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?

Here are mine:
Getting the rage about anything with a QR code
Loving a trip to the garden centre, but even better is making and sieving my own compost
Mowing the lawn in stripes
Not expecting to understand anything my teenagers say
Really, really enjoying the change of seasons
Being able to complain about stuff in cafes if they send the wrong thing or if it's bad
Really liking being on my own and going places by myself for preference
Loving a good natter with people on the street
Enjoying things like cushions
Being surprised how much older everyone is since I last looked
Thinking about death and really caring how I spend the second half of my life & who with
Wishing technology would fuck off

Asking the restaurant to turn the music down, repeating advice to your grown children (because they clearly didn't hear you the first time), knowing the names of plants, napping. Not sure if enjoyment at taking stuff to the tip is a middle aged thing or everyone experiences it but I developed it in middle age.

Similar to this in my mid forties I’ve started to read those yellow planning applications that get stuck on to lampposts.

Knowing the names of your local councillors and MP and becoming very skilled at writing A Strongly Worded Email.

You badger your local traffic warden for more enforcement, having spent three decades “chancing it” on your blinkers.

Being comfortable in who you are

Not giving a fuck what people think about you

DH loves a good natter with people on the street; the other day he managed to make friends with some people (all aged 70+) holding a wake! All evening he was saying how lovely the chat was.

Facebook (middle-aged social media) just shows me how surprisingly old my contemporaries from school and uni. look. Yes, I have not failed to realise that the same applies to me. I think I am being objective to say that DH looks younger than his contemporaries.

I totally agree with you about this:
《 Thinking about death and really caring how I spend the second half of my life & who with 》
A very good point.

Of course ! Then discussing it regularly and at length.

Getting the rage about anything with a QR code

😂

Doubled when the waiter in a restaurant smugly explains how I can just "point my phone at the QR code to see the menu"😡

Yes, you patronizing little twat I know how it works. The incredulous look on my face is disbelief that a restaurant that charges these prices is too cheap to have an actual menu.!

Oh wow the times I would have LOVED to ask for music to be turned down! DH is extremely sensitive to noise.

this it sums it up perfectly poetryarchive.org/poem/they-should-have-asked-my-husband/ Pam Ayres .This sums it up .

I have to put my reading spectacles on to check my phone, which I hold at arm’s length before prodding cautiously at the screen with one finger. Definitely a new thing since I hit my 50s

Finding out that there is no prospect of you ever breaking the law by using your mobile while driving. Because A - you need your reading glasses to use your phone, and B - you are already wearing your driving glasses, and C - your phone is deep at the bottom of your bag which is in the footwell behind the driver's seat, and you are too stiff to be able to reach round and get it.

In the words of BBC's Mandy "who'd want fried air???'

Husband and I had a lovely walk today - we sat on a bench admiring a view while we ate a ham sandwich and drank coffee from a flask. I felt completely content.

I've always teased dh that he has the hobbies of a middle aged man.

He loves nothing more than pottering around the garden tending to his lawn and flowers. Has an absolute love of castles and stately houses. Enjoys birdwatching. Loves musicals. Makes jam in the summer (lots and lots of jam!) and he pickles things...mainly eggs, chilli and cucumber but many other concoctions too. Basically, if it's not nailed down in the fridge, dh is trying to pickle it. Likes a bracing walk over the hills. Radio 4 is a staple.

He's done all these things since our 20's though 😂 He spent an awful lot of time with his grandmother as a child/teenager so I think this is the root of most of his habits which I think is lovely.

Having several pairs of reading glasses dotted about the house.

Always having a pack of tissues in my handbag

Actually having a handbag (containing a brolly)

Happily wandering around garden centres.

Washing and drying bedding outside

Ironing the bedding

Realising that DH and I could go on a Saga River Cruise

My friend coming round and making a cup of tea, using the teapot

Getting into bed, reading a chapter of my book before going to sleep before 10.00pm.

Slippers (see also gardening shoes)

Classic FM (although I do still have a kitchen disco to 90's club classics)

Feeling comfortable about being middle aged.

I'm happier being 50 than I was I'm my 30s, and its very liberating.

My Mum is deaf and any music interferes with her ability to follow a conversation. Last night we went to our local Indian restaurant and they had different music playing in their 'cocktail lounge' and the restaurant area which was terrible. I complained and they turned up the music in the restaurant to try to drown out the music in in cocktail lounge. I complained again and they eventually turned it off. Still could hear the banging tunes coming from the cocktail lounge but it wasn't too bad where we were sitting. 😬

Taking tea bags with me if I'm going abroad
Saturday matinee theatre rather than out on a school night
Noticing the first flowers appear after winter
Dislike of loud pubs or bars or loud music anywhere.
Woolly hat and scarf in winter and most of spring.

Early nights and early mornings absolutely fab at this time of year
being excited to see what is growing in the greenhouse

I think there’s a massive difference when people retire. Are they old or middle aged then?

Having lots of free time changes everything from what I can gather.

I am way off retiring (don’t want to) but still do the following however:
oof when I get up
drink a lot more tea than wine
happy to say no to doing things I don’t want to - eg go to a musical or an 80s night
awake by 6am every day and like to be in bed by 10pm if not going out
hard to do two nights out on spin
love gardening but have since my late 30s

But I love apps, QR codes, recent music over old shit, think politics is just as shit as ever (Thatcher era no better) and think the yoof of today (including my DC, natch) are pretty fucking amazing and an improvement on the yoof of my day.

For the current generation of the Middle aged it would be not being afraid to talk on the phone. Especially to strangers.

A key sign of being middle-aged is declaring that you are not middle-aged because you wear DMs, dye your hair pink/green/other colour and wear band T-shirts.

Garden centre becoming an exciting day out.
Saying things like 'it's a good drying day.'
Making jam.
'Embracing' the grey.
Choosing clothes or shoes because they're 'comfy'.
Saying things like 'Take your coat off or you won't feel the benefit.'
Slip-on trainers.
Crocs.

Saying “In my day”
Carrying around plastic /reusable bags in your bag….just in case.
Falling asleep in front of the tv
An obsession with blankets

And moving the goal post on what age should be considered middle-aged!

I've seen threads where posters get indignant that 50 is called middle-aged😂