A Rudeness Rant

Apologies up front if this post offends as I don't wish to come across as rude when I'm about to do the whole finger waving and hands on hips thing about rudeness.

 

Okay some background.  The lovely Wayne and I have been on holidays this week.  We tend to have holidays that DON'T coincide with school holidays so that we avoid the crowds and all that that brings.  This week was no different as the school holidays had just ended.  We spent a lovely few days away at Nelson Bay in Port Stephens where we did all kinds of holiday stuff like eating and drinking.  Oh yes, we also went for walks and did some touristy sight-seeing stuff.  One of the touristy things we did was a boat trip from Nelson Bay to Tea Gardens with lunch at the Tea Gardens pub (opposite the Myall River), then the return boat trip back to Nelson Bay.  All in all it was a lovely day and we spoke to some lovely and friendly people.  We even saw dolphins swimming close to the boat.  But I digress.

 

For a change, the lovely Wayne and I were two of the younger passengers on the boat (there was a family of 7 that were younger than us!).  Now I am not ageist, truly.  That being said, the remaining 60 passengers on the boat were elderly people mature Australians.  Now I have always had the utmost respect for elderly people mature Australians and would be mortified if anyone treated my parents other than with great respect, BUT, a couple of the elderly people mature Australians on the boat were incredibly rude.  Now I'm no manners nazi, but it really irked me that these people could be so rude.  For example, when lining up to board the boat at Nelson Bay everyone was in an orderly queue on the jetty when this rude elderly couple mature Australian couple just pushed in front of the lovely Wayne and I.  If that wasn't enough, they did the same thing at the pub to order lunch and again to board the boat for the return trip.  And these were just the examples that we saw.

 

Image source

 

Now my mum instilled in me from a very young age to respect your elders and always offer them your seat etc, and I indeed do.  But seriously, this elderly couple mature Australian couple were just plain rude.  Everyone else was chatty and friendly on the boat and they just ignored everyone.  I guess it just pissed me off as I know that my late grandparents would have sooner walked to the moon than be like that.  I think the thing that 'did it' for me was that here was this pair being total a-holes when there was a young family (mum, dad, and 5 kids under 12) in which the 5 children were amongst the loveliest, most courteous, well behaved children you could meet.

 

Am I being too harsh?  Were they just having a bad day?  Who knows.  We didn't let them spoil our day, and in hindsight I guess I feel sad for them.

 

What are your thoughts on rude elderly people mature Australians?  Or even rude people in general.

 

G. xx

 

PS - no elderly people mature Australians were harmed in the writing of this post.

 

PPS - most elderly people mature Australians are awesome!