You know you're middle aged when...

[PollyCreo]

You go out in the morning at the same time you used to come home at 😲

The sun rises very early where I live (not UK) so after the clocks changed I decided to embrace this and go for a brisk 4 mile walk every morning before work 🌞 It is truly lovely, it's warm and I enjoy seeing the sun come up. However it was only 12 years ago I used to be stumbling out of a nightclub at 5.45am and looking for a taxi to get me home 🧐 What has happened to me?

And coats. You buy coats - coats to keep you warm, coats to keep you dry, coats to look smart, coats that are light enough to take off if it suddenly gets a bit hot.

This is so accurate. Our hat stand regularly falls over due to the collection of coats for every eventuality!

I'm in stitches 🤣. I'll be 45 next month, married with two kids but when I see other people's ages I think those in their 40s are properly grown up, I can't relate... But I'm in that bracket!!

When you read about a celebrity death and meanly calculate if they were older or younger than you. “ lived to a good age, hope for me yet” “ another one gone before their time” “ died so young…..”

When you suddenly notice the beauty of youth - the 18 yr old doesn't have to be socially acceptable beautiful or anything, just the luminosity of being young. Because you don't look like them any more and also you want to tell them that actually they look great but it won't make a difference until they are older and can look back with hindsight.

So maybe also collecting multiple life ironies that you thought you were beyond in your youth...

'Having a fall' is only said about frail elderly women?

This absolutely 👆

When falling (something that you do) becomes having a fall the implication is that it could seriously be what leads to your death!

That's definitely the case for genuinely frail elderly people (in this case of both sexes, though osteoporosis often hits women earlier than men if they don't take HRT) not for middle aged women unless they are frail for an individually specific reason!

Walking my dogs looking like a bag lady - check
Making ‘ooft’ noises when I get out of bed/off chairs - check
Clothes with a elasticated waist are not only acceptable but enthusiastically embraced - check
The bar staff look too young to be working behind a bar, and you loudly say this to your companion - check
You have no idea who the younger s’lebs are on any reality/baking/dancing, etc show (or the older ones, in my case, lol) - check.
Feck!

Big(ger) knickers and comfy shoes

Finding joy in M&S clothes that look good for work but are made out of jersey with elasticated waist.

similar joy in finding nice semi-stylish warm yet waterproof raincoat

realising you are developing turkey neck in 1 patch.

Finding no one takes any notice of you on the street any more - liberating, but odd

In a similar vein, using my middle aged peri menopausal middle class self to advantage by complaining to our MP / crazy stuff at work etc

😂yes to walking dog looking like crazy bag lady; yes to all of these really! funny how it suddenly hits us isn’t it? also taking bins out wearing a weird collection of cardigan; nightie plus wellingtons. can you imagine our former selves being disgusted 😂😂

Before you go out you make sure your glasses are in your bag in case you need to read a label.

Even worse - your nan.

You watch the weather forecast to see if it's going to be worth hanging the washing out.

This 🤣🤣

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain
I was just thinking that...
I have become my Nan...

I went clubbing with my dd recently (I was 19 when I had her) and it was amazing. I drunk and danced until close. The only difference between 18yr old me and 40 yr old me was I wore ‘comfortable’ shoes😄

When the phone rings on a Saturday evening and you are glad the call is not for you.

Yes that's me and what to wear the next day

The most obvious in my 40s was waiters speaking to my adult daughter when taking orders in restaurants and not me. They might as well have asked her “does she take sugar”!

I recently 'had a fall" in town. In broad daylight. Sober. I'm 47. Ffs this is the start isn't it.

Even worse - your nan.
I don't really remember my grandma. I was young when she died, and she was the last one, in her 70s. I'm not quite there yet....

Your back goes out more often than you do.
Your knees buckle, but your belt won't.
You and your teeth don't sleep together.
You sink your teeth into a steak, and they stay there.
When happy hour is a nap.
You sit in a rocking chair but can't get it going.
It takes twice as long to look half as good.
You finally get your head together, and your body starts falling apart.
You wonder how you can be over the hill, when you don't even remember reaching the top!

I literally took the bin out dressed like that this evening 😂

When your GP is younger than your youngest child.
When your kids tell you off instead of you telling them off.

i do PT 6 to 7 am as I’m ‘awake anyway’.

the women I do PT with boast about how early we went to bed in the same way as teenagers we judged the success of the night out by how late we stayed out.

Mugs are very important, right size, thickness. Able to have a conversation with similar woman in shop in the search for said mugs. Mourn the loss of a favourite mug.

When I call into a mate in the evening (not after 8 mins) & she asks would I like a glass. Of wine. I said I think I’d like tea. She has 20 different types of herbal tea.

The ‘older’ generation are all gone. Thd sobering thought that I am the older generation,

Gone from being a enthusiastic high flier in work to just wanting to do a good job.