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Ann Brenoff

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Top 10 Lies Boomers Tell

Posted: 06/21/2012 9:49 am

"Lies" is such a harsh word. But every day we utter words that we know aren't true. Sometimes we do it to make someone else feel better. Other times, it's ourselves we are hoping to protect. Here are a few of our favorite examples.

Let us know if you've told any one of these little white lies and feel free to add some of your own in the comments!

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  • I Just Need To Sleep For 10 More Minutes

    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/11/sleep-deprivation-anxiety-uc-berkeley-study_n_1582321.html?ref=mostpopular" target="_hplink">Midlifers struggle with staying asleep</a>. We fall asleep easily enough, but staying asleep is an entirely different matter. And come morning, we plead with the alarm clock to say it isn't so.

  • I Can Still Wear Short Shorts

    This is usually said by someone trying to convince you that she doesn't care what others say behind her back. Leg exposure is a tricky thing post 50. Varicose veins and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-choate-davis/in-praise-of-old-women-with-cellulite_b_1503667.html" target="_hplink">cellulite on the thighs</a> are just not attractive looks. Then again, if you <em>really</em> don't care what others say...

  • I Like Wearing Bangs

    Little known fact of aging: Your eyebrows disappear. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/eyebrows-gone-missing_n_1421761.html" target="_hplink">They even have eyebrow transplants</a> now for when penciling in what's no longer there isn't enough. And then there are lovely wispy bangs, which you can see being sported increasingly.

  • Eating Early Is Good For You!

    This isn't actually a lie. While who doesn't <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/are-senior-discounts-deme_b_1119568.html" target="_hplink">love a discount</a>, the idea of going to an early-bird special is way too dated for anyone we know. But the truth is, eating a heavy meal late in the evening isn't so great for you. Your body needs more time to digest your food before you pass out asleep. Reservations for two at 6:30 p.m., please?

  • I Love To Wear Heels For A Night Out

    <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/foot-pain_b_1106047.html" target="_hplink">Aging feet hurt.</a> They sprout bunions, their arches fall. Heels are the enemy and much time is spent finding not just comfortable flats, but also clothing you don't need to wear heels with. No, not even for just one evening.

  • I Didn't Lose My Car Keys; I Just Misplaced Them

    Memory issues plague us all. Each time the TV remote winds up in the laundry room, we wonder whether this is the Big A -- Alzheimer's.

  • Baby Boomers Experience Is Valued In The Workplace

    Don't we wish? <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/10-tips-for-midlifers-re-_n_1539718.html" target="_hplink">Mid-lifers who lost their jobs</a> in the Great Recession are still struggling. And unlike others who are younger, they don't have as much time left in their working lives to recoup what they lost in savings.

  • My Relationship With My Kids Is Better Than Ever

    Of course it is. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/boomerang-kids-multigenerational-households-living-with-adult-children_n_1434966.html" target="_hplink">They are living back under your roof</a> and you are still supporting them because they can't find jobs. He who controls the pursestrings controls the kingdom.

  • I'm Totally Comfortable With Social Media And Use It All The Time

    Can we all just admit right here and now that we post to Facebook, send tweets and have spent several evenings trying to figure out Pinterest to little avail? Now fess up: what we'd really like is an occasional hour spent on the phone chatting with our friends -- our brick-and-mortar, real-life friends. Just because we can connect to strangers in more ways doesn't make us more connected.

  • I Don't Have Time To Exercise

    We make time for the things and people we think are important. It's called setting priorities and we've never met a post-heart attack patient who still didn't have time to exercise.

 

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"Lies" is such a harsh word. But every day we utter words that we know aren't true. Sometimes we do it to make someone else feel better. Other times, it's ourselves we are hoping to protect. Here are ...
"Lies" is such a harsh word. But every day we utter words that we know aren't true. Sometimes we do it to make someone else feel better. Other times, it's ourselves we are hoping to protect. Here are ...
 
