Page 12 | To ask when did you realise you are old?

MyMonsteraisDeliciosa · 2021-01-06T23:57:35+00:00

My son just changed my phone settings for me so the font is big and I can read everything. I'm just turned 43 and I just felt properly old for the first time. Boo! I'm waiting for new glasses which should help but I've always had perfect vision until the last couple of years. Poor me [grin] What was it that made you realise you are no longer a youngster? Please.help me feel less alone in my sudden dotage!

OnIlkelyMoorBahtat · 08/01/2021 12:20

When I sat down to watch "Mary Poppins" one Christmas and found myself thinking, "Hmm, Dick van Dyke is hawt"

hansgrueber · 08/01/2021 13:14

@Upwiththisiwillnotput

The end of Top of the Pops and not knowing what is Number one anymore or how it’s figured out

You don't know or even give a damn about what's Number one, you sometimes can't distinguish the name of the song from the name of the act.

WiseOwlRelaxing · 08/01/2021 15:17

@OnIlkelyMoorBahtat

When I sat down to watch "Mary Poppins" one Christmas and found myself thinking, "Hmm, Dick van Dyke is hawt"

Omg !! I can see it, retrospectively

BikeRunSki · 08/01/2021 15:29

You know that old joke that your age is 21 with x many years experience. Well I have loved gaining the last 29 years experience experience and the knowledge, wisdom, learning, character and so on it’s given. I don’t see ageing as a negative thing at all.

Orpheline · 08/01/2021 15:42

The nurse at the GP's asked if DH was my son. Maybe a joke lost in translation

LunaNorth · 08/01/2021 16:51

@OnIlkelyMoorBahtat

When I sat down to watch "Mary Poppins" one Christmas and found myself thinking, "Hmm, Dick van Dyke is hawt"

To be fair, I’ve been thinking that since I was about nine.

JudyGemstone · 08/01/2021 18:40

I've just turned 42 and can definitely feel it creeping in.

Am on the list for a hip replacement and have a blue badge 😬

But mentally I'm still pretty young, I love having sessions with my friends and going to gigs and festivals. My teenagers and I like a lot of the same music and they keep me updated on popular culture.

My partner is also 11 years younger than me, and he's probably the more mature one

Mimitoo · 08/01/2021 19:05

@Carouselfish

In the last few weeks watching Below Deck on Prime and realising I'll never be yacht crew! It's for 20 year old and I'm 40!

I love Below Deck...proper trash tv. Btw, Kate was 36 when she quit, and that was a few years ago. I think she's 40 now? If that makes you feel better

TartanLassie · 08/01/2021 19:26

When I realised my "baby" will be forty in a couple of years! What the Fuck! How can he be the same age as me??

When I understood what my nana meant by "I like cucumbers but they don't like me".

When I couldn't drink caffeine after noon as I'll be awake all night.

When I understood what my other nana meant by "Age doesn't come alone".

When I realised I will never see my kids become grandparents. Made me sad.

framboisier · 08/01/2021 23:14

My friend and I both did a stint as an au pair when we were at university.

She messaged me to to say the boy we had looked after had just turned 30

IncludeWomenInTheSequel · 09/01/2021 09:34

When I started to fancy Martin Sheen instead of Rob Lowe on The West Wing

Butteredtoast55 · 09/01/2021 09:57

When I started squinting, peering over my glasses and having to adjust the distance at which I was holding things so I could see them. I now have to thread a needle 2mm from my face!
There's an Ann Tyler novel where one of the characters describes aging like snow falling off a roof. It builds and builds in little layers then - whooomph! Suddenly you notice these things and think 'Shit, I'm old!'
I would also add that no amount of sit ups is stopping the belly from being a bit flabby. Make the most of it girls, one minute you are in your 20s and the next you are staring 60 in the face

StartWhereYouStand · 09/01/2021 10:34

When I was half watching the Mercury music prize show with my teen DDs (whilst also trying to do some work) and I heard some great music but when looked up to see a very peculiar looking band and I actually said 'oh these are great if you don't have to look at them!'
Oh dear - that's exactly what I remember my Nan saying when she used to watch top of the pops with us. ......Actually remembering watching top of the pops makes me feel old!

And the fact that my teens have to regularly explain what words and phrases mean .... a few years ago one of my students said my hair was 'on fleek' (I teach secondary) and I had no idea if they were being kind or rude!

soupmaker · 09/01/2021 11:08

When I was chatting to another mum in the school playground. My youngest was playing with her oldest. She mentioned that her own mum was having a big birthday party for her 50th in a few weeks and she was feeling old having a mum who was going to be 50. I was 49 at the time!

exiledfromcornwall · 09/01/2021 13:00

When I started buying full-size waist-high knickers instead of the 'bikini' type knickers I used to wear.

