Is anyone else totally shocked by their own age?

[Darkdiamond]

I feel like the last time I checked, I was around 29. I'm now 41 and feel like I've lost a decade! I've young kids, including a toddler so have spent the past 9 years pregnant, breastfeeding and in the thick of nappies, potty training, Paw Patrol and all things Young Kids. It has kid of blindsided me to the fact that I'm actually middle aged. In my head I'm late twenties and feel like things have been on pause since then (in a good way). I have friends around the same age with teenagers, kids at uni etc and I honestly don't think I'm old enough for that to even be possible, but it is? I was brushing my hair and caught sight of my hands and noticed they have aged a lot. Then I thought, yeah but you're in your 40s now! I'm still having regular periods, just stopped breastfeeding 6 months ago and I just don't feel any different!

Anybody else?

70 this year and was talking to an aunt whose wedding I went to when I was four (she, my uncle and I are the only ones left) and said' how the hell did 70 happen, FGS?'

DH and I discuss this often. In our heads, we're still 17 (when we met) although the something strange has happened to our bodies, mine mostly.
There are several periods of a few years of which we have no memory whatsoever and not all of them can be explained by being drunk.

Sometimes we'll watch a documentary about a really significant event and wonder how we missed that.
I have to give myself a head shake sometimes when I realise I am only 3 years from my first pension paying out.

Absolutely, though a hobby I met a group of people that I got chatting to. We got on really well and I thought maybe a friendship would develop. I considered them my peers (without putting much thought into anyone's age). At some point I discovered their ages, they range from 25 to 31. I'm 42. I could be the mum to the youngest ones. I thought they were a bit younger, but not 17 years! I was fine with my age until that point, now every time I go to the hobby, I feel really old.

Sometimes the men flirt with me and although most don't know my age, there's no way, they think I'm in my 20s. Then I wonder what is motivating them to do that, there's no way I'd have flirted with someone that much older than me, especially when I was in my 20s.

My mum always told me about my fertility would fall off a cliff in my 30s and my twenties were just a big old waterside into menopause. Then you come on mumsnet and there is a lot of coverage on perimenopause, and on one hand I'm thinking everything must be shutting down around about now, and then on the other hand i constantly wonder hopefully if I'm pregnant again despite using contraception ('More' magazine always said you can't be too careful!). I want to wear pink frilly things and then think I'll probably look like Barbara Cartland if I do. In my head I look just like I did in 2010 but then see a photo, and am like, 'what's that? A jowl?'

So it's all very strange. I feel like Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap, going from era to era, or Lindsay Lohan when she turns into Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday.

Hard relate! I'm now in my 50s, the same age that my mother was when I thought she was really getting on a bit!

In my head I'm 21.

I know what you mean op!

I’m 40 in a couple of years - it’s not so much my age, it’s how fast the last 20 years has gone by. I started Uni 20 years ago!?? It literally feels like it was 6/7 years, I can’t get my head round how much time has flown.
I still feel the same!

I am 62. I fully expect that at some point in the next 10 years , I will have moved from shock, to pride that I have made it this far. My MIL was always delighted to tell people her age . Apparently it’s a thing as you get older 🙄

I'm 50 and sometimes I have a moment of, I want to say clarity but I'm sure there's a better word where it suddenly hits me that I am 50 years old. And I think how can that be true, I still feel like any minute now my mum's going to come and tell me to hurry up or I'll be late for school.

I feel like a kid playing house and that someone's going to realise that and 'out' me. 🤣

My hands always surprise me. I look at them and they're wrinkly.

My elder son is now the age I was when I was pregnant with him, which is crazy.

I've now been married for over half my life.

And every year that passes, passes faster than the year before it.

I shocked myself the other day reading about 'a 60 year old grandmother' who was mugged in town, my first thought was 'poor old lady', my second was 'fucking hell, I'M a 60 year old grandmother' Well, that was a realisation.

I had this conversation with one of my older brothers a few days ago and he was laughing at me for turning 50 this year. I said to him how does it feel that the youngest sibling is 50 and I swear I watched the colour drain from his face when he realised that he is older.

Yes! It never bothered me until I started my current job three years ago when I was 45. I was so pleased to finally become a manager! However, my new interim boss is only 31 and I was told he was given it because of his experience - erm, what about my 25 years of experience? No-one asked me about that? We've now both gone for the permanent head of service role, and I'm sure he'll get it. It's really bothering me because not only do I feel old, I also feel like all of those years don't count career-wise.

I'm 50 this year when I look in the mirror I don't recognise the old woman looking back at me in my head I'm still not a proper grown up!

I'm 70 this year and think I'm still 30 something until I look in the mirror and think "who the bloody hell is that?" 😱

My friends are similar so it's not just me.

Where did the years go ... 😭

Yep, me too!!!

im 55, like, how the hell???

This too, I'm frequently alarmed by the old woman who follows me about getting in my face!

... and my Mums hands attaching themselves to my wrists!!

Not to be a downer but having lost two youngish friends to cancer, I'm fucking elated I'm 53.
But yes, I sometimes look at photos of me and think 'Mum?'

Same, I'm 41 with a nearly 4 year old. I think I feel about 32 ish. I feel younger but slightly more tired. 40s is a lot younger than it used to be. I look younger than my mum did at this age. I just keep repeating age is just a number.

Absolutely horrified, tbh, and it is just fucking awful.

41! Mere children!

Im about 35, but really 63. 63!? How in the name of living fuck did that happen?

Yep i feel this. Im 43 this year and feel like i lost my 30s to raising kids.

Me too 😭
I feel 29 in my head! My eldest is now at secondary, and I genuinely feel like it was only a few short years ago that I was at secondary. How can I be a parent to a pre-teen?!

Also had three children over a six year period, and whilst I loved it, I feel like women give their prime years to this part of their lives. And at the same time I feel nostalgic for their baby and toddler years. I'm just full of strange feelings and contradictions at the moment 😭

I'm 41. It feels like 20 years ago that I was 30. I can barely remember it. But I'm happy with where I am now, I look and feel better than I did when I was 30.

I'm also 41, with a 9 yr old. My 30s passed in a blur, I feel like I've skipped a decade!

My mindset is to really throw myself into my 40s and enjoy it as much as possible which is somewhat doable with only one child.

Me too 😂 every time I think I'm almost 53 I have to have a lie down to recuperate!