 
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11:55 AM on 07/31/2012
I was offended by #8 the kids moving back home. ok alot of people were affected by the recession... if the boomers get the jobs, then there are more out of work able bodied young ppl. you want everything, the jobs, the money, whatever... well i want to know SSI will be available for me when i'm your age. boomers have ira's and savings, younger ppl have student loans and barely make it living paycheck to paycheck.
04:48 PM on 06/22/2012
ack, what an ageist list. Nothing really boomer-specific.
Boomer lies, to me, are more like:

Your future has unlimited possibilities if you finish college.
I'm fine with the fact no one's heard of Shelley Fabares.
You are free to be who you are because conforming is bad.
I was in that Coke commercial singing "I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company..."
Illegal drugs are bad.
Oatmeal tastes good.
I once flipped Nixon the bird.
I was a contestant on Password.
I've completed the NYT sunday crossword IN PEN every Sunday since 1968.
You're imagining things.
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JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin
Where's Mr. Darcy?
01:38 PM on 06/22/2012
Another lie from the boomers...

All those drugs I did in the 60's have had no effect on my adult life whatsoever.
01:23 PM on 06/22/2012
Several of these aren't really lies, as in "I love to wear high heels." That may be an unwise position, but it's not a lie. And my observation is that most boomers who SAY they are totally comfortable with social media really are; it's just that a great many don't care to use it. Further, I went to college with a lot of the baby boomers who are misplacing their car keys, and they were misplacing them when they were 20. This is just a series of cheap shots based on misconceptions -- misconceptions of such dubious acceptance that they don't even rise to the level of stereotyping.
12:31 PM on 06/22/2012
No one should wear high heels. TNot an age issue. The older women with the biggest bunions were once the young ones who spent significant time in them. Many young women already have damaged feet.

The bedroom and job interviews as Cybill Shepard once observed. That's it.
05:57 PM on 06/25/2012
Bunions are generally an inherited condition, even people in barefoot societies get them. I never wore high heels in my life, always running shoes and butt-uggly shoes with wide toe boxes and still had them.
12:10 PM on 07/09/2012
Exactly. I am 63 and I'm wearing a sexy black high heeled pump even as I type. I have no bunions and my feet feel very comfortable. My husband has bunions and he never wore a high heel.
12:24 PM on 06/22/2012
Offensive and disempowering. If you keep exercising you can wear shorts. I DO because I don't have any cellulite on the legs I've kept walking, standing on and exercising all my life. I look in the mirror every morning and somehow my dark thick eyebrows are still right there. These things are often true of people much younger than some of us. S***w you for trying to shame us into "acting our age" so we'll become invisible cows ready to be herded into the slaughter house.
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no dash american
the real 1% ers are combat veterans
08:11 AM on 06/22/2012
#1 Lie they tell themselves...This mess isn't our fault! Please they were the Viet Nam protesters, the junk bond inventors, the Wall Street mess, the housing mess, the last three presidents. Need I say more, Oh and quit changing the dates, at one time it ended in 1960 now it's 65, go back to 60 we don't want to be included in your selfish classification
08:06 AM on 06/22/2012
I find the article contrived and off the mark.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NorthernBorder
08:04 AM on 06/22/2012
Baby boomer - to much pot!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NorthernBorder
08:02 AM on 06/22/2012
oops - I wrote this in the wrong column - sorry folks
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NorthernBorder
08:01 AM on 06/22/2012
Israel bashers often bash us as a rascist country. We have every color of jew in our country. white, light brown, dark brown, black and a few others I cant remeber. When I asked my kids our many other than whites ( us) were in their class - they honestly had no idea of what I was talking about.
So goes our rascism - so goes the US
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08:51 PM on 06/22/2012
I think you got on the wrong posting site. But as long as you are here...how are your eyebrows holding up?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
vampi80
07:57 AM on 06/22/2012
If walking was so beneficial why then isn't the postmen Living to 125 and if eating fish was so great why then are whales so fat ha ha ha that's two more myths.
07:54 AM on 06/22/2012
being a boomer is not being a midlifer...unless you think you'll be living well beyond 100...maybe that's
a little lie we tell ourselves...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
donnyraindog
Grass shack nailed to a pinewood floor
07:13 AM on 06/22/2012
I was at woodstock and or marched with MLK should be up there.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
karen lyons kalmenson
i poem/paint, sometimes, i ain't
06:48 AM on 06/22/2012
you're only as old as you feel,
yeah right, come on
get really real.
i creak, i kvetch
i sag,
i wrinkle.
and if i laugh
uh oh
i tinkle
but being a baby
boomer still totally rules
short shorts and
high heels
anyway,
for fools;-D
(oh the above a tad overzealous...oh i am so jealous)