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Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

You know you're getting old when...

146 replies

TornFromTheInside · 22/08/2018 15:09

It comes to all. That realisation that our immortality is for limited time only.

Life gives us little timely reminders of our age.
What are the little signs that youth is firmly in your rear view mirror?

OP posts:
DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 27/08/2018 16:58

Celticrose: My aunt can top that. In the space of 8 days last year, she became a great-great aunt (my DGS), a great-grandmother, and a step great-great grandmother. She's 85.

Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 17:02

When your bowels get lazy and sluggish.

Mightybanhammer · 27/08/2018 17:13

When they start sending you those catalogues. And instead of pointing and laughing you think: Yes! A wrinkle free garden hose/ice melting spray for freezer/x wide comfy slippers/super strong reading light is exactly what I need.

Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 17:30

I only take an interest in those wide comfy shoes just in case I may need them, I'm not seriously considering it though.

Timeisslippingaway · 27/08/2018 17:42

When you are relieved you don't have to go on a night out because you don't want to waste a day having a hangover.
To get excited about a good day for drying washing.
To get excited about buying kitchen utensils.
To buy clothes for comfort over anything else.
My partner told me the other day that I have settled into being an old woman a bit faster than he expected considering I only turned 28 a few months ago.

Thinkingofausername1 · 27/08/2018 18:12

When you feel satisfied that you've spent all day doing the washing.

Timeisslippingaway · 27/08/2018 18:25

Oh and when you can't cope with noise at all. I feel like my head is going to explode if there is more than one noisy thing going on around me at a time I find it so stressful.

Graphista · 27/08/2018 18:26

...you see what you are sure is a 12 yr old neighbours child getting into their car and driving it!

...when your child is constantly reminding you that the films you think of as relatively new are actually older than them and they're almost 18!

...yes to friends becoming grandmothers!

...rising from bed or a chair involves serious planning and multiple groans

...feeling depressed at the knowledge that those turning 30 this year were born the year I left school! Occasional posts on mn by new mum's referencing films/music etc that they view as old, knowing they're mums, at first thinking 'oh they must've been young mums then' nope! Same age or older than me when I had dd!

"When your children's school history lessons encompass stuff which was current affairs growing up." Omg yes! Dd left school now but I remember this (that makes it worse doesn't it? That even this is a good 5 years in the past for me?!)

Op - I did exactly that re cover versions to my parents with Paul Young (almost all his songs were covers) particularly "love of the common people" and bomb the bass "I say a little prayer" I remember singing "I say a little prayer" while tidying away at home and mum joining in and me 😱 'how do you know this song?' And mum asking me why I was singing it "weird", she then played me the original

Dd then put me in mum's position with awful (to me) cover versions of "no scrubs", "fast car", "don't you want me" which are absolute classics that shouldn't be messed with! - dd did agree with me that Tracy chapmans "fast car" is far superior.

...dd telling me not to call it a boob tube it's a sleeveless crop top (that's a bloody boob tube to me!)

"When you no longer have a right and left knee, but a good knee and a bad knee." With me its whole legs! and arms

"When you discover Heart 80's radio station in the car and listen to nothing else" I only listen to absolute 80's these days, can't be doing with new music.

"When you don't recognise the name of a pub/club/restaurant and ask what it was before. And you don't recognise that name either" I can do better - my adopted home town is very old and the shops rarely change hands/purpose. Was recently discussing with friends and we could all remember which shops were what in the high street - in the 80's!

I'm also FB friends with a good few from school. Someone's YOUNGER sister popped up in my "people you might know" bit, complete with all grey (naturally) hair, wrinkles and quite old fashioned specs, I'm 46, she's 'only' 43 - but here's the bugger - she looks EXACTLY how I remember her mother! Who of course to a 14 year old seemed ancient at 44 (the age she'd have been when I met her). I'm about 22 in my head - get a right bloody shock whenever I look in a mirror (which I try to keep to a minimum tbh!)

"When you see fashion trends for the second time and the new generation think they are so ground breaking" I think I'm reaching 3rd time 😱 mum says she's on 4/5th!