Italiangranny · 09/01/2021 13:43

I was middle aged at 20 so otherwise not really noticed it - apart from that oof noise I make getting up when I’ve been sitting a while. My DP who is 10 years younger has just started squinting and borrowing my reading glasses. Now THAT has made me feel old.....

Sewrainbow · 09/01/2021 15:41

I'm old enough to be the majority of my colleagues' mum, I thought I was one if the guys like them, older but still part of the team, now I realise they see me as "the senior"

I've also had to explain old fashioned can ring pulls as until recently the barium we used used to have a ring pull that came right off like the golden days!

My sil wanted to know how dh and I kept in touch for our year apart in the 90s without Facebook and smart phones and was shocked when I said we wrote letters to each other. She was born in the late 80s so not that old!

Obviously to my children I'm ancient but these examples from grown adults hit home to me

PuzzledObserver · 09/01/2021 15:43

When people I’d just met stopped asking me if I had children and started asking me if I had grandchildren. It was quite sudden, and consistent.

Sewrainbow · 09/01/2021 15:52

My dh asked recently what age are people when you make the transition from "falling over" to "having a fall" the latter being exclusively used to describe the elderly and the former associated with young.

glas14368 · 09/01/2021 16:14

I'm 52 and need reading glasses now.

This makes me feel old, but not nearly as old as needing them to plucky the ever increasing whiskers out of my chin. They sprout at an alarming rate, and my failing vision means that I don't always know and gad about merrily like a mad old witch thinking I look ok.

Would have a fine moustache too if I left it alone.

Who knew such things awaited us with age?

MrsKoala · 09/01/2021 16:42

I was talking to a friend in her early 30s and mentioned some songs and she’d never heard of them. I found myself saying incredulously ‘are you JOKING? You’ve never heard of Salt n Pepper Push It?’ Then started a rendition convinced once I started she’d say ‘oh yeah’ but she looked a bit disturbed and was shaking her head as I was singing ‘ooooh baby baby b’baby baby aaaahhh push it’

I invited some friends round a few years ago for a Christmas gathering. I put on one of those chill out albums as back ground music. It had sneaker pimps, morcheeba, moloko, massive attack, fat boy slim etc. It is probably one of the most recent albums I’ve bought. One of them said ‘oh I love the music - so old skool’ another said ‘wow I don’t know anyone who uses cds’. I have no idea what else I’m meant to use to play music instead. Phones? Alexa? I’ve not embraced technology at all and have no idea what’s going on with it all now.

OneFootintheRave · 09/01/2021 21:21

@MrsKoala

I was talking to a friend in her early 30s and mentioned some songs and she’d never heard of them. I found myself saying incredulously ‘are you JOKING? You’ve never heard of Salt n Pepper Push It?’ Then started a rendition convinced once I started she’d say ‘oh yeah’ but she looked a bit disturbed and was shaking her head as I was singing ‘ooooh baby baby b’baby baby aaaahhh push it’

I invited some friends round a few years ago for a Christmas gathering. I put on one of those chill out albums as back ground music. It had sneaker pimps, morcheeba, moloko, massive attack, fat boy slim etc. It is probably one of the most recent albums I’ve bought. One of them said ‘oh I love the music - so old skool’ another said ‘wow I don’t know anyone who uses cds’. I have no idea what else I’m meant to use to play music instead. Phones? Alexa? I’ve not embraced technology at all and have no idea what’s going on with it all now.

Ha ha. Did you do the dance moves while you were singing?

Lifeisforalimitedperiodonly · 17/01/2021 12:59

Came back to this thread as another example came to mind! I read a lot - probably three books a week.
My son asked how many books I had in my Kindle. I told him and he did a quick calculation. He then informed me that at my current reading rate I cannot possibly live long enough to read them all .........

Original poster

MyMonsteraisDeliciosa · 17/01/2021 14:28

@Lifeisforalimitedperiodonly

Came back to this thread as another example came to mind! I read a lot - probably three books a week. My son asked how many books I had in my Kindle. I told him and he did a quick calculation. He then informed me that at my current reading rate I cannot possibly live long enough to read them all .........

Haha that's a sobering thought, exactly the sort of thing either of my sons would say

OP posts:

Oysterbabe · 17/01/2021 14:34

I had 3 drinks yesterday; 1 while cooking dinner then 2 more during the evening. Felt sick and like shit this morning. I used to be able to sink countless drinks, get 5 minutes sleep then skip off to work without a care.