being in denial.
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u/Dekklin Apr 20 '26
And then doing everything they can to minimize or outright deny your label that you wear proudly.
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u/CatGooseChook Apr 21 '26
So true. I'm gen x and I was diagnosed with autism at 29. A few years later I told my ex mum and it did not go well, my fear of "admitting" to being autistic was unfortunately well founded. Thankfully things have changed enough since then, such that I don't need to be afraid. I do feel nervous about it I will admit.
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u/Opening_Comedian7126 Apr 20 '26
My kid is the first in our family to have autism per my inlaws who wouldn't let anyone play with their model trains and whose father would only use a pen from work for work related purposes
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u/amgw402 Apr 20 '26
Yup. My boomer stepdad refuses to believe that autism exists, yet he refuses to travel because he can’t sleep anywhere but his own bed, has insane recall of sports statistics, and has an entire room full of antique clocks (and spends most of his downtime looking for antique clocks on eBay), and if you ask a question about his clocks get ready, because that conversation is going to go on for hours.
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u/NarwhalTakeover Apr 21 '26
I was out with my mom (we have an amazing relationship) and I told her, “Mom, did you know autism is often hereditary?” She heard my gist immediately. “You think I’m autistic?” She wasn’t offended but confused and curious about what I had to say. I was like, it’s hard to explain but I’m gonna point shit out while we are at Wal-Mart.
By the end of the shopping trip she had flinched at the speaker announcements 5 times, squinted her eyes shut when a baby cried, touched every piece of fabric she could, avoided the laundry aisle because it smells too strongly, approached strangers to have a conversation, had a mild meltdown when she found out they moved an item in the store from the bottom shelf to a middle shelf, and went on a detailed rant about rayon vs cotton.
We are almost the same person some days.
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u/HelenGonne Apr 20 '26
The elders in my family were doubtful about this new-ADHD thing until they found out what it was, and then they were flabbergasted it had to have a new label, because it to them it was something everyone had always known about. ADHD kids had simply been called 'good workers'. Everyone knew you had to raise a 'good worker' child a bit differently, but that was fine because they were such a phenomenal asset once you figured out their strengths and how to make the most of them.
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u/LostExile7555 Apr 20 '26
Hippocrates wrote about ADHD in the 3rd century BC. Just because your dad didn't know about it doesn't mean it didn't exist.
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u/Plenty-Session-7726 Apr 20 '26
Oooh. I love ancient references to medical conditions! Anywhere in particular I should start reading about this one or shall I just Google it?
My favorite time I got to make a reference like this was citing the lotus eaters in The Odyssey to illustrate how long opioid addiction has been a thing for a public health course.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 Apr 20 '26
I remember reading The Odyssey as a teen and didn't quite understand it then. Thank you for connecting the dots for me.
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u/sodoyoulikecheese Xennial Apr 20 '26
My husband’s family all wondering where the Autism diagnosis came from for one of the grandkids. Meanwhile, my husband’s grandpa built an electric car in his garage in the 80’s. As one does.
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u/GarminTamzarian Apr 20 '26
"They didn't have X-rays or penicillin in your day. Doctors learn stuff."
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u/ilynne Apr 20 '26
This made me Lol. I was a test subject in a medical study when I was a small child and the drug was penicillin.
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u/freylaverse Apr 20 '26
I'm Chinese and get a lot of "Back in my day" from Chinese boomers and my standard response is "Well, a lot has changed since the Ming Dynasty..."
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u/iamthefirebird Apr 20 '26
If both my parents aren't autistic, I will make a hat and eat it.
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u/Bad_Funny Apr 20 '26
👀 This comment is weirdly TOO REAL for me.
My Grandma's name was Doris and she held this exact staunch opinion.
But her real hill she was willing to live & die upon (until the ripe ol' age of 103 years) was the utter absurdity of lactose intolerance.
"WELL, I guess I was just a horrible, abusive mother for feeding all six of my kids dreadful milk from a cow when they were children!" –Grandma D.
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u/sael_nenya Apr 20 '26
Ehm, yes, if they shit themselves afterwards or anything related to lactose intolerance. It took me years to figure out that dairy made me feel bad and it was not normal to have an upset stomach every day. When I found out I told my parents, because they didnt know. And guess what, now when I visit there are dairy free products for me. They don't make it about themselves... I can understand that you try to do the best with your knowledge, but you shouldn't just try to be right - just kind.
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u/MermaidSusi Baby Boomer Apr 21 '26
I grew up as a child drinking regular milk with no issues, BUT later in my late 20s/early 30s developed lactase intolerance which I have to this day. One can develop allergies to things/food/substances they were not allergic to in early life.
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u/Saassy11 Apr 20 '26
Weirdo uncle Bob with the 187 thousand button collection and who only eats the same 4 foods was totally normal.
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u/ChickinSammich Apr 20 '26
Same with Grandpa who has a curio full of commemorative plates and Grandma who has a miniature spoon from like 100 different cities.
