When it comes to technology, my in-laws are like monkeys with dynamite...

[NewWaveChick1981]

:yoiks: They're both in their early 80s. They called us at 10:45 PM last night to let us know my FIL "broke" both TVs. :eyes: Apparently, FIL pressed the wrong button and suddenly he got snow. Being the sports addict that he is, he insisted on monopolizing the other TV for the rest of the afternoon and evening until my MIL insisted she be able to watch the news. When he tried to change channels, he "broke" the other TV too. If they'd called us at 6 or 7 PM, we'd have driven over to fix it for them, but noooooo....they waited until almost 11 PM when my husband and I were both asleep. :eyes:

In the last year, we have had to go over to their house, a 30-minute drive from ours, on twelve separate occasions to put the channel back on 3. One additional time, we made the drive to turn the power back on to the satellite box. My FIL loves getting the latest gadgets but has NO clue as to how they work. For instance, when they got their first cell phones a couple of years ago, both of them thought they were like walkie talkies and kept pushing buttons on the phone and shouting into it. Needless to say, that definitely didn't work. :P FIL insisted on getting satellite TV because he could drown in sports all day long if he wanted with all of the sports channels available. However, cable was just fine for his purposes, and he's locked into a contract with DirecTV now. There are too many features and buttons for them on the DirecTV remote; I wish I could just get them a universal remote that ONLY turns power off and on, changes channels, and controls volume. That's ALL they need. Instead, FIL is like Homer Simpson trying to make a phone call---he presses all the wrong buttons at the wrong time and wonders why he can't get through.

My husband is going over there late this afternoon to get everything going again, but this is driving us INSANE. :mad: Thanks for letting me vent. :)

[MonkeyFunk]

1. My father got his first computer in his 70s.

You should've heard the 45-minute phone conversation I had with him trying to explain how to double-click.

[NewWaveChick1981]

2. OMG, I know just what you mean...

:yoiks: :rofl: My FIL bought a new Brother word processor in the 80s but couldn't figure out how to get it out of the box. Guess what we found about two weeks ago under a pile of old magazines? :P

I wrote down simple instructions in big letters on how to fix the "broken" TV, but he lost the instructions. :eyes:

[underpants]

3. They probably hit the SOURCE button

either that or they clicked on the AUX function tab and they need to hit the TV tab to get the remote back to where it should be. It depends on if they have TiVo or digital cable but our daughter does those (it was her!!!) all the time.

Unplugging an dletting the whole thing reset works from time to time also.

My mother and wife had the misfortune of observing me on a computer over the weekend (my mother via phone) when they couldn't find an article in a newspaper. I sat down and had it within 30 seconds. :eyes: They don't know what they are doing.

[Road Scholar]

4. Are they republicans? My in-laws are and are seriously

handicapped with anything over 5th grade level.:shrug: :hi:

[jakefrep]

5. Sounds like my Mom & Dad with computers

Dad's pretty low-maintenance, but he gets easily frustrated by anything beyond surfing the web and e-mail. He has a PC laptop that he uses almost exclusively for those purposes. Mom (retired teacher), however, has a Mac - :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: . In and of itself, that isn't necessarily bad, but I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about how to set them up and run them. Unfortunately, she assumes that since I'm network-admin-by-default at work, that I know absolutely everything about every computer and every operating system ever made.

[Corgigal]

6. Your post made me smile

because my husband has to help his mother, over our phone with her computer problems. They live in Florida and we are states away but she calls my hubby day or night when she has a computer issue. One time it took him several hours to explain to his 70 year old mom how to fix some computer issue. Luckily he was able to fix this problem because now he can log directly into her computer and fix everything.
Doesn't stop the phone calls but he won't be tied up for hours on the phone. Might be tied up for awhile fixing whatever she did on the computer but the phone isn't ringing 10 times an afternoon.

I SO can relate.