I have a friend who's a depute head, the moment one of our friends grandchild was enrolled at the school hit her quite hard.

"You find yourself in the next age bracket on questionnaires." Yes when it takes flaming ages to scroll to your year of birth on drop down menus!

Celticrose - wait till you start sounding like (and agreeing with) your granny!

TornFromTheInside · 27/08/2018 18:29

you see what you are sure is a 12 yr old neighbours child getting into their car and driving it!

Had a little chuckle at that one!

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 27/08/2018 18:32

The two year old next foor tells you his A level results.

TheClitterati · 27/08/2018 18:35

You know all the words to every song the cover band at the local festival is playing.

No one in the band is younger than 70.

TheClitterati · 27/08/2018 18:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheClitterati · 27/08/2018 18:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Graphista · 27/08/2018 18:37

I swear he looked 12! Didn't help he did so in school uniform.

BikeRunSki - I can so relate!

Any of you seen Father of the Bride with Steve Martin? That scene at the family dinner table where Annie is a small child (in her fathers mind) telling all about the wonderful man she's just met? I first saw that film not long after it came out and viewing it from the daughters perspective - now I totally see it from the fathers!

TornFromTheInside · 27/08/2018 18:37

When you start paying attention to programs discussing funeral arrangements and wills!

OP posts:
Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 18:40

When you think about arranging a Power of Attorney.

Pissedoffdotcom · 27/08/2018 18:41

When it takes a week to recover from having 5 pints over a night out with coke in between each pint

When you get excited about the prospect of buying a new hoover cos yours has died

When someone tells you they're heading out for a night out, at 10pm. Like, wtf? That's bedtime!

Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 18:43

with coke in between each pint Hard drugs, fair enough.

fieryginger · 27/08/2018 18:43

Making a groan when you stand up, seems to help the process of standing up.

TornFromTheInside · 27/08/2018 18:44

lol new vacuum. Oi - I've done that 'can't wait to give it a go!' thing!

Shoot me now

OP posts:
Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 19:12

When you get your carpet sweeper out.

Pissedoffdotcom · 27/08/2018 19:15

Vitalogy i bloody wish, might have explained why i felt like death for days after! Even my 'sensible' approach to drinking - pint, soft drink, pint - didn't help. Alcohol can now go f* itself

OP i haven't reached that stage yet but only because my bloody hoover won't die a friend was getting excited at me down the phone over her new one

Badcat666 · 27/08/2018 19:16

When you have no idea who the people are on any "celeb" tv series these days and have to google them to find out who they are.

When a celeb from your youth snuffs it and you think "but they were so young!" only to find out they were in their 80s/90s.

When you wake up on a sunny day and get excited that it's good drying weather.

When a "night out" has you going home and change into your jim jams with a cuppa at around 10pm.

When you and your mates discuss how many more years we need to work before we can retire/ pay off the mortgage rather than discuss exotic holiday plans/ all night parties.

When you spend more time plucking chin/ nose/ facial white hairs than you do shaving your greying minge as it seems you have more hairs growing on your face then you do on your lady garden these days.

When you swap your scented panty liners on flimsy delicate undies for tena-ladies stuck on sensible comfy knickers.

You bleach your hair white/ silver not to be "edgy" but to actually cover up the grey hairs in your brown hair making you look like a mad badger streaked witch.

When you play "fantasy shopping" on websites for yarn/ crafting things instead of posh crippling high heels and make up and squeal when the Scotts of Stow and Lakeland catalogues land on your mat and you day dream of buying stuff from them.

(and I'm not even 50 yet!)

Vitalogy · 27/08/2018 19:17
Grin
KlutzyDraconequus · 27/08/2018 19:22

When people stop saying that you're "X years old" and start saying "X years Young"

When you sit down, not to have a rest, but to rest various parts.. knees or back..

When that modern film on Netflix you've waited to see is actually old enough to be a classic . (Back in the 80s, if I was watching a 60s movie it would have been an old film.. now it's 2018, watching 1998 movie is somehow still modern... Weird..)