Old woman!

Such bad manners, some people forget they too will be old one day if they’re lucky.

Don’t complain to the shop or ‘name and shame’. By my standards the cleaner was rude but it’s probably their usual way of speaking. Do you want to get a poorly paid worker disciplined for a trivial slight? I’m sure you don’t.

For all the people on here saying what is wrong with it. It was a rude way of saying who was waiting at the till and unnecessary. Being old is different to different people and a lot of people would not have liked that description being given. Being old is a description of someone, likewise being fat is a description of someone but not a way of describing a person in a loud voice for all to hear!

Name and shame the shop, we know that we are mature (!) but that was just plain rude.

I honestly can’t get worked up about someone probably on a zero hour minimum wage contract calling a customer old.

So very very rude.

Why are people bothered by the word OLD. It’s what we are. Kids don’t get excited being called kids …. because that’s what they are!!!!
It’s like those ‘twee’ people who can’t say ‘died’ and have to scrabble around for another word or phrase. ‘Passed’ being so ‘yuk’ . Passed what I feel like asking !!

Perhaps give the cleaning lady the benefit of the doubt. She was perhaps encouraging them to come sooner given your age.
Old lady at till - please give her some consideration and come quickly.
Yes folk do see us as old. Years ago people didn’t live this long. So we are old if we’re over 60. Just factual.

How ridiculous.

For those, including me, who would rather be lady than woman. When I was working I attended a meeting where the presenter referred to us as ladies. A woman put her hand up and said 'You've called us ladies twice now. We are women. If you call us ladies again I will report you'. The poor man was mortified. This was about 15 years ago.

I told my grandson to be more careful after he had twice had to go and retrieve his football from my next door neighbour’s garden. He replied that the old lady didn’t mind. She’s a month older than me - 73!

I was at the theatre bar a while ago, with a token issued by the theatre for a free drink for myself and a friend. None of the bar staff knew about this ‘offer’ so o e of them put a call into the manager, shouting down the phone ‘there’s some woman down here asking for free drinks’. I contacted the manager the next day suggesting a little staff training might be called for. I did get an apology. I wasn’t the only with the ‘free drink’ token.

The other day I said to my 8 year old granddaughter "You've got a silly old Granny". Her immediate response "You're not silly Granny". Out of the mouths of babes......! I'm 72.

It is very rude .
I'd rather be called lady !
Customer would be the correct /more polite term .

About 25 years ago ,I heard my friend's husband (who actually knew me ) describe me as some foreign woman at the door !
I'm not foreign and I didn't like being called woman !

I fell over the other day and badly injured my face. A lovely young man came out of his house, gave me a bag of frozen sweet corn to help the pain and drove me round the corner to the walk in centre. I thanked him profusely and he said he hoped someone would do the same for his gran!
It brought me up short but realised that I could have been his gran.

Baggs, I disagree with your defence of “old”. IMHO there was no need for an adjective of any kind. “Someone” , “a lady”, or “a customer” is waiting. Why should any kind of description be needed? And while being elderly is just a fact, the word “old” to describe someone is usually perjorative.

You should be correct Franbern but regretfully you are not. Old is never used as a compliment. Congratulations on achieving your 81 years but if I was to describe you as old, it would be an insult.

I really fail to see how 'old' is in any way an insult. It is a factual comment as, indeed is the term woman.

Thanks to good genes and a wonderful NHS I have managed to live for 81 years. Yes, I am an old woman. Nothing to be particularly proud or ashamed about. It is just a fact.

I would have looked around the shop and then said " I can't see any old woman"!

Generally speaking, specifically calling someone 'old' is not usually meant as a neutral comment, and seldom as a compliment - except for the backhanded one which describes an older woman as "good for her age" (or a man, come to that).

The medical community might refer to the 'older' population in relation to some specific disease or condition - but this comment from the cleaner was personal and she announced it publicly.

It was bad mannered - and simply unnecessary.

And, Baggs... I think the reason (one of them anyway) people find being thought or spoken of as old is that they associate cognitive decline with any sign of age, such as wrinkly skin and grey hair. This is daft. It is daft... but, it's a widely held perception. And as for GSM's mother being described as "the old woman in the corner"... what's wrong with "the elderly lady in the corner"?

Good manners cost little effort.

I wouldn’t really bring old into anything, I’d have said can someone serve please, there’s a lady at the till or there’s a customer waiting to be served! But that’s me !

I think the reason (one of them anyway) people find being thought or spoken of as old is that they associate cognitive decline with any sign of age, such as wrinkly skin and grey hair. This is daft.

I'm afraid that there are moments when 'Lily Savage' pops unbidden from my lips.
"Yes, an old woman who doesn't sweep floors for a living"!
Now, before you all jump on me, I absolutely respect cleaners, janitors, porters etc, they're all working, and doing jobs that I personally wouldn't want to do, and I am ALWAYS polite to them, but that rude and ignorant woman deserved a put down!

Oh dear. I always felt that David Dimbleby was rude when on QT he pointed out ‘the woman wearing … ‘.

At a Q and A session at the Hay Literary Festival, the interviewer pointed to someone sitting behind us and said: "the gentleman with the blue jumper, yes you". The 'gentleman' opened with:"my husband and I... " I don't know who was most embarrassed, the poor interviewer or the lady behind us. We were just trying hard not to giggle.