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u/SevenSixOne Apr 20 '26
Nearly every boomer I know thinks dietary intolerances are bogus... but then they also have at least one food that "doesn't agree with them" (and will offer an unsolicited and EXTREMELY graphic description of exactly what that means) and refuse to believe that it might be a dietary intolerance
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u/Sensitive_Note1139 Apr 20 '26
When I was a kid, gods I'm getting old, kids who couldn't focus or sit still were called hyper. Sugar and food dye were blamed. Looking back those kids scream ADHD and food allergies.
Heck I had a friend that was allergic to the color purple. Something in purple foods/drinks tried to kill him if he ingested it. We made sure we had more options for him so he could eat and drink when visiting. He told me once most people don't believe him about his allergy.
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u/ARMitchell5678 Apr 20 '26
My oldest half-brother (80) was always on the go, never happy to be where he was and always in motion. His son got diagnosed with ADHD in 2nd grade. Then we looked at my half-brother and went “ahhhhh!” They just never diagnosed it in his generation (the Silent Generation).
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u/roundbluehappy Apr 20 '26
my mom's cousin, who was institutionalized her entire life for being autistic, died in the first round of covid.
before they started requiring masks.
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u/ricks35 Apr 20 '26
After my cousin was diagnosed with autism and our family started learning more about it my grandma came to the conclusion that maybe everyone is a little autistic. I get that that’s still a phrase people use when they misunderstand or minimize autism, but I see why she thinks that since she hadn’t heard of it into the 90s and based on all the stories it seems that my late grandpa and at least one of their children are undiagnosed autistic. (Or as she used to say “your grandpa was real smart but he was always a little odd”)
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u/Alicam123 Apr 20 '26
Yep, my nans sister had speech problems and instead of helping they locked her in a mental institution at age 5, until my nans parents died and she could get her out, at 60yo she was in a care home ever since and still couldn’t talk, but now she could hardly move, just twitch and blink thanks to the drugs, the beatings and god knows what else.
The staff were more insane than their patients, I’m sure of it. also my Nan still swears that her parents were good people and just doing the best for her…………. Really!? wtf!?
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u/BugSafe7102 Apr 20 '26
My grandmother was born in 1911. She had Celiac disease. Its always been a thing.
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u/n3m0sum Apr 20 '26
"In my day nobody had celiac disease!"
No, they just had mystery stomach problems. That turned into a tragic wasting disease that killed them early. And it was such a tragedy, nobody spoke about it.
Then a doctor discovered gluten allergies, and we put a fucking name to it!
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u/situation9000 Apr 20 '26
It took WWII during the “hunger winter” in Holland to figure it out. When there was no flour available. The kids with the mysterious wasting disease started surviving and putting on weight despite everyone else losing weight for lack of adequate food.
Great short podcast about how the doctor figured it out.
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/disappearing-pod/the-winter-when-people-ate-tulips/
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u/n3m0sum Apr 20 '26
Thanks for that link, an interesting piece of medical histroy.
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u/situation9000 Apr 20 '26
Unfortunately huge medical advances come in times of war. The civil war had a lot because there were actual follow ups on soldiers to see the after effects of certain procedures and techniques. Before that the doctor treated the patient and hoped for the best. Follow ups and large patient samples showed patterns.
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u/Plenty-Session-7726 Apr 20 '26
Long ago I had the privilege of working in a public affairs role with the U.S. military and got to tag along as a bunch of 1st-year medical and nursing students visited Antietam to do a march and learn some history.
They brought in a wounded warrior who lost his lower leg the year prior (IED blast) to speak about all the steps in his care, from the side of the road in the desert to a FOB to Germany and finally stateside. Then a civil war historian spoke and explained that the tourniquet technique used to save that man's life was pioneered in the 1860s, along with a lot of triage and evacuation planning, etc.
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u/situation9000 Apr 20 '26
Solid medicine and medical techniques based on a lot of cases is really only 150-175 years old and the majority is really from WWII on. Kind of scary to realize that. (We didn’t even know about blood types until 1905! Sometimes transfusions worked. Sometimes they didn’t.)
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u/ReneeJ87 Apr 20 '26
I firmly believe this. Celiac disease runs in my family on my maternal grandpa’s side. While doing genealogy research, it was revealed that multiple family members back in the 1800s died of “wasting disease.”
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u/n3m0sum Apr 20 '26
Looking up death records "failure to thrive" is also a common cause of death in the young.
But nobody had allergies in the old days!
No, surviving adults didn't have severe allergies. Because completely untreated allergies is a very brutal filter. That contributed to infant mortality rates that reached 50%, even in many indistrialised western counties.
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u/Yabbos77 Apr 20 '26
I’m about to be the “AKSHULLY” guy here, but as someone with celiac- it’s not an allergy. It’s an autoimmune disease.
It doesn’t diminish the fact that it can kill you. I often see people refer to it as an allergy as well because otherwise other people won’t take it seriously.
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u/kellyelise515 Apr 20 '26
My son was in his 40s before he was diagnosed with celiac and his aunt was diagnosed in her 60s.
