What age do you consider over the hill?

[PapaStinky]

I was thinking 50?

My SIL sent me a birthday card with "you're not over the hill yet but there's a pretty good view from where you're standing " maybe I should have told her to fuck off instead of laughing about it?

Presumably, though, you know your SIL and the context in which she would have sent this to you?

The OP is a stranger posting what was potentially a really arsey message without any context.

Slightly different.

I remember falling for a gorgeous woman who was heading towards 40 (so about the age i am now - hardly ancient) and thinking that i didn't even have the language culturally to express how the signs of ageing in her only made her all the more gorgeous to me. The closest I've got is that KT Tunstall line "Her face is a map of the world" but then she goes and ruins it by saying "you can tell she's a beautiful girl"

Well done everyone for being so empowered, fierce and fabulous. Take a chill pill ffs!

I really think if you’ve been here 12 years you should have known better. And you shouldn’t really be pulling the ‘empowering women’ card on such a petty issue as this. So some people got sweary and gave you some robust answers to an OP that absolutely could reasonably have been interpreted to be goady and incredibly sexist, ageist, dismissive and yes, offensive, and you didn’t like that. That’s understandable. It can be upsetting to be on the receiving end of that, but fgs don’t whine about us not being ‘supportive’, just chalk it up to experience and make a note to write more context into your question next time.

OP, I think you should have led with the 'over the hill' cake and you may not have had the response.

I guess that 50 is on the hill and past that is over the hill if you average life at 100 and that is the mid-point like Wednesday being 'hump day' for the working week.

Most people take 'over the hill' to be the traditional old age, so when you have slowed down and feel your age. That varies for a lot - when I was a child I would have thought 60 was 'over the hill' as the older people I knew seemed old at that point and they were dying in their 60s-70s. These days, my parents are in their late 60s and do not seem 'over the hill' in the slightest and I would have to make the age older.

It is all a state of mind.

However, for a joke cake for your DH then 'over the hill' would not seem bad - only you can judge whether he would appreciate the humour as we don't know him.

I don't care if the entire population of the world tells me I'm over the hill (I'm 46). Wouldn't mean anything to me! I know I'm not so why would I sweat ever so profusely about it?

Give OP a break - she’s probably just turned 17.

You’ve been here over 12 years and ill had no idea what kind of response you’d get to a one sentence CF question about being old?
Were you paying attention over the last decade?
Next time, more context.

I am definitely over the hill!

Why though? Why would you say that about yourself?

So, your life has little value? You dont enjoy new experiences? Do you sit around moaning about how miserable everything is? Waiting to die? Presumably you have a family? Work? Friends? Hobbies?

What exactly is it about your life that means everything is now in decline? Slowing down? That there's no point seeking out new experiences? Because that's what it means; that your life is now a bit of a waste of time.

It's a meaningless phrase, no one thinks it's an actual age do they?

I don't really get the type of birthday cards that imply that the recipient is somehow on the scrap heap, if someone gave me one I'd think they were a bit stupid tbh

Lol, when I read your title OP I thought ‘hmmmm....50?’ And then I read a bit of the thread and found out that I am very very wrong apparently😂😂

This will inflame further but I always took the ‘over the hill’ phrase to mean over the peak of life and I certainly think some things only get better but physically there is a natural peak for bodies when they start to complain as they didn’t previously and I think that’s around 50 (unless someone who was always unfit takes up marathon running at 48 and by 50 is fitter than at 30 etc etc).

But I accept that I am clearly wrong in my understanding of the phrase😂

Various definitions available, none of them positive.
Past your best, no longer useful or productive or desirable, in decline

Might as well kill myself right now. Am 50 next

For doing what, precisely?

100

Maybe.

One's own age + 15

I don’t consider any age over the hill, people don’t age the same way they used to. Although I think reproductively men and women should call it a day around 40, at the latest!!!

Fucking hell @Asta19 How are you even able to write at your age?

Happy Birthday!

I don’t think it’s a malicious question. I’d say somewhere in your thirties. I don’t buy into the whole mind-set attitude. My left knee feels the same; you can’t escape reality. Sports, I used to be very good, less so now and I despise it. The older you get, the less choices you have – simple logic. You get all sorts of commitments (not all negative off course) that hinder you in making major life changes. In addition, more and more you’re confronted with your own and the mortality of others. That’s where your resilience kicks in I suppose; most of my grandfather’s close friends are deceased. At a certain point in time it’s just you in the pub. And off course you can make new friends- but that’s not the same as your best friend since 1942 etc…

I’m not saying you can’t still lead a meaningful life, but there’s a time for everything so in some contexts the expression ‘over the hill’ is correct.

50 you're not young any more (middle aged?)
70 you're old

It’s quite clear now that it wasn’t a malicious question...that wasn’t the case to begin with, or the answers would probably have been less forceful.

70 I would consider old. 50 is definitely not young anymore but certainly not old.

What hill are you talking about, exactly?

Cheeky sod. I'm 52 and am nowhere bloody near over the hill. FFS

The hill the OP has died on Imogen