If you’re a 50 year old woman ...

[Angelicabean]

What is your day to day life like? What routines/interests do you have? How do you spend your time? I know the saying is comparison is the thief of joy but I’m just interested really!

Work (from home at the moment) and when not in lockdown I go out for coffee in little local places, walk along the seafront and go out for meals with friends. When commuting for work, I'm in London and catch up with other friends for after work and go to the theatre.

I've started to try and be fitter (yoga) and eat a bit better. I buy frivolous make up and nail varnish. I like laughing, food, reading, theatre and connecting with people.

Almost 50. I have two kids under 10 and I work from home and also own a bar (sadly closed atm). My day is generally school run, shopping for dinner, once back home I put in a few hours of my day job, do housework (general tidy up) fetch the kids, give them dinner and then (on a normal evening) head off to look in at the bar, bit o' socialising, and back home to bed

Over 50 - WFH at the moment. Do a bit of walking - I have a fair few hobbies that I flit between - crafts mainly, I read a lot and just try (and fail miserably) to keep the house tidy. Oh and watch TV... but not during the day. I do MN during the day

Early 50s. SAHM. Day currently spent trying to get help for & nurturing my y11 whose MH is too shot to pieces to currently be in school. Evenings spent keeping her calm enough to get to sleep.

I’m 51. I was made redundant 5 years ago but it was at a convenient time as my disabled DD started to need more care at around that time. So I don’t work now, and am a SAHM with 2DDs at home and DH now working from home full time. All fine
I live in a nice place, very rural, and spend lots of time walking my dog and improving my house. I’m quite content.

I get up about 7.30 and wake up DS (DD sorts herself out)
Go downstairs and tidy up a bit while DH takes the dog out.
Wave both Dc off to school (secondary) and have a coffee
Work (from home) 9.30 - 3 then take dog out
Catch up on washing or any other jobs
Greet DC and start tea
Chill out or do any other jobs that need doing
Watch TV with DH for an hour or 2 then go to bed
Pretty dull but I like it. When not in Lockdown there is a lot more socialising going on with friends or DC friends here or visiting friends/family or going out for lunch or evening meals

Im 51 .. I work overseas for months at a time off/on shift ... when home on leave.. I walk beaches with my dog.. I cycle a lot.. I read books about 'true crime' and 'detective books' I love those.. I over indulge then worry about fitting into my uniform for heading back overseas 🤣

Also I have a couple of voluntary roles which I am still allowed to go out to do (animal related)

I have dc at school so I spend my time working, looking after them and the house. Dd has ASD so lots of paperwork etc and I have a chronic illness so all my hobbies are quiet ones. I see friends occasionally and ferry the dc about to do the same.
It's a quiet life and DH shares the load so I am quite happy.

47 here! I get up as my teenagers leave for school. Potter about doing jobs and messaging friends while I eat breakfast. Husband works from home, we have cups of tea all morning. I meet friends for dog walks, just people walks and also go out to tend to horses. I work shifts at the hospital twice a week. I do all the washing, other chores sometimes get done. Make dinner when kids come in, do crochet, chat the children. After tea we watch Tv together.

51 with a disabled 11yo. Life pretty much revolves around him - getting him up, keeping him fed and entertained, putting him to bed, repeatedly telling him to go to sleep I'm WFH so disappear into the spare bedroom from 8:30 until 4. DH - waiting for an operation - potters around the house doing oddments of cleaning, gardening, fiddling in his shed, cooking our dinner.

I get a couple of hours in the evening where I'm a couch potato,. Weekends are spent on laundry, family shopping, that kind of thing. I would say that the only interest I really have (other than Mumsnet) is that I'm working on our family tree via a well-known website. Occasionally that brings glimmers of excitement as a copy certificate arrives in the post with unexpected details ... I'm a sad bastard ...

I will be 50 in a few days.
My children are 9 and 12.
A few times I get up at 5.30 ish and go for a wild swim.
Then I come home and wake the dc and DH up and hustle then out of the door.
WFH, with occasional site visits. My work is considered nationally critical, so this is allowed.
Evenings are about feeding tgr kids, music practice, homework, housework etc
I try to run 5kish a few times a week.
My family live around the UK and world. I havn’t seen any of my siblings for over a year, or my mum since July. I am very gloomy about this. What lifts me if being active outdoors - walking, swimming, running, cycling. I am struggling with this winter, and the constrains we are currently living under (we have not bern able to have people on our home since the eve of July). I am more sociable than I previously realised.

Very nearly 50. Single, new empty nester. Feeling really quite low.

Get up around 5am, do a bit of yoga with my dog. Feed the house rabbits some bunny crack (grass pellets). Coffee. Play R3 or 4 or 6. Write for a while, smoke, look at my OU course materials to see if they’ve suddenly become comprehensible. Clear some social media notifications, check email. Start thinking about the biggest chore of the day - mucking out one horse. Take hours to get dressed.

Walk with dog and a camera or two. Try not to cry if encountering someone who asks how I am. Cry all over horse. Talk to people on the phone or online on and off throughout the day.