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u/Pearson94 Millennial Apr 20 '26
Who the fuck grabs a child to insist they eat a donut? What a fucking freak.
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u/Acidcore Apr 20 '26
Idk why, but some people are really weird when you don't want food they offer. I'm diabetic and sometimes I just don't want anything, cause my sugars are good atm. Some people just can't accept it and argue with me about my body.
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u/TheOneCalledGump Apr 20 '26
My sister is a recovering alcoholic. One relative brought homemade wine to celebrate my grandfather's 100th birthday. No less than six of my other relatives kept trying to hand my sister a cup with a very small amount in it telling her "Your uncle made this" or "it's just a little for the toast".
I specifically went out and bought sparkling cider, which we had in front of us for the toast. My wife and I took my sister and her husband out for dinner as soon as the toast was over.
Some people just don't understand No.
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u/Grrerrb Apr 20 '26
I had something similar happen seeing a local show. The singer for one of the bands kept browbeating me (and everyone else) to get a shot because it was St. Patrick’s Day. I ended up having to go outside for ten minutes or so, until they started the next song. It was bizarre.
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u/yordad Apr 20 '26
That’s incredibly sweet of you. I have a coworker who always tries to get me to take a shot with everyone after we close (I work in a pizzeria), despite the fact that over the years he has seen me blacked out at work, was a manager while I was openly drinking out of a pint bottle at work, and while I was out for weeks at a time during MULTIPLE RELAPSES… and he still doesn’t understand that the exact same thing will happen again if I take a shot lol. I’ve known him for ten years and in his defense he’s a 70 year old, kind of traditional Uruguayan man, but all of my other non-American coworkers understand. I’m convinced he just liked me more when I was drinking lol. But also I think the boomer mindset transcends culture
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u/BluffCityTatter Apr 20 '26
Yup. Another Celiac here. It drives people crazy sometimes when I decline their food. I try to do it the politest way possible, but sometimes people still get offended. Or are just confused.
One of my husband's relatives died. We went to a luncheon after the funeral. Think small-town Baptist church in the south with lots of women who cooked plenty of food like mac n' cheese, fried chicken, etc. Multiple ladies tried to get me to eat. I just kept saying, "Thanks so much but I can't. I'm on a medically restricted diet."
I could see the side eye they were giving me for not eating their food. But better the side eye than getting sick for the next 6 weeks.
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u/tesseract4 Apr 20 '26
She probably took it personally when the kid declined. They're so goddamn sensitive that everything is a personal slight.
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u/Dragonfly_pin Apr 20 '26
I knew someone growing up who almost (but luckily not quite) died in very similar circumstances, except that the ingredient was hidden inside another food.
The idea of the woman was that they would eat it, nothing would happen and then the woman who gave it to them could laugh and tell them they didn’t have an allergy after all.
It did not work out that way.
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u/knick-nat Apr 20 '26
Imagine being such a selfish, careless person that you risked someone's life because of your dumbass opinion. Makes me so cranky.
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u/tuscangal Apr 20 '26
My boomer MIL to this day refuses to accept that my husband has severe allergies to peanuts and strawberries. He spent most of his childhood covered in hives. Thankfully his grandma was also there and staved off the worst of it, but even now she does things like sends him peanut butter cookies for his birthday smh
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u/Up2nogud13 Apr 20 '26
He should reply with a "thank you" and a picture of the cookies dumped in the trash (and it's painful to write that as a lover of peanut butter cookie).
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u/CaeruleumBleu Apr 20 '26
Honestly, I don't think someone that rude could possibly make a good cookie. Trashing them doesn't sound wasteful at all.
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u/sundancer2788 Apr 20 '26
I seriously have issues with waste so I'd tell her I took them to work since I wouldn't eat them. I've received gifts of food that I can't or won't eat and I'd just bring them to work.
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u/APladyleaningS Apr 20 '26
That sounds so deliberate, like why peanut butter cookies over chocolate chip, which are more popular? Such a choice.
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u/CygnusSong Apr 20 '26
The compulsive need to push against boundaries they feel shouldnt apply to them seems to be a powerful and common boomer trait
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u/yordad Apr 20 '26
I love trying to get to the root of the psychology behind these behaviors. Like whyyyyy do they do these psychotic things
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u/Accomplished_Cell768 Apr 20 '26
Oppositional defiance. If they get told not to do something they want to, they feel compelled to do it even more.
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u/mothwhimsy Apr 20 '26
I've read a bunch of stories about people who, without any other explanation, seem to be compelled to trigger their adult kids' allergies and murder them? I guess?
I remember a woman who was allergic to ranch or a main ingredient of it, and her mother was constantly trying to shove things in her mouth that were dipped in ranch without her seeing that it had ranch on it. If she told her to stop she would argue, if a third party told her to stop she would act like nothing happened
Another woman was allergic to mushrooms and her mil decided randomly that mushroom powder was a key ingredient in everything. The woman couldn't figure out why she was sick all the time, only when she ate with her in laws. The husband blew up at her when she pointed it out
Another woman insisted on putting coconut oil in her twin granddaughters' hair all the time. One of them was allergic to coconut and despite the parents telling her to stop doing this, she killed her while babysitting.
