What Really Ground Young Me's Gears: Age Requirements!

Welcome to the Chronicles of Trevor, the only where people of all ages are allowed to view all my posts, even 0-year-olds! 

And now, a special version of What Really Grinds My Gears. Today I'm talking about something that young me hated, and thought was a form of ageism.

You know how contests and giveaways have "Official Rules"? These often contain age limits. Some are open to those as young as 13, but most are limited to people of age 18 and up. As a young tween-age kid, this really irked me. It was like the companies were like "Hey everyone, YOU can have the chance WIN THIS COOL PRIZE!" "Sorry, you're too frakkin' young, we need to exclude you".

What was worse for young me were the very rare contests that were open only to those aged 21 and up. I get it for campaigns from alcoholic beverage companies, but there were some giveaways where the higher age made absolutely no sense!

Take for instance, HGTV's Dream Home Sweepstakes. When 10 year old me first seen the 21+ age limit of that contest, I got so angry, that I tensed up, and kicked my bedroom wall. It caused my big toenail to break, and enough blood to fill a NyQuil dosage cup seeped out of my toe.

It was the policy of Scripps Networks (the then-owners of HGTV) that caused the bump in age limit. 

What also irks me is that when Scripps Networks was bought out by Discovery, they inherited that annoying policy. So when I was 20, I saw an ad for a Gold Rush-themed giveaway where you could win a Mason jar full of gold nuggets. When I seen "Open to legal US residents, aged 21 or over", I was so mad! My blood was BOILING AS RAPIDLY AS WHITE-HOT MAGMA! 

I could understand the age limit if it was a giveaway for a jar of moonshine from Moonshiners, but A FRAKKIN' MASON JAR FULL OF GOLD NUGGETS? WHY DO YOU NEED TO BE 21 TO GET A JAR OF GOLD NUGGETS? IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE THE ONE MINING FOR IT! Screw Scripps, and Down with Discovery. Also OF COURSE a moron like David Zaslav would change his company's policy after acquiring another company. Just look at how he's ruining the animation industry.

But I digress. Another thing I hated about age limits are that sometimes, they can be downright hypocritical.

Take for instance, a local radio station where I live, Mix 104.1, back in 2019, was promoting a Kesha concert and giving away tickets. It was sponsored by the station, and a few others. After the main part of the promotion, the station's announcer said "This is a 21 and over event" as if she had channeled her inner MicroMachines commercial guy. But wanna hear the worst part? One of the sponsors was EDAVILLE FAMILY THEME PARK, a local amusement park in my area that has a railroad which features THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!!!!!

YOU READ THAT RIGHT. 

THOMAS! 

THE! 

TANK! 

ENGINE!!!!!!!! 

Why in ABC's Wide World of Sports would they of all people sponsor a non-family-friendly event? Someone call Mattel, Gullane (Thomas) Ltd., and Britt Allcroft, I sense a revocation of the Thomas & Friends license.

After that, a year later, Mix 104.1 promoted and sponsored another concert, thus one was supposed to help children with leukemia. It would've been a great thing to hear, had the Mix announcer not stated it was a 21-and-over event.

WHAT THE FRAK, MIX? YOU HAD ONE JOB YET AGAIN, AND YOU SCREWED UP JUST LIKE LAST TIME! But at least it's going to a great cause. 

Because of that, I'm no longer a Mix 104.1 listener.

I hope you enjoyed that little tangent on how age limits used to irk me when I was younger.