As he's getting older, the thought of me preventing.....

[Silverobama]

My dad always buys things online (things that are useless). He never asks me or my mom if we need such things, like a hanger or a knife, etc, but he just buys them. We've told him that we don't need such things. I really want to stop him from buying such things but my feelings are ambivalent. One on hand, those things are not needed. On the other, as he's getting older and I think it's not appropriate to stop him from doing what he wants. Besides, the things he buys are not expensive. I want to repsect him and let him do what he wants.

I wrote two sentences about that but I don't know if the red sentence is coherent and natural. Please help me with a better version.

My dad likes buying many fancy-looking gadgets that are ultimately useless. But as he's getting older, the thought of me preventing him from doing that breaks my heart.

 

[emsr2d2]

My dad always buys useless things online. (things that are useless). He never asks me or my mom if we need such things no comma here like a hanger or a knife, etc, but he just buys them. We've told him before that we don't need such things things like that. I really want to stop him from buying such things them but, to be honest, my feelings are I'm quite ambivalent about it. One on On one hand, those things are not needed unnecessary. On the other hand, as he's getting older and so I don't think it's not appropriate to stop him from doing what he wants. Besides, the things he buys are not expensive. I want to repsect respect him and let him do what he wants.

I wrote two sentences about that but I don't know if the red sentence is coherent and natural. Please help me with a better version.

My dad likes buying many fancy-looking gadgets that are ultimately useless. But However, as he's getting older, the thought of me preventing him from doing that breaks my heart.

See above. The first part of the first sentence at the bottom doesn't fit what you've told us. Hangers and knives aren't "fancy-looking gadgets".

You used "such things" three times in three sentences. Is it going to be your new "then" and I'm going to have to keep deleting/changing it? Read your pieces back several times before you post and check for repetition that you can fix.

 

[Silverobama]

You used "such things" three times in three sentences. Is it going to be your new "then" and I'm going to have to keep deleting/changing it? Read your pieces back several times before you post and check for repetition that you can fix.

I'll pay close attention to that because I've done a good job on the use of "then".

See above. The first part of the first sentence at the bottom doesn't fit what you've told us. Hangers and knives aren't "fancy-looking gadgets".

Much appreciated. I didn't use all those examples but I also forgot to mention at least one.

Is there an other way of expressing the red sentence?

 

[tedmc]

How about:
As he is getting old, I don't have the heart to tell him to refrain from doing what he wants.

 

[Silverobama]

How about:
As he is getting old, I don't have the heart to tell him to refrain from doing what he wants.

Maybe, I'm not sure because my English isn't good. Let's wait for some native speakers for their comments.

I want to know how native speakers would express the idea.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd say something like "He's getting old - I'd feel bad if I tried to stop him doing whatever he wants".

To be honest, if the person is still fully in control of their faculties (no dementia etc), I wouldn't try to stop them anyway. It's their money and they can spend it on anything they want! If they're no longer competent, someone should be given power of attorney in order to take charge of their finances.