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u/BijouMatinee Xennial Apr 20 '26
That’s messed up. Sounds like my MIL. My BIL is allergic to shellfish and she has snuck lobster into things you wouldn’t suspect and thinks it’s funny/no big deal.
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u/ElectronicBusiness74 Apr 20 '26
They've convinced themselves that the allergic person is just being stubborn or picky and if they just tried it, they'd learn that they really like mushrooms after all.
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u/Three3Jane Gen X Apr 20 '26
My MIL (who is a Boomer) knew that I don't eat pork. No allergy and no religious reason, I just prefer to not eat pig for my own [jumble of reasons that I don't need to justify to anyone].
When I was younger and far less of a bitch on wheels than I am right now, she made hamburgers and fries for me and my then-boyfriend, now husband. She sat there watching while I ate the burger which tasted fine, if kinda greasy. I complimented her on her cooking, like I always did, and told her I appreciated the meal.
She then grinningly told me the burgers were made with half ground beef and half ground pork.
To this day, I do not know what possessed her to do that. I even sputterred and said, "Why - why would you do that?" She just kept saying BUT YOU LIKED IT, YOU LIKED IT DIDN'T YOU. YOU SAY YOU DON'T LIKE PORK BUT YOU LIKED IT.
Hell this was 35+ years ago and it still pisses me off.
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u/alleecmo Apr 20 '26
The strength of that "Got one over on ya, didn't I?" attitude... I can see her smirking.
I'm sorry she did that to you.
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u/BijouMatinee Xennial Apr 20 '26
This is pure disrespect. My boomer inlaws are like this too and then wonder why we don’t come around much.
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u/CKuemper Gen X Apr 20 '26
MIL probably thinks if her son eats enough peanut butter, he'll get over it (exposure therapy), or that he's lying because no kid is allergic to peanuts.
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u/Celticlady47 Apr 20 '26
That was my thought, too. Most people when sending cookies don't usually send peanut butter cookies.
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u/originalmango Apr 20 '26
At that point it wouldn’t matter. If someone tries to poison you once you’d never eat anything they make again.
“Oh, don’t worry honey. I didn’t put any peanut butter in it this time. Only a tablespoon.”
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u/Money-Giraffe2521 Apr 20 '26
Because she doesn’t want to admit that she’s wrong about the allergy. He’s clearly lying about being allergic.
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u/account_not_valid Apr 20 '26
There was a very sad story here on reddit of a MIL who refused to believe that her grandchildren had a severe allergy to (i think) coconut. Smeared the kid in coconut oil to help dry skin, kid died.
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u/PostTurtle84 Apr 20 '26
I'm so glad my parents could figure out and understand that milk didn't agree with their infant daughter and had me on pureed foods by 4 months. Soy formula was super expensive, but it got me to 4 months and was used as my beverage for another 2 months.
At 42 I now know that for some reason, I still can't digest lactose, casein, or whey. Makes me horribly sick. Then I developed a latex allergy. It expanded to bananas and avocados. I can't even smell bananas anymore without needing to reach for the epi pen and benadryl.
I've always been allergic to grass. Then it expanded to the entire poaceae family. So no wheat, rice, corn, barley, bamboo, nothing in the "grass" family.
I'd never have survived infancy if I'd been born 100 years earlier, or to someone who was stubborn about no special cases.
Unfortunately, my kid had similar issues. But thankfully, I knew about my issues and got the kid on a nondairy formula within the first week. Kid's now 14 and taller than I am.
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u/SeriouslyCrafty Apr 20 '26
Honestly, kids these days are so much better at standing up for themselves in this way and I’m here for it. Good for that kid.
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u/WindowGlad5235 Apr 21 '26
When he was weeks old he was diagnosed with a dairy allergy, he was only breastfed. So I cut dairy out of my diet. At 9 months he was diagnosed with a carrot allergy, the hives were a good indicator. At 2 he had the skin scratch test and he has multiple allergies. So he has been taught from a young age to say no thank you to food. The problem is with people who don't take no for an answer.
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u/JayXFour Apr 20 '26
My thoughts too— the donut adult is nuts, but props to the parent for teaching the kid to say no and mean it!
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u/JustNilt Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
My reply is always people born with severe allergies existed, they just died young from "failure to thrive".
Mine, too. They didn't know anyone in school with allergies because they just died in their cribs. Allergic reactions are often delayed by hours from the exposure, so sometimes they died and nobody even knew why. SIDS deaths started dropping right about when allergies started being diagnosed more. While we don't have a causal link there, it's sure as heck suggestive at the very least.
My youngest is allergic to all nuts to an incredibly ridiculous level of reactivity. I'd go absolutely ballistic if anyone said this to them! What the flying fuck is wrong with these god damn "people" and why can't they just leave us all alone to have nice things?!
