A great new programme has really summed up how we feel about our old people in this country. 
Off Their Rockers showed a selection of naughty pensioners playing different pranks on unsuspecting members of the public. Flatulence played a large part in the mischief-making and two pensioners flashed their bikini-clad bodies in a park. It was hilarious.
The people witnessing their behaviour were totally stunned – the look on their faces said what they were thinking: ‘why aren’t these old people just sitting quietly in an armchair somewhere?’
A report in the BBC also suggested that as a nation, we generally find our old people a bit of a boring distraction.
Charity WRVS said in the article that more than 360,000 older people feel lonely because their children don’t have time to visit them.
Alice, 94, from Yorkshire, told her story. She was lonely because her family were too busy working to spend time with her. She joined a befriending service and was helped by 44-year-old Andrew, who takes her shopping once a week. She said: “He makes me feel wanted and I don’t just say that. He’s worth a fortune, I would be lost without him, and I mean lost.”
My own gran is 93, and although she doesn’t have the problem of being lonely, she is starting to get annoyed by the fact that everyone treats her like a child. They make decisions for her and talk about her while she is sitting right in front of them. She has been getting quite irritated by this recently and I don’t blame her.
We are getting older as a nation and it seems we need retraining in terms of how to treat our elderly. My friend’s mum is in her 80s and she enjoyed her first helicopter ride just last week.
If I am lucky enough to be fit and healthy at her age, I hope I am taken up in helicopter rides, not sent to an armchair to be quiet by members of my family and visited as a chore once a month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22012957