Dear Boomers, You Are Grounded. Please Listen To Your Kids

How the times have changed. Moms and dads across the world are getting an earful from their grown up kids for not taking the COVID-19 heath scare seriously. Raise you hand if you are an adult parenting your sixty-plus parents who refuse to sit at home. Who insist on carrying on with their morning walks, or step out to buy grocery and fresh vegetables, every two days. This is not a drill, outside world is cancelled, and yet our parents and grandparents are tossing all our instructions of safety out of their balcony because clearly they know better. Just what does a child have to do, to get their parents to listen to them!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• COVID-19 outbreak has been targeting the elderly population the most.
• Many adult children have taken to policing their parents, asking them to stay inside the house.
• But when have parents listened to their children.
• Could the boomer parents please sit this one out, instead of boasting about their immunity and life-experience.

This is not a drill, the outside world is cancelled, and yet our parents and grandparents are tossing all our instructions of safety out of their balcony because clearly they know better

I am writing this amidst discussions with a parent on having their elective surgery early next month postponed. Even the prime minister of the country, who enjoys a big fan-following in amidst boomers, said so in his speech last night. And yet the parent is still in “we will see” mode. They are taking it to the last minute, while my blood pressure shoots up trying to work out how I will manage to travel and be by their side, if they indeed manage to go ahead with their operation. It turns out I am not alone.

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My colleague Kiran Manral shared on Twitter, “So," says the mater, after the announcement last night, exhorting the 65 plus to stay put in the house, "Where shall we go for my birthday lunch on Monday?" Even Ishaan Tharoor, son of politician Shashi Tharoor shared his sense of helplessness on social media, "My struggles with a lackadaisacal boomer today: @ShashiTharoor insists on going to Parliament with hordes of other people pressed together in close quarters even as Indian government enacts significant measures to begin imposing social distancing. This is nuts."

We forget that the boomers are literally our maas and baaps. They are headstrong and too proud of their immunity and resistance. Plus there is that added pride of having more experience.

Close home, I have politely turned down my mother-in-law’s offer to step outside the house to buy vegetables. But it is the parents I am worried about more, since they live 700 kilometers or so away from me, just the two of them. While there have been no coronavirus cases reported in their area as of now, heaven knows how long this clean streak will last. Not many corners of the country remain “safe” for the elderly. What will happen if it spreads to their town, their locality?

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But we forget that the boomers are literally our maas and baaps. They are headstrong and too proud of their immunity and resistance. Plus there is that added pride of having more experience and worked hard to earn their way of life. What qualifications do their entitled kids have to preach them about health and well-being?

If only our parents could understand that this policing of their movements in not some form of a repressed sense of vengeance for all the times they grounded us. It stems from the fear of menace we are witnessing unfold around the world. We are not questioning their genes or immunity, but we just don't know of any other way to keep them safe. So dear boomer parents, please listen to your kids just this once and stay at home. Respectfully, your loving children,

The views expressed are the author's own.