Hey all,
There's something that's been on my mind for a little while now, specifically after I visited my mother to do some work for her. It's something I've noticed before but generally goes out of my mind fairly quickly, but over time it has become a bit more prominent and obvious.
To get to the point, I have three young (well, late teens and early 20's) nieces. For the past 3-4 years, for birthdays and Christmas, they have been giving out pictures of themselves as gifts (as the only gift to the person for either event). They do this specifically with my mother, their grandmother, but do it with other family members also. It's always a collective picture with the three of them in it. In pretty much every picture at least two of them are drinking alcohol (as in holding bottles of beer etc), in several at least one of them is clearly drunk. So it isn't even a case of them going to a photographer or making a point of having a nice photograph taken, they're literally just printouts of pictures they've taken on their phones while on a night out.
These photos are literally covering my mothers walls, she only lives in a small bungalow, they're not being requested by her as she already has a million pictures of everyone in the family anyway. When she doesn't immediately put them up one of the girls pitches a fit as though my mother is being ungrateful or doesn't love them. When I look at them, all I can think is that it's painfully narcissistic and very cheap.
...Am I being a grumpy old man? Is this normal behaviour for people in that age group?
Just felt the need to have a bit of a rant.
There's something that's been on my mind for a little while now, specifically after I visited my mother to do some work for her. It's something I've noticed before but generally goes out of my mind fairly quickly, but over time it has become a bit more prominent and obvious.
To get to the point, I have three young (well, late teens and early 20's) nieces. For the past 3-4 years, for birthdays and Christmas, they have been giving out pictures of themselves as gifts (as the only gift to the person for either event). They do this specifically with my mother, their grandmother, but do it with other family members also. It's always a collective picture with the three of them in it. In pretty much every picture at least two of them are drinking alcohol (as in holding bottles of beer etc), in several at least one of them is clearly drunk. So it isn't even a case of them going to a photographer or making a point of having a nice photograph taken, they're literally just printouts of pictures they've taken on their phones while on a night out.
These photos are literally covering my mothers walls, she only lives in a small bungalow, they're not being requested by her as she already has a million pictures of everyone in the family anyway. When she doesn't immediately put them up one of the girls pitches a fit as though my mother is being ungrateful or doesn't love them. When I look at them, all I can think is that it's painfully narcissistic and very cheap.
...Am I being a grumpy old man? Is this normal behaviour for people in that age group?
Just felt the need to have a bit of a rant.