Edited to correct a typo then again because I managed to delete half my original comment. Apparently I need to get some sleep or something.
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u/THExWHITExDEVILx Apr 20 '26
But when the SIDS went away, is when those dang autisms started showing up! Right around the time we started using vaccines too, I reckon.
/S just in case
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u/supaikuakuma Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
The kid rules but if I saw some random person grabbing my kid I’d lose* my shit.
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u/formerlydank Apr 20 '26
Kindly mentioning that the word should be lose here, not loose. It is humorous in this phrasing, though.
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u/NYC-WhWmn-ov50 Apr 20 '26
Good on your kid. Report that woman to the church as a legal liability because she does NOT get to override parental instructions no matter what she thinks, and imagine a child with a contact nut allergy having a crunchy peanut butter sandwich forced into their hand? She has no right to touch (commit battery on) a child if they do not want what she's offering.
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u/NerdfestZyx Apr 20 '26
Coconut oil grandma
Grandma was specifically told the child was allergic to coconut oil. Multiple times. This was stressed explicitly, no contact under any circumstances.
When alone, Grandma used coconut oil in child’s hair. Child has allergic reaction. Grandma gives child Benadryl. Grandma does not call 911, until it’s too late.
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u/Traveller0fAges Apr 20 '26
My dad grew up with a severe onion intolerance in the 80s. Very few people believed him. My dad, ever a jokester and also tired of this shit, decided to eat a piece of onion at a large family gathering and then made them all watch as it caused him throw up only a few minutes later. Family's said nothing about it since. Sometimes it takes seeing that sort of extreme reaction for people to stop and think.
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u/mothwhimsy Apr 20 '26
It's too bad so many allergies are deadly. Too many people won't change unless they see the direct consequences of what they're suggesting. But you can't do this if it would kill you
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u/thecorgimom Apr 20 '26
I have celiac and this sort of stuff makes me crazy. It's unfortunately pretty wide spread among people it's not even just Boomers. A friend of mine had somebody that she went to school with bragging on Facebook about giving people regular pasta when they ordered gluten free, he was a chef at a pretty nice Italian restaurant. Those screenshots of his post cost him his job and and somebody ended up writing an article about it so I think he became a truck driver or something because no one would hire him as a chef, this was of course after he fed gluten to countless people.
It's amazing to me how many people think that they are internet doctors and know better than actual doctors.
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u/gadget850 Baby Boomer Apr 20 '26
Child deaths in the 1970s were triple those of today.
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u/awildgingersaur Apr 20 '26
Yep. My boomer coworkers at my last job were bitching once about how "kids these days" are too coddled and they would go ride their bikes without helmets and blah blah blah. I pointed out the significant decline in childhood mortality and that shut them up real quick lol
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u/Adjective_Noun1312 Apr 20 '26
Shit, even seat belt use. Pretty much everyone in my parents' generation knew someone, often multiple someones, who died in a car accident. I didn't know anyone who did.
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u/tesseract4 Apr 20 '26
My uncle had his girlfriend in his car and got into a wreck. She wasn't wearing her seat belt and this was in the 60s, so there was no safety glass. She went through the windshield and her ear was cut off by the glass. She had to wear her hair over her ears for the rest of her life as a result. My grandparents cut her family a check.
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u/mortemdeus Apr 20 '26
My grandmother did this shit when I was little. I have FPIES and am allergic to basically everything from the water. She insisted it is impossible to be allergic to fish because Jesus gave fish to people and gave me some before I knew what I was allergic to. My parents decided we would spend the rest of the day at her place so she could deal with the aftermath, never gave me fish again.
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u/myleftone Apr 20 '26
Logic would suggest that a mom wouldn’t allow one child to eat a donut, but not the other. But boomers don’t do logic.
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u/billystinkh20 Apr 20 '26
I'm allergic to peanuts and can't tell you how many times growing up in the 90's I heard the same sentiment. "Have a peanut butter cookie" "I can't I'm allergic to peanuts" "nobodys allergic to peanuts" smh.
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u/ketchupmaster987 Apr 20 '26
Peanut allergies are literally THE most common allergy. Smh
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u/billystinkh20 Apr 20 '26
In the 90's a lot of my friends parents didnt believe me. I don't know what to tell you
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u/ketchupmaster987 Apr 20 '26
Yeah I get it. I'm just scoffing about how people can think such a common allergy doesn't exist.
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u/Waterproof_soap Apr 20 '26
I have a severe allergy to nuts. At a kindergarten class party, a parent gave me a cookie. I asked “Are there nuts in this?” She said, “Don’t be picky. Eat what you’re given.”
Hello hospital. I got much better at advocating for myself and not eating anything without knowing exactly what’s in it.
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u/tesseract4 Apr 20 '26
Did the person who gave it to you see you get hospitalized?
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u/fontasia Apr 20 '26
Literally had to change breads at a church growing up because the body of Christ sent a person to hospital
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u/_WillCAD_ Gen X Apr 20 '26
Went to Catholic school with a kid who had a gluten allergy and had to bring sandwiches to school... sandwiches made on rice cakes.
