To ask how you cope with aging?

[malificent7]

So I am only 42 but wanting botox. In many ways I feel more comfortable in my skin but I am sad that it may be too late to have another baby ( not sure I want anothet but would be good to have the option.)
Also I wish I looked like the beautiful young girls I worked with ...but with my knowledge now!
Yes, i know the patriarchy makes us fear aging so how do i embrace it?

My grey hair and wrinkles show my wisdom. My creaky knees and dodgy ankles means I have walked very far.

I honestly, from the bottom of my heart, feel a thousand times happier and more attractive now (mid-late 40s) than I did in my 20s. Objectively I probably looked younger then -- sure my skin was better etc. But on every conceivable measure I'm happier and more attractive now.

You can't beat ageing and nor should you want to. Because ageing give you confidence, certainty and teaches you who you are. I wouldn't go back to being a young woman for all the tea in china.

Get botox/fillers if you like: they won't do you any harm and they might give you a placebo confidence boost. But it would be far cheaper and more effective just to learn to love yourself.

I know it sounds like hippy bollocks - and I'm the most cynical person in the world -- but I swear to god its true.

Not giving a fuck, and HRT.

67 here, enjoying life and still get plenty of attention. I do dye my hair and wear a bit of eye make up.

I was no oil painting in the first place so being in my 40s isn't a step down for me lookswise!!
But I'm comfortable in my clothes, will never wear heels ever again and I'm funny and kind and have loved ones and am happy with that.

I ignore it & get on with what I enjoy.

Enjoy yourself. Have nice happy friends same age as you and laugh a lot. Take pleasure in everything and don’t be a moaner. Life can be short or deal you a lousy hand so have fun while you can. Nobody cares what you look like its rather what sort of person you are. Stay fit and one day you can look back and say you had a good innings.

Growing older is tough and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t felt it since I hit my forties. But my df passed away in his 40’s and left my dm a young widow. When I think of it that way, I feel very lucky to still be here. The ageing is part of it, like it or not. I’m still not completely at ease with it but I’m trying to embrace it! I am still a million times more confident that when I was young and should have been. And if you want the Botox, just have the bloody Botox!!

I'm 49 and am regularly told I look considerably younger.
I wouldn't touch botox, fillers etc but look after my skin and wear light make up everyday.
I think being slim gives the illusion of being younger, I'm a size 8 and wear whatever the hell I like and refuse to confirm to ridiculous 'rules' like no mini skirts after 40 etc

My one 'beauty' indulgence is regular manicures, I go every 3 weeks and have short, neat nails with a gel polish.

Most importantly I feel f**king lucky to be fit, healthy and alive.
Ageing is indeed a huge privilege and if I can go go through it looking great then I see it as a bonus!
My wonderful Grandma died very young, I feel lucky to be almost 50 and loved and well.

I DGAF either. Works for me

I am sad that it may be too late to have another baby ( not sure I want anothet but would be good to have the option.)

You are sad that it might be too late to have another baby which you don't even want? In the nicest possible way, you need to get over yourself. We all get older. You have a choice. You can embrace it and enjoy life or you can mourn lost youth and eventually turn into a bitter old bag. Either choice will show on your face.

As long as my body can move easily I'm okay.
It isn't the wrinkles that scare me it is the bone disorders and fibromyalgia my DM suffered with that I want to avoid.

To add too get the botox if it'll make you feel good.

Work somewhere where there are lots of really old people with poor eyesight, works for me anyway. Although a lot are much fitter than I am

It literally happens to everyone, just embrace it. I personally couldnt care less. Once you start the regime of botox etc, how long do you keep it up for? Where does it end?!

Yy to not giving a fuck.

And I don't mean that in an "I know I look crap because I'm getting old, but I'm just going to let it go because what the hell!" way. I mean that I actually don't at all mind looking my age. I don't think I look crap, I just look like a normal 48 year-old woman. Which is fine, because I am one!

@frumpety

Work somewhere where there are lots of really old people with poor eyesight, works for me anyway. Although a lot are much fitter than I am

I second this. Also go to a Barry Manilow concert and enjoy being the youngest person in the room for a few hours

We just don't have the same values, sorry OP.
I would mind aging if it meant I couldn't walk or swim or cycle -- but it hasn't meant those problems. So aging is fine. I struggle to care what I look like.

I hope you find a path that you're content with.

@mbosnz

By looking at what the alternative is.

This. I look at people who are some way down that slippery slope of Botox and fillers and then compare them with people who have allowed themselves to age naturally. To me, the latter look healthier in every way.

Also, some of my loved ones have died young. Lines and wrinkles represent how bloody lucky I am to be here still.

I'm nearly 37.
I think I'm in denial? Or just aging well?

Also go to a Barry Manilow concert and enjoy being the youngest person in the room for a few hours

Oh I'd love that

Don't try to compete with women half your age. You need to accept you are not the same as them. Admire their youthful beauty but come to terms that you are in a different stage of life. Be healthy and fit and enjoy the good things in life.

Botox can make you look awful.

42 is not very old, you are coming in to your prime.

Being grateful for the opportunity to age. It’s far better than the alternative

Ha! Truly spoken!

Basically the only way to embrace out is to embrace it 😀

Having kids for a woman is a bit like a ferry trip - if you haven't got your duty free by the time it closes, you're fucked. At 42 you could still have one more so do it now. It's nice to be 52 and have a 9 year old. Keeps you younger.

And half the blokes by 52 have, in the thrashing throes of their mid life crisis, ditched the life partner and got a new younger one, and are on their second round of nappies, pushing push chairs, wearing pink shorts and looking as if they feel jolly virile.

... (no comment!)

Embrace it. But really do have another kid right now. You will thank me later! 😉

(forget Botox - spend it on folic acid ...)