Go home, prepare food. Try to watch something on TV. Switch to a dogtv 4 hour relaxation segment instead. Eat food. Instagram. Kindle. Spliff. Bed by 10 or 11pm, read, sleep.

Work part time (25 hrs). Mother of a 12yo.

I'm on PTA and governor at another school.
I do most of the home admin.

I manage the garden and about 70% of housework.

Keep any eye on parents and MIL.
Reading, walking, good friends.

Trying to enjoy life.

I'm 51. I work from home full time. Evenings are spent at home with husband and son or taxiing them to clubs. I regularly meet friends at the pub or one of their houses.

I meet friends who live further afield in London, usually going to the theatre, or I visit them for weekends away. DH and I have a lot of local friends who we socialise with most weekends.

I share the housework, laundry, cooking and shopping with DH, but do 99% of the dogwalking.

I run, mainly on trails, and am training for a half marathon in April 21. And I started Pilates but that ended with the first lockdown sadly.

Why do you ask, OP? Why are you othering women over the age of 50?

I'm a few years past 50yo.
I work at home PT (not by choice). I job hunt because pandemic messed up my job security.
DC talk to me and I do things for them.
Volunteer walk someone else's dog 2x/week
Clean house as little as possible, life admin, mind cats, watch sport on telly, read books, go out on walks with friend.
Daily aerobic exercise, will go run in a moment.
In 'real life' I chat to fellow commuters on train, office mates, get a walk at lunchtime.
Thinking to repaint the kitchen.
Too much time on MN & twitter.

Ylfa I couldn't read and run - your post sounded so very sad.

You sound as though you are doing all the right things - exercise, animals, occasionally seeing/meeting people, brain activity (OU). Please be kind to yourself, it's hard when you're the one left at home trying to figure out who you are, and what you're supposed to be doing. Lockdown does not help, either.

Sending you un-MNetty virtual hugs. From another 50+ MNer who had to work out who she was.

Up at 6am. Cup of Coffee, dress etc, put a load of laundry on, catch a bit of BBC news, go to work for job 1 - school breakfast club.

Home again by 9:15. Eat breakfast. Try and do some housework (got plantar fasciitis, so sometimes give up and sit down with my foot up).

Head back for job 2 at 11am - Mealtime supervision, putting tables out and away etc.

Home again by 13:30. Try and do some house work/life admin (see above).

Change clothes and leave for job 3 at 3.10pm - cleaning. 7 classrooms of tables to clean and disinfect, some vacuuming, lots of toilets, floor mopping etc.

Home again by 17:45. Cook something quick for dinner if DH hasn't had time (he gets in anytime from lunch to 6pm).

Read/crochet/game while DH watches crap on tv. Hang out with DS as much as they'll allow . Really hot bath. Bed by 10ish, usually asleep in 5 minutes.

Mum of teenagers and work full time as a busy childminder for pre schoolers. We go out every day so I am fit and active.

In non lockdown times I am pretty'sociable, and go out with the family for country walks, cinema and meals. Also meet up with my small group of friends on a regular basis.

Love my animals , gardening and reading.

Feeling good for my age (at the moment!)

53
Work takes most of the time Monday to Friday, cooking dinners every evening and normal housework
For entertainment I walk the dog, listen to podcasts and music, read, play cards with friends, watch rugby and shout at tv, sometimes crochet or knit, gardening. We used to go to the pub Friday night for drinks, laughter and live music...I'm missing that

Up at 6am,
Take teenagers to the station at 7am.
Then dog walk (which I really enjoy).

Working from home at the moment 8.30am-4.30am, whilst also dealing with laundry etc.

In the evening just dinner and tv.

I do try to arrange walks with friends each weekday lunch time, but getting really fed up of always being the one asking. I really need to see people and finding WFH lonely.

Weekends are usually running teenagers about and watching their matches, when Covid allows. I enjoy as there are a nice bunch of parents there.

Usually one night out per week with husband or friends for a meal.

Also am part of the WI which I am becoming more involved with.

Early 50s. First half of week is school run, travel to work, then do work, travel home and collapse in a big heap.

Latter half of week, school run, home to do housework/part time job (which I can do whenever) and a couple of hours of voluntary work with children, walk if it’s dry.

@ChinUpChestOut

Ylfa I couldn't read and run - your post sounded so very sad.

You sound as though you are doing all the right things - exercise, animals, occasionally seeing/meeting people, brain activity (OU). Please be kind to yourself, it's hard when you're the one left at home trying to figure out who you are, and what you're supposed to be doing. Lockdown does not help, either.

Sending you un-MNetty virtual hugs. From another 50+ MNer who had to work out who she was.

Thank you so much, I miss real hugs. I could never have imagined not being allowed to hug my friends for . . . however many days weeks months. I love living alone but not like this.

52 I work 3 days a week in a school. On days off I usually swim and / or meet a friend for coffee (so fed up that’s over again)
Evenings I supervise ds (age 11) homework, do housework, and eventually sit down about 9 to watch an hour of TV.
I would love a hobby. Would like to learn to knit.