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!

[quote missyB1]@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![/quote]
@missyB1 Thanks so much for your kind words! I’m doing very well 🙂. Things like this tend to concentrate your mind don’t they? I am trying to see it as the push I needed! Glad to hear you are recovered and have achieved a new career ❤️

Great thread. I’m 54. DH and I work together. Used to be mostly in the office or out at usually separate meetings, audits etc. Now both WFH - he’s in the office and I’m in the spare room. Occasionally appear in each other’s Teams calls like the wizards in the Harry Potter portraits...

DSS and step-dog are here about 2-3 days a week. My adult DS lives a couple of hours away with his DW and my DGS. I miss them terribly but Yay for FaceTime. DM lives in a care home. Ditto.

M-F:
Up at 6, shower, make breakfast, tidying, washing etc.while listening to Radio 4

Eat breakfast with DH with iPads and talking about the news.

Up to computer about 7.30. In the summer we tried to finish by about 5.30 to go for a walk. Now it’s dark early we’re attempting to have a 90 minute break at lunch time instead, but that’s not happening often as we’re so busy and our calls don’t synchronise.

Run/walk if there’s time.

Make tea/FaceTime DM

Eat/TV/catch up on the politics

Collapse into bed

Weekends:

Up about 7. Chill with tea, MN, Twitter while DH sleeps (has some medical issues that wipe him out)

Housework, gardening (been growing veg in my tiny garden this year as well as the tomatoes I always grow), doing a bit of lockdown decorating and DIY (I do it all - DH is genuinely hopeless at that kind of thing and is BANNED from touching my stuff), batch cooking for the week.

Recently unearthed my old sewing machine to make face coverings and a roman blind so am going to give it a MOT this weekend. Have developed an obsession with back episodes of Sewing Bee....

Walking, walking, walking with DH and sometimes step-dog whilst talking work, politics and travel.

Plotting all the holidays we’re going to take when all this is over.

Weekly takeaway from local Indian restaurant (supporting our local) usually with DSS and movie night.

Trying to stay cheerful because we know we are very lucky.

I’m 52. Sahm, 3 dc 18, 13 and 11. One dh, one elderly dog and 2 chubby cats. I volunteer for Homestart, and have managed a few visits.
I sleep appallingly, so I’m grateful if I manage to make it to about 5.50.
Get up, give ddog his medication for arthritis, feed starving miaowing desperate cats. Drink coffee, check phone, get school stuff ready.
Put on washing, empty dishwasher.
Leave house at 7.30 to take boys to school. My sister picks up dd at 8.30 to take her to sixth form.
Dh wfh. He is sweet but annoying, and wastes a lot of my time, I help him with odd bits of work and he’s very chatty and appears to need lots of coffee breaks. Will do boring jobs in the morning. It seems endless.
Try to keep on top of everything.
Leave house at 2.50 to pick up dd and dnephew from sixth form.
Take my old pal for a walk up the lane, he sits down a lot.
Leave to pick up boys at 4.50.
Back home around 6. I try to prepare tea in the morning otherwise it’s a nightmare.
After tea everyone just flops around, ps4, baths and telly mainly.
I go to bed around 10, and read for half an hour.
I’ve very recently thought that I want a bit more from life. Don’t know if I’ve got the puff or confidence though.

Thank you all for inspiring me. I know the redundancy was a confidence hit but this has shown me there’s plenty of time for new opportunities if I keep trying.

I also eat to much chocolate and cake, no really and I spend a lot of time daydreaming and cuddling the pets.

Would you consider a university course @RickOShay or a new job?
Thankfully your kids' ages mean you have lots of opportunity to consider the left phase in life.

53 here.

Get up 6.30 and take the dog out. Shower and get ready for work - DC's leave after me and DH working from home.

Work from 8.30 - 3.30 in a secondary school as a cover supervisor. Usually drop.some shopping in for MIL and go for a walk with her for half an hour. Home about 5 ish, get in the shower and start dinner. DH takes the dog out again.

At the moment it's cleaning, telly and bed but in normal circumstances I may see friends or we might.go out to eat once a week or so. I read and bake a lot. Not very exciting.

@NOTANUM
Thank you for answering! I should have been a social worker
I love my volunteer work, and I am looking to do something like that I can get paid for! I was thinking about family support worker.

Def lots of time for new opportunities. I am always changing job. I sometimes have to force myself to stay somewhere just so I don’t look too flighty and I meet so many women coming back around 50 to new starts or old careers or new roles.

Everyone gets up so early! I can sometimes wake at 7, sometimes later, but I always take coffee back to bed and relax for a while. So getting out of bed time can be anything from 9-11. I wfh part time and no set hours, so I just do that as and when. Generally mix the days between working, hobbies (Reading, crafts etc), chores and DIY. I’m trying to get my house finally “finished”, although I often then find more to do! Like I now want to paint all my kitchen cupboards and put new handles on to update them. Both my DC are adults so no child related responsibilities. I’m single but don’t want another relationship, too much hassle for very little reward in my experience! I’m not hugely social, spent years “forcing” myself because it’s the done thing. Not anymore. I like my own company and have stopped caring what others think. I have 2 cats for company, cuddles etc. That’s enough. I’ve realised I hate routine. I feel so much happier now I can do what I want, when I want. Outside of covid times I do like to travel. I’m 51.