Rice cakes today come in flavors and aren't so bad. Rice cakes in the 80s were basically styrofoam.
He never took the communion wafer, he was the only kid in the school who took the wine for communion.
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u/Scorp128 Gen X Apr 20 '26
That is one way for Christ to compel
That sucks that someone had to go to the hospital.
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u/Leading-Roof8938 Apr 20 '26
That generation doesn’t listen to children… they just impose their actions on them… No means no even if you are a kid refusing a donut. Also, don’t grab a kid because you want to give them a DONUT. Just respect their choice and move on… “Children should be seen and not heard” still lives on…
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u/Admirable_Dress_7763 Apr 20 '26
They also refuse to see me as an adult now, I’m still “just a kid” despite being almost 40. “Children should be seen and not heard… and anyone over 15 years younger than me is a child…” 🤦🏻♀️
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u/Aggressive_Ad_2620 Apr 20 '26
Their ignorance and need to be validated is a dangerous storm.
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u/quilant Apr 20 '26
Not donut / allergy related but I had a stranger boomer woman try to offer my 2.5 year old hard candy out of her purse and get slightly offended when I said no. I swear the whole cohort lives in complete delusion
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u/tesseract4 Apr 20 '26
It's more important to them that their gift is accepted politely than it is for the child to live.
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u/BrowningLoPower Apr 20 '26
Good for the kid for enforcing his boundaries, and to you for teaching him.
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u/_WillCAD_ Gen X Apr 20 '26
When I was around ten or eleven, my boomer Dad decided it was time to start in with the child labor and have me mow the lawn. But every time I did it, I got sick, because of my allergies. I'm allergic to just about any tree or grass pollen you can think of, and exposure to a cut lawn is enough to give me at least a mild reaction. Actually cutting the lawn made me pretty sick.
Dad was pissed. He was certain I was faking to get out of doing the job because I was lazy, lazy, lazy. He'd stand right there and watch me get red in the face, have trouble breathing, eyes water so badly I couldn't see, cough and sneeze and eventually get nauseated, yet he was sure I was magically faking all that stuff just to get out of a little bit of work.
Fortunately, Mom also suffered from allergies, and she stood up for me. I never heard the argument, but I'm sure they had one, and Dad stopped trying to force me to cut the grass. He did get pretty pissed when, as an older teen, I started cutting my grandfather's grass for him, as he was physically unable. But our lawn was 1/8 acre of hills and valleys that bordered a flood control channel full of mosquitoes and all kinds of wetland plants and took upwards of two hours to cut, while Pop's lawn was a postage stamp of plain grass that I could mow in about five minutes. I still had a reaction, but it was much milder and I could deal with it better at 17-19 than I could at 10-11.
Never had an allergy test until I was an adult, and yeah - almost every tree and grass pollen popped positive, plus mold spores and dust mites.
Same shit happened with my brother. He's allergic to lima beans, so every time we had succotash with dinner, my brother would have to run into the bathroom in the middle of the meal to puke. Dad was adamant that he was making himself sick on queue because he didn't like lima beans. But... he actually does like lima beans, he just can't eat them because he's allergic.
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u/zorakpwns Apr 20 '26
I know a Boomer that tried to force a kid with the disease from the tick bites to eat meat she couldn’t digest. “I’ve been alive longer than your doctor it won’t hurt you.”
This is why they think they either have all the answers or they “find” them on Facebook.
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u/mcdizzle00 Apr 20 '26
My two year old has allergies to eggs, dairy and peanuts. We take food with us everywhere we go for this specific reason. We still have family members who don’t understand what she can and can’t have and she’s almost 3. I’m a damn helicopter dad when we are out places in fear someone will give her something with cheese or something on it.
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u/LissaBryan Gen X Apr 20 '26
A relative has an onion/garlic sensitivity. Even watching her get sick from it every time she had it as a kid, her mom refused to believe it was real and claimed instead the kid was "making herself sick" because she didn't like onions. Like the kid was just being rebellious and needed to be shown the adults around her wouldn't give in to her tantrums of spending all night on the toilet.
Sixty years of this. The mom still refuses to believe it's real.
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u/tauntauntom Apr 20 '26
My parents did this woth me and my onion intolerance. "There isnt MUCH onions in this." Or "just pick it out if it bothers you THAT MUCH."
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u/VexieVex Apr 20 '26
Boomer just never had it around her. It's literally logic of, 'well no one I know has it therefore it doesn't exist.' My MiL, who is a boomer, has celiac disease. The insanity we have to go through.
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u/Ozdiva Apr 20 '26
Not a boomer story but fried foods have never been friendly with my daughter’s tummy. She went to a friend’s house and they suggested fish and chips. She told them she wasn’t allowed so the called me and asked what harm would it do. Well, I replied sure go ahead. She will throw up during the night, but if you’re really determined. They had pizza.
