To wonder why up to 35 is now considered young

Because people in their twenties are dicking around acting like they're 15 and people in their thirties are dicking around acting like theyre in their twenties. There's a thread on here with some jaw dropping replies to a 23yr old lady with her own home and stable relationship telling her she's practically a baby and don't be so silly trying for a baby at her age. Bloody ridiculous. Then there's the desperate threads of 'wish me baby dust at 45+' i bet they wish they were 23. Biologically we're not young at 35. Generations ago women were having babies at 16-22 over that was considered 'older' because in biological terms if you started your periods at 11/12 your eggs aren't in great shape by 35+. I get sick of seeing people being urged to 'think if your career. Go travelling' if say in mud twenties you definitely want to start thinking about mortgage /marriage /kids. And yes I know they'll be 101 scenarios pop up where that isnt possible. But generally speaking.

https://www.webmd.com/baby/pregnant-after-35#11_

"You’re hoping to make a baby and wondering about your chances at “advanced maternal age” (the medical term for women pregnant at 35 or later). Age is one of the key factors that predict your ability to conceive. Your fertility starts to decline at age 30 and keeps on dropping steadily until you hit menopause.
That said, it’s not only possible to deliver a healthy baby after age 35, it’s quite common. Here’s a look at the odds facing “older” mothers.
By the Numbers
You’re at your peak fertility in your 20s. Healthy women that age who are trying to conceive have about a 1 in 4 chance of getting pregnant during a single menstrual cycle. In other words, 25 out of 100 women will succeed per month.
By age 40, an average healthy woman has only a 5% chance of getting pregnant per cycle.
At the same time, the likelihood of miscarriage climbs with your age. A typical 40-year-old has about a 40% chance of losing the pregnancy. That compares to less than 15% for someone in their 20s.

BY THE TIME YOU’RE OVER 45, THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS SAYS GETTING PREGNANT NATURALLY IS “UNLIKELY FOR MOST WOMEN.”

[quote yetanothernamitynamechange]@decoratingnightmare
John Finnemore referred to the thirties as "the old end of young". I like this definition. So by your late fourties/early fifties you would be "the young end of old".[/quote]
That sounds about right

I’m 29 with a ten year old. I don’t feel young it’s lies. 😂

Society assesses age by life stage, not physical attributes - childhood and youth when you still require support and education; young adulthood when you start careers and/or families; middle age when you are relatively settled and established, with lots of responsibilities set in stone; and old age, when your children are grown up and you are now beginning to be more reliant on support from others rather than being the source of support. Obviously, therefore, the concept of being “young” now goes on for longer, because people are on average getting round to starting families and even careers at an older age than in the past.

@decoratingnightmare
John Finnemore referred to the thirties as "the old end of young". I like this definition. So by your late fourties/early fifties you would be "the young end of old".

Because young vs older isn’t really a number? More of an outlook ... people aged let’s say 25-40 may be looking at marriage/house purchase/starting a family, or they may still be being educated, or in training following education, still starting a career. The outlook and attitude of all of these different people and their life phase means that some 35 year olds will still be quite young in their outlook, with less caring responsibility and more disposable income. Things have changed a great deal in the last 30 years

It cannot go on markers like having babies and buying houses. What if you have not managed to do any of those things by your 50s? You will not be young

wrt menopause,i'm 50 and my only symptom was heavy periods which I take progesterone only pill for and that's sorted it. it hasn't made me feel OLD. I feel like a very young older adult, not an older young adult. It's not like you're queuing up waiting to die.

Also agree that a 35 year old has AT LEAST six years until she could possibly be in peri menopause but it's much more likely to be a decade more than a decade, 13 years probably. So stupid to say 35 is old because you could be in peri menopause as ''soon'' as 6 years.

Because life expectancy has massively increased in the previous generation. My grandparents all died in their sixties. My parents' generation are living well into their eighties and nineties.
The markers of adulthood: permanent job, marriage, mortgage, kids etc all happen much later so until you have a couple of them, you are still considered a young person. On a recent thread a poster was told she was far too young to have a baby at 24!!! My mum was told she was knocking on a bit by starting her family at 22.

Because, finally, people are seeing sense and that it's not all about being under 25.

In Ancient Rome it used to be until 40. Just saying. Though just like here, not universally agreed.

It is young!
At 35 I had still not met my OH, still not had children.

Ironic that it was the boomers themselves who invented the phrase "Never trust anyone over 30".

https://medium.com/@MKaines/baby-boomers-critics-of-millennials-once-said-ignore-anyone-over-30-9b2f694b8decc_

Same with menopause - it's all happening in the background whether we realise it or not.

@yetanothernamitynamechange, very good points!

I think there’s a bit of Peter Pan syndrome going on and there’s a variety of reasons for this.
I’m 35 and was 26 when I had my first child and 32 when we had our last baby.
I was married , had travelled, completed a degree and post grad and really didn’t think it was that young at all. Now my friends are all having their first at 36/37 etc and it’s not because of circumstances (they have been with their dh’s as long as I have/no fertility issues) they just wanted to do other things and that’s totally understandable, we just chose different times to do things.
But I have noticed that some of them seem quite shocked at having their age referred to at appointments etc as being older ftm, I think 36/37 for a first baby while more normal is a little older than ideal (although of course that’s not everyone’s choice etc). I think because people look and feel younger (good exercise routine, lots of beauty treatments available etc) it comes as a bit of a shock when your in the situation like having a baby and health care professionals are referring to your age as old ..

In my family people tend to live into their 90's and on sometimes even beyond that,so I tend to still feel pretty young and that I have a lot of time left. Genetically some people do literally age faster than others.

I think also youth is so idealised, particularly in women that it hurts to consider you no longer have it. I was really unexpectedly depressed when I turned 30 because I was no longer "young" even though I was in the best position in life I had been for a long time. But the phase "middle aged women" has loads of negative associations even though it really really shouldn't.

A lot of people in their mid-thirties now would have been coming out if university around, or just before the 2008 financial crash. Then you have the fact that a lot of careers expect unpaid internships to have a chance of getting a job there (which also cuts out a huge demographic but thats another thing). As a result a lot of people I know spent their 20s working but not really establishing a well paid career - think bouncing from internship to masters degree to low paid job via a shift in career to another entry level job. Often while also working evening jobs in restaurants etc to fund the unpaid internships, or staying with their parents to save money. As a result when people entered their thirties they were only just establishing a career and probably were a lot younger than many of the senior people in the organisation.
Plus house prices have priced many (not all) people out of the housing ladder. So unless they received significant help from parents many mid-thirties people are still renting, some may still be in house shares etc.
Those two things combined have helped to create a sense of extended youth. I don't like the whole "boomers v millenials" rhetoric, but I do grit my teeth a little when my step dad talks about how much less responsible/childish young people are today (by young he includes the mid-thirties, so middle aged).

In China, a 45 year old is an old person. Women retire at 50 and men at 55. A 35 year old is well into middle age.

I have friends in their early 30s who live with their parents and still get IDd. They certainly don't seem like people 'approaching middle age'.

30 is young. But then I have liked the expression middle youth for...quite a long time.

I agree with OwlOne. I'm not 35 yet, but I don't want to feel like half my life is over since statistically in my country, women live to be 85, and many people in my family have lived to be in their 90s. 35 is still young in so many ways.