To wonder why up to 35 is now considered young

Tbh I'm for the philosophy you're only as old as you feel. Been up with LO since 4am so yeh im really pretty rough and body aches right now so I feel about 95!

But i will happily take 35 as young (holding on to my youth!)

Well this has just cheered me right up as I hurtle towards 36 in a few weeks

I think property prices and uni fees have had a massive knock on effect. People live at home or are supported in some way by their parents for much longer so they get "babied" inadvertently.

This leads to an effect of young people actually having more disposable income for luxuries, travel and leisure, and an understandable feeling of entitlement to those things. A mortgage and babies at 25, formerly the norm, must seem quite unappealing now.

With that, societal norms have shifted. Sorry to TAAT but I'm thinking about the Shirley Valentine thread recently when it used to be considered nigh on on compulsory for women to have a perm, a big bottom and frumpy clothes once she hit 30 or became a mother. Now anything goes and a good thing too! One of my cousins married recently and his bride was 37. My mother was really shocked that she wore a full on strapless gown and veil "at her age" (she looked absolutely beautiful btw). "Old brides" were formerly expected to wear a matronly skirt suit they could wear again.

With all of the above, and women making better career progression, people are having children later too. Over 40 used to be really unusual to have a baby. Now it's not at all. I had my youngest at 40 and I feel that has kept me feeling young as my life is still full of dollies and Disney.

Middle age = whatever age I currently am plus 15 years.

I wonder if younger middle age and older middle age would make sense as there is a huge gap between being a young adult and being old.

Maybe a new word is needed.

That. I only got married at 34. I’m several years past 35 but now have a toddler and am trying for DC2. In no way do I feel middle aged but certainly I wouldn’t put myself in the same category as uni students.

I was thinking about this the other day as it struck me I don’t feel ‘young’ any more. I’m 31, married, selling our first owned flat (bought when I was 27) to buy a house, I’m financially independent from my parents and I’m expecting my first child any day. I don’t by any stretch feel ‘young’, which is weird because if you’d spoken to me 18 months ago when I was 29 I think I’d have definitely said I did feel young.

Having said that I’m 100% not middle aged either! Still go to music festivals, working to establish myself in my career, need to put more in my pension, parents still refer to us as ‘the kids’, go on girl’s holidays without DH, and yesterday I ate ice cream for breakfast

Can’t the term for the age between ‘young adult’ and middle aged just be... regular adult? Cause that’s what I feel like!

I'm guessing it's because the average age of marriage and house buying has gone up.

I can vividly remember being 21, new graduate and going to an 18-30s meet up full of 35-50s pretending to be younger. They probably saw it as being young at heart but I just found them deluded and depressing.

I swore I'd face middle age with some dignity and approaching 35 I think I'm sticking to it. I'm not old yet but I know I'm not the same as I was in my 20s. Being young at heart is great but also be yourself.

Damn, I’m middle aged at 36? I don’t feel massively young (toddlers will do that to you) but I’m not middle aged! I only just passed the point 2 years ago where I no longer had to work for more years than I’d been alive so far before I could get my pension.

I tend to think of if you are still living at home with your parents would you be considered as too old to do so.

Having said that I am 55 and older people still refer to me as young lady! I am definitely old and I remember thinking when I had my last baby at the age of 30 was I too old to have anymore.

Now I think of 30s as young though as I have a son of 31 and he still seems young.

Gmil is 94 and talks about the young woman over the road.. Young woman is around 60 😄

Young is currently up to 53. It goes up a year each March ......

Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow Hurray!

Now I really must seek out coffee and accept it is morning. Groan!

jolokoy I liked your response. You properly made me giggle. Which hasn’t happened in a while!

I think 30s are still ‘young’ in the sense that you’re not quite ‘middle aged’. But I also feel significantly more grown up, self confident and more together than I did as a 21 year old starting a grad job in a badly fitted suit.

We regularly have students in their early twenties on placement at my work, and I do feel I am at quite a different stage of maturity and life to them, but I still don’t feel ‘old’.

My friends and I are probably fitter and more energetic than we were in our early twenties due to better eating habits have stopped the binge drinking and recreational drugs and more sleep and exercise.

Of course 35 is still young. What is the point of this thread?!

I don't think 35 is young. It's not old. It's sort of in the .... middle? I think we have a word for that. ;)

I’m 36 and I definitely feel ancient but the reality is, if we are to live to our life expectancies then we are still on the younger side of things. I don’t think in all honesty you can call 35 old, that would be quite weird.

It’s not young in the sense that you can get away with making silly immature mistakes that you could have got away with in your late teens or early twenties. But it’s physically still young...your body, providing you haven’t got a disability or other long term chronic illness, should still be able to do a lot of things people in their 20s can. I know lots of older women who felt they were most attractive in their mid-30s so that must have something to do with relative youthfulness but maybe a more pulled together look.

I actually see the opposite attitude on here. That on the day you turn 35, you must immediately start wearing frumpy clothes, have all your hair cut short, all your eggs dry up and it’s cruel to have a child, your life is essentially over. I’ve never read anyone saying, “oh 35 is so young! You’re practically a baby” or anything like that.

When people have said, irl, that 35 is young I’ve always just taken it to mean that your not yet at an age where most things are no longer possible. Providing there are no medical issues already, you can still take up most sports, have a baby, touch your toes, change careers, move to the other side of the world etc etc without having to worry too much.

Surely it all depends on context? 35 can be lots of things. If you're surveying people about their thoughts on pensions, then it's probably young. If you're talking about obstetrics then it's geriatric. If you're grouping people in small increments of age for some sort of opinion poll then it's probably in the middle.

I agree with @Noconceptofnormal, we need to create a new word/phrase to describe “youngish but not young adults.” Like “tween” for 10-12 year olds.😄

I find it odd to think of early-mid 30’s as young, just doesn’t sound right when someone’s been an adult for 15-odd years.

In the 70s and 80s, most people were married by 25. They had kids and rent to pay. Few people travelled or partied because they has family commitments

Now, a large % of people don’t have children until their late 30s so are still out socialising at 35.

Plus we now have gym bunnies and runners who have the energy of 25yos at 35. They were not the norm in 1975.

And life expectancy has risen, so ages are relative.