To wonder why up to 35 is now considered young

I’ve noticed how the references to Millennials are decreasing in the media and moving onto
Gen Z instead. It makes me snigger as I’m Gen X and it was annoying when we were dismissed in favor of the Millenials.🤣

Personally, I consider under-30’s young. 30+ isn’t a “yoof” by any stretch of the imagination. You’re an adult in your 30’s, not middle-aged, but definitely not young. Just an adult.😄

Because people, in general, are more immature these days a quick glance across this site is proof of that or even better still a look on social media.

Oops, not Gen X, I'm a millennial.

A middle aged millennial?

I'm middle aged

(weeps into cassette tape collection)

But I'm also Gen X?

I don't gettit!

(Stamps foot)

I'm just going to assume anyone who thinks you'll be dead, on average, in your 70s is from a poor nation or just has a very poor diet and lifestyle.

"36-55 middle aged (although pretty sure the majority of under 40’s wouldn’t consider themselves middle aged 😳 technically yes but not really😂"

Well, technically life expectancy for women where I'm from is 85, 36 shouldn't be middle aged. That would mean you were dying at 72, and only people in poor countries with fewer resources are doing that. You can just Google the list of countries by life expectancy to see what I mean. You still have a long life ahead of you in your 30s and its kind of ridiculous to say your middle age at that point, unless you do live in a poor country or you're taking poor care of yourself.

I think I'd go

0-10 childhood
10-18 adolescence
18-35 young adult
35-50 early middle age
50-65 later middle age
65-80 older adult
80+ elderly

And agree middle age is just another life stage not an insult or something anyone can avoid or resist.

Depends on context. 35 is young in health care terms

I tend to band ages as follows:

0-18 - childhood
18-25 - young adult
25-35 - adult
35-55 - middle aged
55-70 - older adult
70+ - elderly

However I don't consider middle aged to be a negative thing. In my family we have children in our twenties so by 35 our children are becoming more independent and we have grown in confidence in ourselves and what is actually important to us and we start to have the time to pursue those things.

My mum is now at the upper end of middle aged and her life is so full of the stuff she really enjoys and her social life is amazing. I am in the exhausting years of young children at the moment but hope that in the next 5-10 years I will reach that point in my life too. Can't wait :)

I’m 38, I still feel young!

I am 30. I have 2 children, a mortgage, a failed marriage; one deceased partner, one ex husband, a lot of dead friends; sometimes very dificult experiences and a rather cynical outlook on life. I have been an adult for what feels like the whole of my life.

In contrast, my best friend lives with her mum still, travels a lot, has short lived passionate relationships and no children, and in general lives an utterly different life to me. We have known each other since we were young teenagers - in that time I have aged in a way she has not. We still look the same age, but behave very diferently most of the time. She is still young, I don't feel like I am anymore; not middle aged, but not young either.

I think that it is responsibility, rather than age, which denotes youth. The age at which we are expected to start taking on responsibilities has changed, largely I suspect due to different working patterns and oppertunities to previous years. I picked an old fashioned life, was a married SAHM in my very early 20s. My responsibilities aged me in a different way to the friends who went traveling and to uni, then worked in short contracts and unstable employment.

Definitions of middle aged YouGov survey shows the majority of people define middle age as 50-70. Wikipedia says it’s 45-65 citing various sources.

Youth is relative and the median age is rising in developed countries. Guess that sums it up, really.

I think it's a matter of context. Young, as in "in need of advice and a hand up the ladder of life", is very different from young, as in "not starting to feel creaky yet".

There are, as noted above, an awful lot of schemes for "young" people. Most of these are designed to help people get into the workforce for the first time, first step on their careers. By the age of 30, if you aren't already working your way up then I'm afraid in general you aren't likely to be helped any by these schemes (awaits screams from posters with exceptional cases that prove me wrong).

I've had this in a survey: What age are you?

Under 15
15-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65 or older.

As soon as I turned 35, I ticked the 35-44 box.

35-44 is middle aged.

Reality sucks.

I worked in a school when I was coming up to my 30th and the kids who were 12/13 thought I was young because I had no kids and wasn’t married. They didn’t seem to think about the number, more the life experience as a maturity marker.

I've seen 80 year olds on other sites insisting they aren't old. People are delusional.

30 is ancient when you have just left uni!

I think that’s only true of quite immature 20 somethings. At 20/21/22 I definitely didn’t see 30 as ancient or even old. It seemed to me like the age that a lot of people’s lives were beginning, when they got married, had first babies etc. 40 seemed quite old to me back then but then it was double my age. I remember being around 15 and my teacher having her 30th and while it seemed very far off to me, it wasn’t old. Our parents were “old” and most of them were in their 40s and 50s.

I teach at a university and my students are always saying things along the lines of “are you definitely old enough to be a lecturer?!” and saying I’m too young for x/y/z. None of them seem to think 30 is ancient. They seem to think that’s when things get “serious” and until then they can drift around a bit and then settle down at 30 “while they are still quite young”, their words, not mine. Clearly we all recognise that we aren’t “peers” by any stretch of the imagination but that doesn’t necessarily = ancient/decrepit

Mike agree, there are some bizarre rules about 'how old is old' ... the first time I picked up my prescription after my 60th birthday I was told I no longer had to pay ... seems bizarre, I am still working ... my elderly parents have a very generous pension and are more than happy to pay for their medication but don't have to (I know not all over 60s are as fortunate).

Please allow me my denial. Thank you.

Only people 35 or older think 35 Is young! Had a new starter at work aged 21 and was showing her around. Most of the team are in their 50's but I made a point of taking her to meet the ones in their 30's saying ' It will be great for you to meet some of our young colleagues '. When we arrived her face was a picture and I could see her searching the room for the young people! 30 is ancient when you have just left uni!

35 is only middle aged if you are literally thinking of life expectancies. But it is not the proper definition, most definitions put it at 45-65. It’s a concept of age rather than a literal description. So people who say anything under 45 is middle aged are mistaken by the definition of the phrase.

I consider under 35 young and always have done. I don’t know anyone in my generation who had children (and many didn’t own property) till after then. I’m 43 and don’t consider myself middle aged - because I am not.

I think that 35 is still young, and hardly middle aged (unless you think you’ll die around 70) which most people no longer do. As people live longer naturally the age span for these age categories increases.

I also think that most young professionals now really look after themselves and leave education in mid-20’s etc. settle down and have families much later. I feel as though middle age is as much about reached life stage e.g. grown up adult children, mortgages etc. as much as the age bracket - let’s be real most people at 35 have either just started having kids, or have young kids and are only just getting started on mortgages etc. Things that were previously associated with young people and starting out in the world.