What 'old lady' things you will refuse to do

[Auburngal]

Following this thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5253796-your-old-lady-habitstastes?page=28&reply=141706023 it was things like doing puzzle books, wearing big knickers etc.

What 'old lady' things would you refuse to do now and in the future?

Mine include wearing beige and brown. It does not look good on me. My skin tones and personality love bold bright colours.

Wearing skirts. TBF I cannot remember the last time I wore a skirt - perhaps to a wedding nor my 74 year old DM.

Have the same foods each day of the week. I know/knew of old people where they ate the same foods each day of the week. Pork chops on Monday, pie on Tuesday etc. Had upset customers asking me if we had any pork chops in as "always have them on Mondays". Plus if their birthdays/anniversary fell on a certain day of the week, their meal plans don't change!

When there is the word snow mentioned in the weather forecast, clear the shelves of tinned soup. Don't get this at all as there are better warming things than sodding soup.

I will never stop learning, and I will never do that fucking annoying thing a certain kind of radio presenter does where they coo about 'Brenda, who is 85 years YOUNG today!' Like the word 'old' is a swear word too edge for radio. One always hopes Brenda phones in and tells him to fuck off.

I am offended by the constant ageism and misogyny here. HTH

@cheezncrackers - I have a rollator. Thanks to long covid, my mobility is severely impacted - before Covid, I could walk from the car to the shop, wander round and do my shopping, and walk back to the car. Now I cannot walk more than 50m without stopping and sitting down - I couldn’t walk from the car to the shop door, never mind walk round the shop.

So I have a rollator, with a seat on it - but I have only used it once, in the months I have had it, because I know there will be people like you out there, judging me, sneering g at me, for using it.

I hope you never have mobility issues that make a rollator necessary, I really do - but you cannot control, or predict, all your possible health issues, and you could find yourself needing more help than a walking stick gives.

@FrenchandSaunders and @DerekFaker - maybe some older people get tired far more quickly, and just getting out to an appointment leaves them too worn out to do another tiring activity that day. I spend just 2 hours at knitting group on a Monday morning, and I am so tired afterwards, I can’t do anything that afternoon, and often need a nap.

Play bingo. Wear pop socks.

Re tena ladies and the old.
I have known women in their 30's that need them, and very old people (the oldest was 104) who never needed one in her life.😌

It reminds me of having morning sickness so not a fan 🤣

I keep thinking about this thread! I'm not offended by it as it's quite lighthearted.

It's true what some people have said that you don't necessarily start doing 'old lady things' as you age but you often continue to do the things that you did when younger, which then become associated with being old.

For example, when I was a teenager in the late 1960s 'old ladies' were those born in the Victorian age! Many of them wore a lot of black, always wore hats and gloves outdoors, wore thick grey stockings, had long hair in buns (often plaited), never wore make-up or dyed their hair. My Grannies were born in the late 1880s and as old ladies, they never showed their knees or shoulders (even at the beach!) and always buttoned their blouses (and nightdresses!) up to their necks. They wore corsets and bloomers (called Harvest Festivals because 'all was safely gathered in') and had a morning apron (full length wrap around) and a smaller, pretty apron in the afternoons, neither of which would ever be worn outside. They smelled of lavender, violets, 4711 cologne and occasionally of mothballs.

That was my concept of what an old lady was then, which is vastly different to what we might think of as an old lady now.

Two more things
. Not being a technophobic. Hopefully I will be like my DF’s cousin who will turn 90 in the spring. She uses her smartphone for everything. Think her DC and DGDs have helped her to get her going.

. Go shopping on Saturday mornings and other busy times of the week and complain that it’s busy.

Make the most of your current good health then.

@Shetlands people then looked far older than they were. You must have seen a photo of a relative taken in the 1960s and discovered that they were only 62 when they died.

Think people were believed to that you had to look old. I was one of those as a child

Discuss illness and hospital visits at great length on social occasions.
Tell my adult children how my neighbour's cousin's stepson is getting on in Spain and how he'd love them to visit, even though they have never met any of the people discussed and he certainly never offered free accommodation to randoms.

I think by the time I get old it will practically be impossible to stay on top of technology as things are changing and being updated so rapidly, I fully expect to be intimated by some technology in the future and not be able to handle it all,
A lot of old people now were brought up in an era where there was no phones at all so they have had to get used to a colossal amount of changes, I’m sure at some point in the future when we are old we might all just get tired of having to continually keep up with rapidly changing technology and young people will also see us as dinosaurs

That's true but I'm not sure if they looked older than their years or my perception of them was skewed due to their dated hairstyles and clothes. There's a photo of my maternal Granny sitting on the beach with 6 of her children in about 1925, when she would have been 38. She looks more like 78 to me! She's wearing a big hat, has hair tied up, a blouse up to her neck and a coat! My Grandfather (same age) is wearing a suit, hat and has a Hitler moustache!

Unpleasant thread. Some posters on here are in for a shock as they get older and the things they are currently laughing at become part and parcel of life.

Accept being called "dear" "my lovely" or any other patronising nonsense.
Give up my skinny jeans, baggy shirts, DM's/Cons
Go grey. When the day comes that I can no longer have flame red hair then I'll shave the lot off and get a wig.

Exactly. Instead of sympathising with or being concerned about clear issues of loss of ability or confidence that make that mum too worried to use sources of heat, her daughter just sees her as someone to be mocked. Just awful.

I remember when I first realised my "old lady chic" had become just "old lady". (Whispers) it was a pink floral shower cap

I agree. The fashions look old because it was a while ago.
Skinny jeans and DMs will look old fashioned in the future

Agree @saraclara ,am so bloody thankful that I have raised children who are genuinely lovely people ,who would never slag their parents or anyone else off on the internet !v
Reading Mumsnet is really quite shocking at times and cannot believe that my generation managed to raise so many entitled,nasty twats

I agree 100%. Referring to an older person as "years young" Is very ageist.

Ive had my glasses on a chain for more than a decade (55 now) I need three pairs for different lengths away and it's convenient. I make my own chains to match my outfits and they are the only jewellery I wear. Not old lady.

😮Does the thin bit go at the front?!!
How else can you wear a thong?

I like the way that I've got an Ann Summers ad on this thread.

Sorry that made me laugh but obviously appreciate without context it could sound that way. Nope she is very much not struggling, what she eats is healthy that’s what drives her, she thinks she has the moral upper hand being fit and very importantly not fat. She is very much of the view that she’s not like other old people who she calls silver surfers (she doesn’t I think know what that means) and wrinklies and looks down her nose at.

Yes that's a good point @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I must say perimenopause leaves me like that sometimes!