To ask over 50s to check in to show we are not a separate breed of Mumsnetters

[LaureBerthaud]

COVID has really brought out the ageism on Mumsnet! Over 50s are not an homogeneous group sucking on our Werther's Originals longing for the social centre to re-open so we can resume whist drives and coach trips to outlet stores with a nice cafe attached!

I'm mum to DC who's taking their GCSEs next year and I will have to continue working to support them through uni and because I enjoy working AND I have a mortgage!

So stop trying to lock us down - the economy needs us as taxpayers and consumers!

I'm over 60, active, physically demanding part time job .... volunteered regularly throughout lockdown - and beyond - at our local Food Bank (which despite everyone always saying how essential Food Banks are seem to be mainly run by 'older' people). Have a teenage DC at Uni and care for elderly DPs.

I don't need to justify myself by being 'busy' at all times, plenty of time relaxing on the sofa - like now .

Mid 50s
Yoga and swimming mad gym bunny
with one child still at Uni

I'm over 50.

Fairly decrepit though

Coffee - my DM, 87, would not agree with you. She was admitted to hospital as an emergency recently, when she came home I advised her to take life a little more slowly, her reply was 'why should I? I am not old' . She leads an incredibly busy, active life, yoga, volunteering, decorating, gardening ignoring lockdown.

50+ key worker with two teenagers here. I'm still going on long country walks, swimming a mile daily and camping trips as often as possible.

I'm 66 and just the other day received my State Pension - 6 years late and after working 50 years! I'm a nurse (part time) with adult children and 2 grandchildren.

I hate seeing the word 'Boomer' as it implies that everyone over 60 has had it easy and now spending their gold-plated pensions on world cruises.

56 here. Just paid for my 4th Annual Chamonix/Mont Blanc ski pass today! Mortgage free & kid free, the world is my lobster.

I don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone

This thread is full of people doing just that!

I'm 57 and have 3 dc in their '30's and one ds of 13 still at home. I went back to work last year, then got made redundant because of COVID. But I'm raring to go and looking for another job, I'm certainly not past it yet!

50 here, I'm always on "normal" MN feminism, news and S&B boards. Nowhere near being a gran - I have a teen and a preteen. Fit, working single mum with mortgage and active hobbies etc.

I suppose because I've been MNing since my mid-30s I don't see myself as a separate category at all.

I'm 50 with 3 school age kids. I'm still at Uni (Open Uni but still). I feel about 23.

51 here, vintage Goth with own shop selling the same ;) Have adult son(s) (It's complicated) and am handfasted to a body piercer - used to do a fair bit of live performance including suspension (I don't take hooks I'm technical support and aftercare) when we first met at both aged 42 - modelled a corset on stage in my mid 40s and believe me I ain't no supermodel! Done alot of caring of MIL (Alzheimers) and my Mum (Cancer) who passed in April. Lived in shared house until recently with creative hippies and fire performers. And I do tarot (as a psychological tool because I'm a Capricorn and we're sceptical ;) )

In my 60s.
Not pandering to the ageism by justifying myself for being here.
Anyone who uses the term “boomer”, with all its false connotations, can fuck off to the far side of fuck.
Life is good 🙂

How nice to have a thread that doesn't write us all off as though we should stay home with re-runs of Bargain Hunt and be grateful for that!

I'm 50 with a son at university and DH and I are very happy. To be honest, we'd like to be able to do a bit more than is feasible right as we are carers for his two very frail and very elderly parents, but things will change in time (sadly) and we'll travel more then.

We have our own business, have just bought our forever home that we'll be renovating and I'm a fairly full-time author. I love meeting friends for dinner and/or cocktails, walk miles with the dog, go to the gym twice a week to improve my general health which is going well, and as part of my post-Covid plans, a friend and I are researching horseback safaris in Botswana.

I feel free, confident, happy (albeit suffering from a little Covid-related anxiety) and not even slightly ready to be written off as 'old'.

@Meruem @BoulangerieBabs

I don’t get the impression that anyone is trying to prove anything or keep up with younger women.
You might shudder at the thought of having younger children or teens in your 50s, but the reality is that many of us do.
I wish I didn’t have to work, but needs, and the mortgage, must. I am lucky enough to be able to work part time. I too dress for comfort and spend most evenings with a cat draped around me. I have an allotment and spend most weekends looking like I’ve been dragged through a hedge, and often have been.
I assume that this thread is a reaction to the absurd idea that is floating around that you could essentially lock up huge sections of the population based purely on age.
I am not trying to recapture or maintain my lost youth, my creaky knees and hairy chin are quite happy to remind me those days are gone, but neither am I ready for the knackers yard. I am economically active because I need to be, I used to be socially active because I like to be, and hopefully will be again one day

*I don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone

This thread is full of people doing just that!*

I don't think this thread is doing that. Rather it's showing that over 50s are not the homogenous group that some would pigeonhole us as and that we're not about to be written off. That this seems to be most commonly done by other women is very disappointing.

Sometimes you need to get into your 40s or 50s to realise that we are all just people.

When I was a young SAHM circumstances meant that my friends tended to be around the same age also with small children. They were and are great however we were all pretty similar in many ways.

Later when the kids had grown up I moved to a different city, followed my interests rather than being restricted by facilitating everyone else's lives, and found I made friends from age early 20s to 80s.

That was excellent.

Over 60 here and a person.

The ageism on MN is a disgrace but HQ lets it pass.

I'm over 50, huge bloody mortgage and I'm a teacher no way can I be locked down.

I don't support any mandatory covid 19 legislation although I follow it so am not against freeing the young and letting the old and those of us in our 50s decide how much risk we want to take though....

I am nearer 60 than 50 with adult children. I am not yet a grandparent but if I ever am then I won’t be doing childcare as I have done my time changing nappies and going to the park.
Bring them around for tea on Sunday and I will fill them with sugar and treat them to noisy games but you have to take them with you when you leave.
For now working a shitty retail job part time and caring for a disabled in her 80’s parent.
I am pretty antisocial so I will give the social club a miss.

I’m in my 50’s. I’m definitely not ready for the knackers yard yet! 🤨

I’m 55, I was a stay at home mum, and haven’t gone back to work since the children were old enough (I was a nurse, and hated it). The boys are all grown up now - two have graduated and got jobs, and the youngest is in his final year.

I am sitting here with a shawl round my shoulders, the cat on my lap, and my embroidery to hand. Sadly I have no Werther’s Originals, otherwise I’d be a perfect stereotype!

I'm over 50, work full time in a professional role & support my mother - I'm part of the squeezed generation. One adult child, one a student, I run, ride horses and climb mountains.

Where is the ageism? Is it hidden on one of the Covid threads I'm trying not to get sucked into?

I don't have to justify anything to anyone on here. Whether I'm fit/unfit/work/don't work etc

If people honestly think over 50s are fit for the knackers yard then I've got news for them. Many of us intend to stick around a lot longer just to piss you off.

And it doesn't matter how many twenty odd year olds feel this obsession to inject strange poisons and plastics into their lips and cheeks to look like blow up dolls...if you are lucky you get to be over 50 too. And you get the face you deserve! Mwhahahaha.