To wonder how you recognise you're getting older

[clearlyaplasticgnome]

I hate having to go out in the evenings
I love listening to Radio 4
I dream of retirement and moving to a nice village beside the sea (never going to happen!)

Just knowing you are too old for certain clothes, but not being able to put your finger on why. Not even hotpants, etc. Just certain ordinary clothes.

YES! I don't even go into some shops any more because I know that I am "too old" for the clothes in there.

Getting my first wrinkle (frown line in centre of forehead!) aged 19. Horrific.

Having friends round and discussing mortgage applications, credit ratings, pensions, promotion prospects at work etc.

Planning the garden - decking, tree placement, brick bbq etc.

Ha, I had forehead wrinkles (3 across the forehead) from the age of 10 or 11.

I get affronted when people are younger than me. (Am 50)

My dr - yep, younger than me (and extremely competent).

DD's primary school - every single teacher younger than me except the Head. DD's class teacher, who is funny, kind and enthusiastic - technnically young enough to be my son.

DS's secondary school - head and deputy definitely younger than me, as was every subject teacher bar one at the last parents' evening (and one might have been about the same age, give or take). His physics teacher who is called Dr Something looks about 22. A sixth former showed us through some corridors to somewhere and I made small talk and said "Thanks - that was very kind of you". DS said "M-u-u-m: that one one of the geography teachers".

Next door neighbour's daughter is an A&E doctor - what??!!

Every leader of a political party in the UK - younger. As is Barack Obama (but yay for Angela Merkel).

When the music you liked at school is described as 'old school' and appears on retro-compilation albums.

Or they show it on Top Of The Pops 2

I find myself complaining about the crap music my DD listens to and constantly tell her to 'turn that racket down'

I nearly wet myself when bouncing on the trampoline

Thinking, 'I bet your mum's proud of you' when my lovely young enough to be my daughter dentist competently did a difficult filling earlier this year.

When the music you liked at school is described as 'old school' and appears on retro-compilation albums.

Or even worse, when the music you dismissed as 'nowhere near as good as the music when I was at school, young people these days are so easily impressed' is described as 'old school' and appears on retro-compilation albums.

Reading in bed?

I've been doing that since I was a teen!

Stevienicks I too am 40 and have never made the connection that I was born 30 years after the end of WW2. NOW I feel old! Waaaaah.

When crockery your mum had is now being sold in antique shops
When you meet friends for an early dinner because it's nice to get home at a 'civilised' time and wake up refreshed the next morning
When you start buying fewer clothes of better quality because you'd prefer to look smart than fashionable.

Sorry, itsveryyou

Sobering, isn't it?

Not just the "signs of ageing" on your face but the way the features don't seem to work together as well somehow. Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio are good examples IMO. Heartbreakingly pretty in their youth and although they are still extremely attractive (I accept others may disagree ) it's harder to see.

I keep forgetting I'm middle aged. I'll see someone I haven't seen since college days and then realise it couldn't possibly actually be them because they are in their late teens / twenties

Then again, I must be my mother old because I have a "just for show" hand towel.

Remembering life before t'internet...

Feeling like I'm young when I hear anything on Absolute 80s.

Pennies dropping – life lessons and advice from my elders making complete sense now.

The first time you ask your child for their advice.

Looking forward to documentaries instead of music/comedy/soaps
Moaning about the noise and not hearing myself think in pubs/clubs.
Looking in the mirror and seeing my mother.
Telling my kids why it was better when I was their age.

When I look worse with makeup ON than I do with it off. Less is more once you're wrinkled.

I'mNameyChangey - yes, me too! I look like an overdone drag queen with full slap on now - have to keep it to a bare minimum to look remotely "right".

God yes!,...make up looks awful!

When your children are studying things in History that happened in your lifetime.

Looking like a picture of the Evolution of Man as you get up from your chair and 'evolve' across the living room, getting straighter as you go.
That really made me laugh.

Walking into shops and straight back out again because 'it's like a nightclub in here; I can't hear myself think!'

Being convinced all the GPs at my surgery must only be on day release from their uni course, surely.

Spending the perfect Saturday night listening to Loose Ends while cooking a big batch of something to freeze, then sitting down to catch up with The Good Wife over a nice cup of tea.

That I now have National Trust membership

I was born just 18 years after the end of WW2. I realise now how little time that is. The lifetime of my teenage son--a blink of an eye.

Wondering why young people have to be so loud and bad mannered