I won’t say “just” your parents, but that’s not the way the boomers I know do it … except possibly when making a point that someone else is being rude. ‘My’ boomers say, “May we have [x]” or “We’d like [x], please” and when they get said [x] they say “Thank you” or “That’s wonderful.”
If their request is ignored, they might emphasize that they’ve asked and were ignored by pointedly saying, “Please. Thank you.” – and say it in a curt manner to remind the other that a request has been made and no feedback has been given. Example: “We’d like you to take out the trash.” …(no reply)… (silence)… “Ahem. We’d LIKE YOU TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH, PLEASE. THANK YOU.”
My memory is fuzzy. Didn’t he originally try to give the full, un-redacted docs to just newspapers, but got frustrated with the slowness/unresponsiveness or something and then everything went public? Or am I thinking of the earlier guy who worked on writing illegal software for the government, tried to blow the whistle and then got in trouble? Or am I thinking of a subsequent whistleblower who tried to use a secure dropbox for media, but it turned out to be insecure? There’s just been so many people trying to show proof of shady government stuff that I can’t keep track of which of the folks are supposed to be ‘bad’ for doing so.