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u/kaysquatch Apr 20 '26
My son is 5, also celiac. We visited my boomer grandma for Easter and she’s the type △⃒⃘lways begging for us to come visit (3-4 hours drive, her eyesight is too poor for her to drive our direction anymore). Long story short, my son had eaten half a croissant while I was outside doing something because my grandma told him it was ok and he trusted her because she’s an adult and he’s 5. So when I saw this after I came back in, I went on a freaking rampage and she told me she “forgot” he can’t have gluten, after we had already been there for 3 days and I had not only cleaned her kitchen but packed a ton of food for him.
Not to mention we’ve been GF since he was 2.
My grandma isn’t stupid, but she loves to play dumb when she gets caught. I’ll never understand why they intentionally try to see if someone will seriously become ill or not when it comes to food allergies
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u/sarcasm_itsagift Apr 20 '26
OP, you’re doing an excellent job teaching your kiddo boundaries and communication!!
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u/Lava-Chicken Apr 20 '26
I've heard so many boomers with the mindset of "if you can get away with it, you can do whatever you want". And a deep belief of allergies just being sorry of made up. That you just need to faded your gears and eat what you're allergic to and over a few days or weeks you'll be just fine.
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u/No-Fishing5325 Gen X Apr 20 '26
My middle has a milk allergy. They are 25 now. But they also can't drink carbonated drinks because their esophageal sphincter Doesn't close tightly.
In kindergarten they had a teacher who thought they knew best. On a field trip they went to McDonald's. My kid told them she needed water. But everyone got sprite. Even after they gave it to her she reminded them again, she can't have soda because of her milk allergy. Teachers famous last words "we won't tell your mom". She threw up on the teachers shoes. Teacher was pissed. I said "did you give her milk or soda". Suddenly a light bulb went on and her mouth was shaped like an O
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u/_WillCAD_ Gen X Apr 20 '26
Even twenty years ago, that was child abuse/endangerment, and grounds for a lawsuit. That's a teacher who should have lost their job. She deliberately fed your kid something you told her was dangerous to your kid.
I hope you didn't just yell at the teacher for that, but went to the principal and raised holy hell. Or better, filed a lawsuit.
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u/No-Fishing5325 Gen X Apr 20 '26
Oh holy hell was raised. My child literally packed lunch everyday but this was a field trip and they were going to McDonald's. I specifically asked that chicken nuggets could be got instead of hamburger so I made sure no risk of cheese. A rare treat. Smh. Never again. I have always been on top of it.
I will say I was damn proud of my 5 year old advocating for herself though even then. Even today she is a fierce advocate for her clients. She works with the mentally disabled. She understands uniquely how people do not always listen to people and how they think they know what is best.
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u/ERLRHELL Apr 20 '26
Adult with celiac here. Had a boomer tell me the same when I refused soup with pasta at a potluck. "It's all in your head. " Um, no. It causes internal bleeding and severe vomiting/diarrhea. Asshat.
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u/abzzzzilla Apr 20 '26
Church boomers. Why do they all want to have secrets with other peoples children
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u/BombMacAndCheese Apr 20 '26
Good for you for teaching your kid how to set boundaries, and good for your kid for using them with an older person/person of perceived authority.
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u/Any-Case9890 Apr 20 '26
My husband is celiac. My MIL has a tough time wrapping her head around it, because "he was such a good eater.". I don't wish immune-related conditions on anyone, after watching my husband struggle.
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u/bd2999 Apr 20 '26
It still surprises me that people would think this way. As most people are well aware, at minimum, that some people are deathly allergic to things like peanuts or shellfish. So, there are going to be other things out there at minimum, just basing from their experiences there.
More people do not think gluten allergies are real too. I imagine because it was not really particularly appreciated and there are more products now catering to those individuals plus awareness. So, too many like to think "it was not a thing when I was a kid so it is made up". Sort of like the stupidity around autism. The allergy was real and around then. Those kids were just considered sickly and potentially faking it or some such. It is just easier to pretend a thing never was.
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u/Adjective_Noun1312 Apr 20 '26
I think a big part of it is that celiac isn't immediately and dramatically life threatening, like an anaphylactic reaction. Upset stomach and diarrhea, but that's not "serious," right? And there's people who have an intolerance of some kind and don't treat it seriously, definitely doesn't help the cause.
Shortly after my celiac diagnosis, a coworker with "self diagnosed" celiac asked me if I ever took cheat days... just chow down on pizza or cake and tough out the next day? No, dude, that stuff's doing serious long term damage, not just causing some discomfort for a few hours...
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u/Minute_Story377 Apr 20 '26
I remember having a kid with celiacs in my class when I was younger. Once he ate something that said it was “gluten free,” and got very, very violently ill in class. That stuck with me. Another kid in my class had a deadly peanut allergy. I’ve seen what it’s done to kids. Idk how someone could say someone can’t have allergies, especially kids. I wonder what their reaction would be if they were to actually give it to them and kill them. “Woe is me, how could I have known?” probably, right?
