Old Age

[Catmeouws]

Am I being unreasonable to think that I am not old? I am approaching my 60th birthday. Is 60 the end of middle age and the start of old age?

@BettyBoo Yes, Kylie is old. Especially for those hotpants! (Yes, I am jealous.) Your last three were big stars in the 90s when they were already adults, so I guess they are pretty old. Owen Wilson I've never heard of. Maybe he's before my time.

Re the Romans, I've no idea what the average life span was (where's the immensely old Mary Beard when you need her?) but I expect your figure of 35 years would be skewed by infant mortality. (Otherwise the cunning old Romans could have saved themselves the hassle of crucifying Jesus and just waited for him to drop dead from old age after another two years...) The point I was trying to make is that having some kind of commonly agreed cutoff point for old age would settle these kind of arguments. It wouldn't have to be the same cutoff point as it was 2000 years ago!

I'll be 60 next April, and I don't feel it. I still feel about 30 in my mind. People often tell me I don't look my age, as I haven't got any wrinkles - just a frown line!

You've forgotten 'childhood' in your split, Thor. No-one makes the division like that.

I prefer words like 'mature' or 'experienced'.
I know someone who gave up windsurfing at 90. He switched to sailing.

When I was 18 I thought anyone over 30 was old. Now I'm almost 50 I don't think you're old until you hit 90

It's middle age though, not middle adulthood

Jane you're not 50 yet, you're still a young thing so you are

I think I'm still 25 Drama. DCs would disagree however!

Same here! I'm 25 in my head, which is funny as DS1 is almost that age. I'm sure I was far more sensible at that age than he is or maybe I'm so old that I'm losing my memory

I always thought middle aged was about 15 years older than I was at any time of my adult life.
Now (in my 50s) I've shifted to thinking that 'old age' is about 15 - 20 years ahead of where I am. I expect this to be an ever moveable number though.
Most of my friends who are retired, go through a phase of seeming much 'younger' than they were when they were at work, as they relax, go on holidays, st down to drink a coffee as if it were 'an activity', start walking everywhere, start gardening, and lose the stresses of the work place. I anticipate feeling much 'older' at 58 than I will at 68, as that is the experience of most people I know of that kind of age.

agust here is the positively ancient Owen Wilson for you! Currently gracing our screens advertising sofas, though really by your maths it should be stannah stair lifts....

Kylie was only 30 when she wore the hot pants so safely in your Roman youth zone.

@BettyBoo Owen Wilson is looking good!

Kylie is now the face of Specsavers, which is not exactly a youth-oriented brand, so I rest my case where she's concerned! :)

Yes he is mighty fine! Poor Kylie and her fading ageing eyesight, having to suffer the humiliation of looking like this in her granny spectacles!

@BettyBoo LOL at granny spectacles!I have some too somewhere, but I'm too vain to go there. Maybe I will now.

Wear your specs with pride Agust !

Will do, @BettyBoo!

I'm 25 mentally but realistically I'm nearing the big five o.

IMO 50 is old

Ha ha, no it isn’t.

@InsomniacAnonymous

What choices would you have made differently?

I agree completely with Agust.

I think two two different things are being discussed/argued on this thread. There is your biological age (nothing can change the fact of it) and then there is how you have aged (genes play a big part, and your lifestyle) your health( good, bad etc) general outlook to life & spending capacity, (some people are very young in their outlook, fashion choices, interests etc vice versa).

The reason why national bodies, Nhs etc use ‘birth age’ for research, statistics etc is because it is fixed and it allows people to be put into categories to arrive at meaningful conclusions. There’s no point saying, ‘X is 80yrs but as young at heart as Y who is 40yrs etc. We’ll end up with the type of meaningless information we have here. There has to be a standard. I can’t re her what the age groupings are but of the top of my head, 60 is definitely old. Not very old but the beginning of it. Kylie is middle aged.

But if OP feels 30 and full of energy, that’s great, enjoy it.

Its Hot Yes indeed. The second category you mention though ('how you have aged') as used here seems if you pick it apart to be based on a rather unfavourable cartoon stereotype of old age. 'My mum is 82 but she goes hill-walking every Monday, runs marathons, and has a 29-year-old lover. So no way could you call her old.' If you can't be old if you do those things, it follows that old people can't possibly do those things--and that's belittling and just wrong. As if people equate 'old' with 'walks with a stick, needs help crossing the road, berates noisy children in a crackling voice'? (And would they also say 'My son is 20 but he doesn't get drunk every weekend, skive off classes, take joyrides, and bring his laundry home when he visits at the weekend so no way can you call him young'?)

Don't know what life expectancy is in UK, but say it's 80. In those terms you can say that 60 is 20 years from life's end. If that's middle-aged, so is 20 which is 20 years from life's beginning.

My grandmother was still "young-thinking" at 96 - although her body was a bit of a shit for the last few years. She told me that society kind of forced her to "be an old lady" when she turned 60 and she resented it, because she certainly didn't feel (or look) old, but she had to dress and act the part. (Think house dress, perm, comfy shoes, etc...). She was still interested in the modern world - she wanted to continue to learn new things. Her mind did not suddenly switch off. She said that suddenly it seemed that society expected her to rot away into invisibility and hindsight taught her to be very angry about that waste of thirty six years. Her advice was to think young. Learn new things. Be inspired. Wear colours that make you feel alive. Hang around people who make you laugh. Drink all the wine. Find things that make you happy. You should continue to BE young - of mind, body, spirit - it will keep you alive in all the areas that matter!!!

@Birdsgottafly thanks for responding.

Yes Ushua and that as well. There’s clearly a for want of a better word, (desperate) attempt, to not be associated with the word ‘old’. You can be 80yrs and go travelling etc like you said but that doesn’t change the fact they are 80yrs old. I like to say for example ‘X is a very young 70yr old’. People immediately get what is meant. I am acknowledging their age and it IS old BUT they are not over the hill! they are still very engaged with society, healthy, with a young outlook, but let’s not kid ourselves and call them middle aged.

I love your opposite example of the sensible 20yr old, who obviously must then be 80!.

I don’t know why, but I’m starting to have a deja vu moment with this thread and the trans debate. Because I do XYZ then I self identify as X and not Y. You can still be Y and do X, but it doesn’t change the fact you are indeed Y.

ItsHot Again, yes indeed--the claims of trans people occurred to me as well. Only difference seems to be that posters seem to be mostly attributing a false youth to other people rather than claiming it for themselves, probably because most of them aren't old but possibly also because they know that (best outcome) old age will happen to them whereas the desire to change sex is unlikely to.