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!

The second my feet hit the floor I'm getting both kids ready for school and trying to ignore the debris around us as I work from home and lack a butler or maid to do the stuff I need to do. I end up doing everything myself and/or having a row or sounding like a fishwife until I don't actually want to throttle everyone for not seeing that things need to be done as if I invented the jobs myself to make everyone's lives a misery.

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

What?!

Turning 50 in a few months - 5 DC’s , 3 currently at home , 2 at uni . Working full time 12 hour shifts with a 100 mile each way commute into London 5 days at a time then 4 off , but usually do one or two of those 4 days as overtime. Emergency services worker . So for an early turn, up at 4am , out at 4.30 , drive to work , get there at 6.30 ish , parade at 7 , deal with calls and vast amounts of paperwork all day , leave at 7, sing on the way home ( stress reliever !) ring DH from 20 miles out so he can put dinner on, home by 9.30 , eat dinner , bath and bed by 11pm . Then do it again .

Days off , I get smaller DC’s to school, ride my horses , walk the dogs , contemplate the washing pile , do a bit of cooking , sleep . Oh and run because I have to . I hate it .

I'm 54. Business owner and I work there too. Adult DD living 400 miles away. Trying to go NC with toxic M. Business closed due to lockdown. It's only day 2 and I'm bored already.

I work full time (can’t work from home), so out by 7.30. Then I go to the stables and look after my pony, then home by 6.30. We have dogs, so they need walking even if they’ve been put already. Tea, bath, crap TV, bed by 11.

I'm 51. The last 10 years I was busy working full-time, being a mum, and caring for my mum and other family stuff, which took up a lot of time and energy. Plus social life etc, as well.

Last year my mum died, and also my DC became independent. So since then I've had more free time to myself. Do a bit of creative stuff, some feminist stuff, bit of sport and regular walking in nature, seeing friends, and squander autumn evenings sitting on the sofa. Still working out of the house full-time. In the summer I'm often out and about, winter not so much, even without lockdown.

54. In last lockdown was fed up as SAHM unable to socialise. Luckily got a job in the summer so now work 3 days in an office for essential service.

1 teen in 6th form & DH wfh. Generally do most housework, do all cooking and ferrying DS to his sports practices/matches (great group of parents to chat with usually). When we can love to see friends, coffee, theatre, swim. Main hobby is reading. Many evenings watching trash TV with DS eg American comedies. Thankfully parents are still independent, ILs were much older and are no longer with us.

I'm 49 (for a few more weeks!).

I have a neurological disability which affects every part of my life, I'm pretty much housebound (medically unfit to drive and can't walk very far) and have issues with balance, stamina, exhaustion, sensation (numbness in arms and legs and face) and pain (it's amazing quite how sore numb feet can be :( )

I've got 3 dc - Dd1 (20) lives away from home, but in the same part of the city, and I have ds (18 and doing an art portfolio course this year, mainly from home) and dd2 (16 and doing her first year of Beauty Therapy at college, half time from home) still living with us. Dh is a GP and works about an hour away, and is gone overnight 1-2 times a week.

I usually get up between 9 and 10, depending on what sort of a night I've had. Usually spend the rest of the morning getting tidied up, pootering around the house, seeing to the dog, checking dc are up, working etc.

After lunch I start on tea, it takes me a while to cook as my hands aren't great for chopping etc. Quite often a dc will come and help me. One of the positives of my disability is that I'm always around. If I need any extra supplies, ds will take me shopping as he has his own wee car which (just!) fits my wheelchair. I'll spend some time on MN and Facebook, and I do some admin for our church. I'll often go in the garden and throw a ball around for the dog for a while. I'll nag a dc to walk the dog/bring laundry/tidy room.

Dh gets home around 7, so we eat then watch tv or read. I usually go to bed by 9 as I'm tired again. Dh follows not too long after.

It's not really the life I'd imagined, but no one really expects to end up in a wheelchair and significantly disabled at the age of 41. But it's a good life. I've found things easier since coronavirus appeared, because the children are around so much more, I'm not on my own as much as I was when they were at school all day.

I'm a SAHM. Kids all at school.
I'm up at 7:30. Kids gone by 9:00. My day is clean up a bit. Watch TV. Knit. Walk. Read. Kids home at 3:00. Homework dinner relaxing.
Sounds dull but I love my life. I'm happy being home.
DH works from home a lot so often have company during the day. But love my alone time.

I'm exactly where I thought I would be when I had my first child 20 years ago.

Love this thread, @Angelicabean. I’m 52 and have been feeling somewhat restless lately. I feel as though I need to make a change in my life...At the same time also feel I should be grateful for the life I have. Anyway: Up at 6.15, leave the house for work 4 days a week at 7.45. Home around 4, clean house, cook dinner for DD, do some washing. Chat to DD about her day and current affairs/work, wash up. Go for a walk or do a YouTube fitness class. Work on laptop until around 8 or 9, usually whilst watching something on TV. Read, Christmas shop on iPad or listen to a podcast, then bed. On my days off I do the exercise class in the morning instead, do some eBaying, shop for my parents, visit them (when not locked down.) Once or twice a month, meet up with friends for a meal. Need some excitement in my life! Any tips?