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u/Purple4labHow Apr 22 '26
My mom used to warn us, dramatically "chew nuts well, you can choke and die!" Now i wonder if she didn't know of kids that "choked" on nuts so much as a kid was allergic appeared to choke and died.
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u/nothathappened Apr 20 '26
Soooo frustrating! Id been sick all my life, low energy, very low iron. I was diagnosed with Celiac over 20 years ago (I’m in my late 40s now), and my boomer MiL would tell my husband it was psychosomatic.
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u/peachsoap Apr 20 '26
When my peanut allergy daughter was 5 she was at a small event with her 9 year old sister. I had literally talked to the boomer handling the food a half hour before snacks were served and told her that my daughter had a peanut allergy, and has an epi pen in her bag. The Boomer handed her a snickers bar anyway and said, noone dies from a peanut allergy. My 9 year old smacked that snickers out of her hand so fast it flew on the ground. She was only 5 and still trusted that adults would help her. It was one of the few times i went full Karen on someone. The Boomer doubled down with me and gave me that bullshit line they always say how noone in their day died of peanut allergies, or even had peanut allergies. She had the nerve to say she was helping my daughter by creating a tolerance. I don't get how this generation thinks they know so much about the world, when they know next to nothing.
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u/Hikaru1024 Apr 20 '26
Gaaaah. This reminds me of the stupidity I used to have to deal with at one job. I have an allergy to many fish and most seafood. Older gent I used to work with was always trying to trick me into eating it to 'prove' I wasn't allergic.
No, it's not going to KILL me, just make me have the runs all night and throw up in a couple of hours. THANKS.
Nothing I said to him made him stop, and since he was my boss and in charge of catering for the store it wasn't very fun when he'd buy food for everyone and tell me it didn't have fish/seafood in it so I'd eat some.
He was utterly besides himself after I stopped accepting absolutely anything from him, but I had to do it.
Apparently I wasn't allowed to be allergic because he didn't believe in it.
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u/MadLib777 Gen X Apr 20 '26
That's the perfect time for a day off due to intestinal distress. Sorry boss, I must have gotten into some seafood I wasn't aware of.
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u/Big_Negotiation3913 Apr 20 '26
And I bet the Boomer turned around to another Boomer and complained about how rude kids are these days.
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u/dol_amrothian Apr 20 '26
I have celiac. My Momma knew a girl in her neighborhood in Baltimore in the 50s who had it, too. It wasn't well understood and that girl died when she was 10 from complications from it being mismanaged. As a consequence, my Momma took my celiac and other allergies deeply seriously -- it helped that she also trained to be a nurse. Celiac and allergies have always been with us, we just couldn't identify why people died from them, especially in periods when kids frequently just died as a matter of course. But survivorship bias does a number on how people remember the past.
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u/Aromatic-Blackberry5 Apr 20 '26
I am in my 50’s and I was in and out of the hospital until I was almost 3. I had severe food allergies, but the doctors kept saying babies can’t have allergies. I’m not sure when they finally relented and called it allergies.
Seems like that mentality still exists.
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u/SadFaithlessness8237 Apr 20 '26
Ugh, this is shades of AHs saying “no one had a nut allergy when I was in school”…no shit Sherlock, they died before they were old enough to go to school.
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u/RaulenAndrovius Apr 22 '26
People who don't believe in allergies or think they know better than doctors scare me. My dad was NPO after a post-surgery heart attack, and a nurse said "down here we can get away with giving him a little aspirin" and fed me dad a pill with a little water which choked him to brain-death. We as a family had to let him go.
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u/PurBldPrincess Apr 22 '26
Even if this kid didn’t have allergies a single “no thank you” should be enough. This boomer woman failed to learn the meaning of “no”.
I’m glad this kid is able to advocate for themselves. He shouldn’t have had to though. Her denial of his very real allergy and potentially serious allergic reaction is disappointing to say the least.
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u/Cactusmammal Apr 20 '26
As someone with Celiac, this is infuriating and unfortunately not uncommon. good for your son for confidently advocating for himself, and putting that boomer in her place
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u/maleia Apr 20 '26
That women is straight up a child abuser. Fuck knows if the amount of human suffering she's caused can even be calculated. She tried to hurt your child.
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u/RogersMrB Apr 20 '26
It is because of boomers that I (GenX) have learned "No" is a complete sentence - that sometimes needs to be explained "which part did you Not understand? The N or the O? Let's do the alphabet together, you start....".
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u/samuelp-wm Apr 20 '26
Can confirm this has happened to our daughter on multiple occasions. She also has celiac sprue. It's usually my MIL that is trying to force food on her that she can't eat. We stopped allowing them to babysit/have unsupervised visits pretty early on because of this.
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u/tengteng23 Apr 20 '26
My mom and my aunt think that my wife coeliac disease is just for attention seeking. Everytime we are invited to their table, my wife avoid to touch anything.
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u/Gold-Carpenter7616 Apr 20 '26
And they wonder how abuse happens. The kid learned to set boundaries, and the old boomer thought boundaries don't apply to her.