[quote RickOShay]@NOTANUM
Thank you for answering! I should have been a social worker
I love my volunteer work, and I am looking to do something like that I can get paid for! I was thinking about family support worker.[/quote]
Definitely worth looking out for this as a paid role . FSWs can be employed through local authority social care , children's centres , charities such as Barnardo's (there are other charities depending on your area) and again depending on your area many schools employ their own family support worker , particularly a school which gets a lot of pupil premium funding .

53. Was made redundant in Sept but still have a few small jobs that I do from home. My parents have been v ill recently so have needed a lot of help, so am glad my job came to an end, will start job hunting when things settle. DH wfh mostly. I have two adult DC, one with autism and mental health issues and one with profound learning disabilities, both at home and obviously needing lots of support. Still changing nappies after nearly 22 years ... We have 2 dogs who are lots of fun and give me much needed sanity on our walks.

I am 51 and work full time in a professional role which can be stressful at times. I am married and have two adult children who work/ study and live away.
M to F up at 5.40. Make packed lunch, coffee and on Peloton by 6.30. At work by 8.45 and home by 7. Husband wfh so cooks dinner.
On sofa in a stupor most evenings.
Saturdays, I like to go for walks and go out for food with husband.
Sundays, I often do some work, also housework and see parents (when not in lockdown. Zoom at the moment). Weekends go by in a flash.
Like to read, listen to History books on audible and am learning a language.
Feel increasingly comfortable in my own skin and sweat the small stuff much less than when younger..

@RickOShay I agree with @shinynewapple2020! You should go for it - it's exactly the field where life experience is a huge asset. Best of luck!

50 seems to be a state of mind as much as anything.

When my grandmother was 50, the year I was born, she declared that she would no longer look after babies, or drive, and was going to wear comfortable clothes at home (polyester slacks and turtle neck jumpers; she still dressed up in "nice: clothes to go out). Her DC were all adults, and her DH was about to retire.

50 years later, I am 50, neither DH or I have any chance of retiring for a good 15 years or more. Our DC are 9 and 12! I most wear jeans/chinos/smart casual clothes and don't own any makeup. She would be very disapproving of my thick curly hair!

Just turned 50. Kids 10 and 12. Work full time. Am pretty content with life. Wfh atm which is great.

Have a few good friends. Really miss meeting my bookgroup chums because of covid. Generally would have gone out 5/6 times a month pre-covid.

Need to focus on my weight and eating.

I've bookmarked the thread for inspiration. At 51 I've had such a dip in energy, I'm really impressed with these early morning runners and swimmers.

I'm 53
I have a 15 year old DD and a 21 year old.
I'm working from home. I'm a university lecturer.
I mainly have my head buried in a laptop but then go out for walks with friend.
DH is a teacher. We mainly watch series and chat in the evening. No major hobbies at the moment. I need to get a better work life balance.

51
Have 3 kids (14, 13, 10) my 10 year old has complex needs, so that dictates quite a lot of what I am able to do (hence working part time)
Before lockdown, worked part time in a preschool as a 1-1 with children with additional needs. If I wasn't at appointments on days off, I would meet a friend for coffee, go for a walk, meet my mum, spend half my life in Waitrose.
Since lockdown, spent 5 months shielding ds, so lots of home stuff, and online stuff like an art club on Facebook.
At the moment ds is off school as he is shielding again, so I am doing remote learning. When I get the chance I draw and paint, write smart arsed remarks on Twitter drink coffee and tinker about restoring stuff (which is what I used to do in a past life)
Oh and stare adoringly at my cats

53 - 2 older DC have now left home and have one 17 year old still here. I’m a teacher and have a longish commute so pretty tired during the week ( love my job though). Get home tidy up a bit have a long bath and watch tv. I read a lot and if not locked down like theatre and literary festivals.

47, kids are adults, (lockdown aside) enjoying life back as a couple, travelling and exploring. Work four days a week, parents all around 70 and luckily in ok health but we've lost the last of our grandparents recently.

Up at 6:30, out to work, cook and watch tv/read in the evenings. Spend time with children when we can, love watching them become rounded adults.

Great thread, thank you. Not yet 50 but also feeling a bit lost after losing my job and not knowing where to start again.

I work full time in a very full on job - sort of a COO role, with 70+ people under me. I usually travel a lot for work but have hardly done any travel this year, due to COVID. I usually party a lot, often with a male colleague. He invited me to an illicit rave last night, but I decided not to go along as I’m in no rush to catch COVID so stayed in drinking gin with DH and listening to Serge Gainsbourg.

DH got stuck in another country when the flights stopped earlier this year and we didn’t see each other for six months, so we’ve both had to get used to each other again. I think I enjoyed being apart more than he did.

No real hobbies - I cook a lot, I read a lot, I swim when I can, and spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. One of my friends said she doesn’t know anyone who goes out as much as me. I’m usually out until the small hours at least one night of the weekend.

I’ve got two DDs who are at university and I’ve no idea how Christmas is going to work this year as we’re in three different countries.

Turned 50 in February, widow with DD14 and DS12

Work part time for NHS and also have a small business which I started in 2016 before DH was diagnosed. It is slowly picking up momentum now and I can pay myself the equivalent of bereavement payments which end in January.

Day to day I am up at 6 get kids up and we are out the house by 7.30 as it’s a drive to get the school bus, I have great managers who allow me flexible working which fits round their needs and my families.

I swim in the sea in the summer and walk in the winter (still fat though 😂)

Everyone on here sounds so lovely. Us 50 somethings are a great bunch