Am 50, housework in morning and movie in afternoon when I'm in. Make trips to.see family and friends weekly and spend some days with Husband. We have bought a motorhome so.will be travelling around the UK and Europe when Covid is gone. Lots to do, plenty of walking the dogs or gardening!!

Love this thread OP. 49 heading to 50 next summer. One primary aged child and husband with job that involves travel and long hours. Moved to this city (and moved country) which has fewer job opportunities in my area but have an interesting enough part time job with time to build a research project/interest in the other hours of the week. I'm trying to build fitness in the perimenopause. Feel older due to hormone changes, lack of life goals fulfilled and awkward wider family but am determined to press ahead and think of what I'd like to achieve aged 50+. I have a lot more to achieve and do if only I could work out what I want that to be 😁

I'm 54, disabled with ME/CFS, Peripheral neuropathy, Arthritis, anxiety & depression & Autistic. My average day is wake up ds & get him off to school, back in bed for a couple of hours, breakfast, do whatever tidying up I can manage, have a rest, prepare tea, have a nap, ds home from school, cook tea while ds does homework, clear up, ds goes to play on Xbox & I go to watch television in bed, read for an hour & off to sleep. Weekends, we both get up mid morning, ds will go off to his dad's, I chill watching television or listening to music, have tea, go to bed & watch television, read, off to sleep. Qpretty boring but at the moment it is all I can manage.

I’m not doing anything different than in my 40s. Dropped my Ds at the bus stop for secondary at 7.25,took my Dd to primary at 8.05am. Worked from home for a full day then helped with homework and watched a film. Hoped to join a live Zumba class at lunch but it didn’t work. Any ideas that life is slowing down are far fetched.

Some of you are tiring me out just reading about this!

I can't get up before 7, perhaps 6.45 at a push, otherwise I feel sick. Help teens to be school ready- more just encouraging noises and cups of tea than actually organizing anything.

Try to start work around 8, as I work best in the mornings and early afternoons, and my brain really fails from about 2pm onwards.

Contemplate having a nap or really have a nap. If I don't have a nap, I often fall asleep whilst sitting upright in the early evening.

Keep the whole house running. Order food, toiletries, cleaning products, work as taxi driver to children.

I don't do that many hobbies, I usually spend spare time socializing, out to lunch, odd dinner, pretend book club (often haven't read the book). Not much of this now and I do miss it, I do eat out with my teens a lot as well.

Miss the social side of going into work, although working from home very convenient.

I just feel tired a lot, my work is demanding and ends up taking over weekends and evenings if I let it, although it is flexible.

Do you need to go back into f/t work? I would think four or three days a week would be great if you can afford it, a three day weekend would be my aspiration.

51 here, 9 yo DS with additional needs. I'm a parent/carer and single parent so have very little time to myself. I do a lot of walking though, around 55 miles a week (half of that with DS). Currently being treated for breast cancer so hospital appointments too. When this is all over I'm planning to change my life completely!

51. I spend all day in my room.
@DDIJ is everything okay? We are here to listen if you want to talk.

51 with a 19 yr old uni student and 12 yr old at home. Gave up teaching a few years ago and currently trying to finish writing up a PhD. I’m still on campus teaching undergrad seminars 3 days a week which I enjoy. I usually enjoy singing in choirs (outside of Covid times), read a lot and like to cross-stitch. Can’t see beyond finishing my write up at the moment so not sure what I’ll be doing this time next year.

@TheFormidableMrsC
Hope you are coping ok with the treatment you sound like you are doing well. Wish I could walk 55 miles a week!
I retrained for a new career after breast cancer so I understand about planning to change your life Go for it!

47, 4 kids - 2 at uni, 2 at home.
Retrained as a teacher 5yrs ago, now work FT in a special school and love it.
Usual day is alarm at 6, ready by 7, walk dog then off to work at 7.20. Finish by 4.30, until Thursday would have gone to the gym after work but now home and a long dog walk before making dinner. Evenings are school work, late dog walk and reading.
At weekends more gym, walking, reading and watching ds3 at rugby.
I’m heading towards 50 finally feeling in control of my life. Since lockdown I’ve lost 4 stone, given up alcohol and taken up exercise so feel better than I’ve done in years.

Up at 6.30am. Everyone ready and fed by 7.30 with lunches made. Kids distributed between preschool club / school bus and waiting to leave. In work for 8.15. On duty or teaching or on cover from 8.30 -2.45 with one 30min break. Four hours of extra marking, meetings, revision types stuff per night and six at weekend - current workload is mad. All work online, responsibility for classes I don’t teach.. tough school haemorrhaging staff with panicked managers getting it wrong. Husband is ill so I do all domestic stuff and rope kids in to help. I walk the dog, drink too much, love nights out drinking and dancing but at the moment go walking instead. Go to bed too late and repeat. I enjoy most of it most of the time.

I am 58 and am retired (took early retirement). Apart from normal chores I walk the dog, do several voluntary things related to my job, sing in a choir (online only at the moment) and I am studying for a degree part time.