Is the whole world of middle aged people just really vacuous now?

[Sunbury1986]

Hi all, I'm no academic so I'm not talking about education in the formal sense. I just feel that everyone I meet and talk to, many are educated and hold positions of title and status, are really dull to talk to. the main conversations seem to be about property prices, their "job title", which is hardly the brightest way to introduce yourself unless you are really status anxious, or which bloody Russell Group uni their child is applying to, and obviously if their/your child doesn't make a Russell Group they are going to be lucky to get a job in a Pound Shop. AIBU? Or do I need to (re) step away from people I know? I believe many succeed with out a RG uni education.

Must clarify...and thanks to all commenters. I have great fun with my real friends. I just happen to have to socialise in wider circles and do find, and I do take the comment about middle age vs middle class very much as a valid one. I am a firm believer that if you don't like the way the conversation is going then change it, and I do. I just guess I feel sad that people, not all I agree, but many, obsess verbally about the stuff their kids do "it's good for the CV" and are limiting the kids choices about experiencing what they want, the child, just to satisfy the parents desire to be able to talk up their life at social events. I sense I'm best backing off here. I have great friends, but I do have to socialise with people on a large scale for various reasons and there seems to be a group of parents who are far too wrapped up in micro managing their children to the point it is hard to converse about much else with them, and trust me I'm hard working in the conversation area, especially as I like to find out about people.

hanging from the chandeliers whipping the postman sex> oh Shit.. I knew i was doing something before I looked up my postcode on Rightmove houseprices .. ..

Thats the trouble with having to wander about looking for me bleedin glasses..

No love, I'm too busy getting slaughtered and having fun for any of that nonsense ..

( better go rescue the postman tied him up with one of me elastic stockings also .. )

I'm 49 and I even used to work in a RG uni, and I've never had such dull conversations. Thinking about the friends I've spoken to or seen over the past two days, we've talked about everything from sourcing organic pears , Crufts Dog Show, lambing, a book about ageing and dying, heroin addiction, dog show judging, bridesmaid dresses, gritting schedules, dog shows again (a theme emerging here!) and guessing a birthday present. I've never discussed property prices with anyone except my DH when we've been actively househunting. FA to do with being middle aged and everything to do with talking to the wrong people.

I think you are meeting this type of person.
I am 48 and complete opposite from your OP, in fact couldn't be further removed

Ssd - you restore my faith in human nature

anytime!

Just had to google Russell Group universities. Am 42, have a degree, MSc, professional diploma (too old to have done the degree) and am a lecturer now.
Genuinely can't identify with the OP, but maybe thats because (being middle aged) I can't always hear what people are saying if I forget my ear trumpet and sometimes I forget where I am

Time to get off mumsnet for a bit. Not a regular poster. As it is. Clearly many responders have basically made me realise what I already knew which was time to get away from these people with status anxiety. They amuse me as much as anything and for my job I kind of have to listen and humour them. Thanks all off for a nice swim and realise I'm not barking up the wrong tree thinking I'm the oddball.

nah, just ignore the pretentious, social climbing crap here, sunbury and pick your threads wisely!

theres loads of down to earth posters here who you'll identify with and enjoy reading about, I'd think

You mix with some strange people.

As someone has said up thread if people are talking like this about universities it is a stage of life thing, not necessarily an age thing.

Shame on you for age bashing.

You gotta admit though, MN is kinda obsessed with RG unis.

So you won't be safe here from that kind of conversation.

Well someone has status anxiety ( never knew it was a thing!)

None of this rings true tbh- most Middle aged ( lovely term) people don't talk about house prices -ever ( bought years ago). It is the preserve of 30 somethings sadly.
Daft thread - note need to try a bit harder !

Actually, I'm amazed that so few people know about Russell Group universities, and claim that it's only on Mumsnet that they're discussed.

Don't you read the papers?!

I'm 42, have an Oxbridge doctorate and am now an academic at a RG university, and I've never had this type of conversation. Who the hell are these people? They sound as if they could bore for their country.

BIWI - I have heard of Russell Group universities but when I went to university they really just weren't talked about at all. And tbh even now, in RL, very few people I know talk of them or refer to them as such. It is, after all, only one way of categorising universities.

Infact I have just googled and it seems the RG was only formed in 1994 so it wouldn't have existed when I went, and is therefore of no importance or relevance to me.

So yesterday I was at a formal dinner, was sat a table with a load of strangers, other than (correctly) guessing the general job of my immediate neighbour from the way she introduced herself. We didn't discuss any of your top subjects. There was nothing about job titles, nothing about universities or how to get kids to succeed, just a range of different conversations that found out a few things that we had in common. Which didn't include the general reason of the dinner as we were both there as +1's.

It's your friends - or it's you having nothing else to talk about everyone goes back to that.

I can honestly say that I have no idea which universities (or not) ny of my fellow colleagues went to, let alone if they are RG or not.

There are only really 3 or 4 people in my social circles who I know talk of RG but they went to university not long after RG was formed I think, so probably was made more aware of it at the time and it sticks.

Russell group, blah, blah.

Durham uni's not RG. Obv it's bollocks.

You've lost me a little. Your OP title references "the whole world of middle aged people", and the first sentence of your opening thread says "I'm no academic so I'm not talking about education in the formal sense"

What is the common denominator, please? (Or am so stupid and middle-aged to have missed it)?

I think the main body of your post could refer to anyone of any walk of life, of any age. Why have you restricted it to 'middle-aged' people?

Oh for god's sake. So many people trying to take offence.

The OP was trying to describe a particular thing that she experiences and somehow it becomes ageist and everyone leaps on the bullying bandwagon.

The OP isn't wrong, I cannot count the times I've been at family events and had to listen to the 'my son does xx, what do YOU do?'

Sorry...all we seem to talk about is how plastered our kids got and the menopause!

Somehow it becomes ageist?! I think you'll find that the title 'Is the whole world of middle aged people just really vacuous now?' is pretty ageist!

Or did that pass you by?

Oh, and I wasn't trying to take offence. I did take offence. Seeing as what I'm middle-aged and all that