What is middle-aged behaviour / mannersisms?

[Jeannne92]

DH (42) has started getting angry at things said on TV (e.g. news reports) and shouts at the TV. To me (43) this creates the impression of the stereotypical angry old man shouting at birds.

Then I think that I must surely do things or have started doing or saying things that are stereotypically middle-aged too. What sort of behaviour do you think of as middle-aged?

Getting excited about putting washing on the line

Gardening

Complaining about today's youth

Actually just general nostalgia

Not knowing half the Mercury prize list!

Thinking a cup of tea solves things

Moaning about the weather

I've spent my whole life moaning about the weather. (I am a hot sun person accidentally born in the grey north.)

DH, like my DDad, is obsessed by listening to, watching, and checking the weather forecast; I do find this quite stereotypically middle-aged.

Getting excited about putting washing on the line - we don't have a washing line (this would be the dream), but I and DH get VERY excited about hanging out washing. Probably our fastest turn of pace is when we hear the end of cycle notification and we both drop whatever we're doing to sprint to the machine.

Frankly, anyone who isnt getting angry at current events must be either doped up to the eyeballs or pretty dense.

Folding tea towels in a particular way.

Always having an unopened pack of biscuits available in case you get unexpected visitors.

Wondering why on Earth anyone would want an air fryer, when they have a perfectly good oven already.

Making a noise when you get into or out of a chair.

Being surprised that the 90s was 25 years ago.

Wild swimming. Rock choir. Book group.

I’ve always thought a cup of tea solves everything. :)

Probably our fastest turn of pace is when we hear the end of cycle notification and we both drop whatever we're doing to sprint to the machine.

😂😂😂

I do catch myself thinking 'things were so much better and less complicated last century'.

Oh and waving visitors off from the doorway! Apparently that's so middle-aged! 😂

Not throwing things away
Dressing in comfortable practical clothes
Letting grooming habits go
Listening to music from your youth, not interested in anything new
Finding new tech scary or overwhelming.

Standing in a queue in the supermarket and stifling the urge to give other people's insufferably annoying kids a clip round the ear.

I do tell off people. More adults but sometimes children (if they are going to hurt themselves, for example.)

DH wants to but is too polite/shy.

DH does love wearing 1 of 2 very 'comfortable' fleeces all the time (despite having plenty of more attractive sweaters.)

We live in a flat, but I love to be waved off at the door from other people's houses. Tbf the only people I know who do this are DH's parents (aged 87), even my own DPs don't. I remember my now dead GPs doing it.

What is rock choir?

You're not wrong!

Having more than a passing awareness of bin day

I've thought the same about air-fryers and DH and I are both obsessed by having space so we do not buy anything that impinges on our beloved space, therefore no kitchen gadgets.

The teatowel comment is frighteningly close to home!

Do explain the obsession with ‘space’? Are you one of those people who is proud of having empty work surfaces, and keeping their toaster in a cupboard?

Mooching round a garden centre. I’m currently remodelling our garden to make it ultra easy to maintain but for the last three weeks I’ve had a sneaky couple of hours in three local garden centres.
I’m defo with my tribe, wherever you look there are other Middle Agers.

Haha! Me too. So I’m officially over the hill now.

Standing in a hall with 50 other people singing Club Tropicana if my experience last week is anything to go by.😂

😂

Hate clutter. We have a machine that makes toast, croques monsieur, waffles, etc. and it lives in a cupboard as we use it only rarely (DP and DC have bread or crêpes or fruit for breakfast.) If we used it all the time (e.g. coffee machine), it wouldn't be in the cupboard.
Our kitchen and flat are small, but I've always hated clutter and craved space, even living in much bigger places. Same with desk/office at work, etc. Just a personal preference, and DH'S too.

In that blissful kid-free gap between your own dc becoming adults and them producing children of their own, you take an inordinate pleasure in not bothering to keep domestic chemicals out of the reach of children.

Wearing a panama hat on country walks and using a stick to point out things in the distance.

Mistaking a headmaster for one of the sixth formers.

Thinking that the Archbishop of Canterbury is looking a bit young to be an Archbishop.

Actually starting to read the random leaflets that fall through your letterbox.