To want to be young again?

[HarryorHas]

Just that really.

Life was exciting, less stressful, more fun, I looked great, felt great, had a fantastic figure...the thought of the future was so exciting,

I’m not old, old (43) but god, life was good, wasn’t t it?!

I'm so glad my teens and uni years took place before SM / iphones really took off. Just!

I'm early 30s and I daydream constantly about my 'youth'.

My mid twenties was great for positivity, fitness, energy. But i was lacking the older, experienced head. These days i enjoy having the life/learning skills and applying them to new interests. I just wish there was a body parts shop where you could trade in bad joints or teeth etc.

Not unreasonable at all . I'm older than you, in my late 50's. Sometimes I see DS and his friends (late teens, early 20s) and feel really nostalgic for those days . Fun times , and all your life ahead of you . Although as another PP says, it was probably easier being young in the 1980s.

My answer, for myself, has to be to make the absolute most of the next 10 years or so.

noeffingwayyy You described my youth exactly!!!

I had that feeling when I turned 20

I know what you mean @HarryorHas - I’m 34 this summer and although i’m fully aware that’s not old in the grand scheme of things, i’m definitely starting to feel that popular culture is no longer aimed at me, if that makes sense? I think that’s the thing that makes me feel ancient! I do sometimes look the The Youth and have a brief flash of nostalgia for being 19 years old and drinking red stripe out of a can in some dive bar at 3am . But then I remember how insecure and unhappy I often was then; how many toxic relationships and friendships i put up with; how negative i was about my (gorgeous, youthful ) body; how much i hated my job. And i’m filled with a sense of contentment with how my life is now. I still (in non-covid times) make time to do crazy things and kick back, it’s just that now i can afford a better class of alcoholic beverage and like to be in bed by midnight
Life can be great or shit at any age - it’s what you make of it, this second, that counts.

@boredbuttercup I really feel for you; I hope you’re ready to get out there and go wild once this is over. If it makes you feel any better, I graduated into a recession with no job in 2008 (which of course was my fault, twas ever this ) and my best years were AFTER uni - I had an absolute blast aged about 22-27. I had money, no responsibilities and the world at my feet. Bring on the roaring 20s v2 !

I’m 46 and was quite happy until the lockdowns hit and drained my life of every bit of joy. Travel, festivals, parties, bands, theatre all wiped from our lives.

No wonder we look back and feel sad at everything we used to have but good times are around the corner.

We might not have the waist of a 22 but we can still party (once a weekend lol).

you're not alone. i'm almost 50 and i miss my youth all the time. maybe cause i'm unhappy with how my life turned out and how body and skin has changed.

@boredbuttercup

As someone who is 'young' now I'm thoroughly bitter about how great all your youths were. Being young now is shit.

I've lost 2 years of my uni experience to covid whilst simultaneously being villinised as the group who's fault it is that covid started spreading en mass again ~ September time.

I'm constantly called 'feckless' but the older generation for all number of things. Not getting up early enough, going to bed too late, making too much noise, daring to party whilst at uni rather than spending all my time studying, taking up space on public transport when those with 'proper jobs' need to get to work, renting a house in my uni city and 'taking it away' from a young family, spending money on travel and having a good time rather than saving for more responsible things like a house or pension. Whilst simultaneously chastised by the same people for wasting my youth as they talk about all the reckless and fun things they did at my age with rose tinted glasses.

My job prospects post covid are pretty bleak. Sure I'll hopefully be able to keep my bar job or maybe get something else minimum wage in the service industry but nothing actually challenging that utilises the skills from my degree and with any chance of career progression. The same can be said for my housing prospects. I'm not as 'feckless' with money as some would say, I do save, but realistically am I ever going to be able to afford to buy someone I actually want to live.

I'm also likely to work until I die as I can't see pensions remaining in the way they are today by the time I get anywhere near that age.

Pre pandemic there were still relatively shitty job and housing prospects for my future but Atleast I got to enjoy being young. I went out with friends, enjoyed my minimum wage job because Atleast the people I worked with were fun, got to attend university and take part in societies and events and things that happened. Now it feels like I've still got all the crap coming in my future but I don't even get to enjoy the now. And somehow plenty of people still find a way to blame us for our own situation, just look at afew of the student bashing threads or the ones that call young people entitled, not resilient, and snowflakes. I wish I could've been young 10/20 years ago. It sounded like a great time. And I'm sure the older generation have always called the young 'feckless' but Atleast before the young got to tell them to bog off and that they had their chance at being young and now it was their turn, it feels a lot like I'm not getting mine.

boredbuttercup

You are correct. You have been dealt a seriously shit hand.

I can’t even begin to imagine how furious I would have been if my youth had been stolen the way yours has been.
It particularly struck me at New Year when I was messaging my friend’s 18 year old daughter (who should be at Uni but is stuck at home) and I thought that she’ll never be 18 on New Year again.

I can’t make it right but I am hugely angry on your behalf and would have happily stayed at home if it meant young people could enjoy their youth.

Take no notice of people who call you ‘feckless’..I’ve been called that for most of my life...I didn’t buy a flat until I was in my early 40s.

I hope it all gets better for you and your generation and that you have your lives back very soon.

‘I'm constantly called 'feckless' but the older generation for all number of things’

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannise their teachers.”

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress."

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint"

Socrates, Socrates (?), Hesiod (ever was it thus...)

I can’t complain - yes, I was told that girls shouldn’t do physics (actually ’I don’t like girls in my class’) but my parents were kids/teens during WW1 and my grandparents lives through 2 world wars.

God no.

I'm far happier now than I was when I was young. I know I want, I know what I don't want.

I have enough money to buy what I need and its my money: I don't have to beg or cajole anyone to give it to me.

I don't have to dance to anyone else's tune: I can decide what I do, when and with whom. I don't have parents or a needy boyfriend or a set of girlfriends who write the social codes for me.

I'm not obsessively cowed worrying about "what people will think of me", worrying that I'm not good enough, curbing myself so as not to upset or threaten men, constantly worrying about not being thin enough or wearing the right clothes.

Yeah my skin may have been dewier, so what. I wouldn't go back to being young if you paid me. Being old enough to know yourself is a gift. We should celebrate it and stop lionising youth which in my experience wasn't at all what it was cracked up to be.

I feel like this and I’m 24, cannot wait for lockdown to be over! I have forgotten who I am at this point

Yes, please pick me up on on the way back to the 90's.

I was having this conversation with my friend over the weekend & we were both so nostalgic for our youth, remembering the nights out, no worries about anything & the most pressing question was "where are we going?"
Like a few other posters, we've decided to plan a few big nights out when we are allowed, I'm dreading the hangover already, I could get up the next day when I was younger and do it all over again. 🥳🥂

I'm 43 and there are advantages. Firstly there is no way I could afford to buy the house we live in now. I'm no longer obsessed with sex. As a band 8 I now earn £50k pa. My kids ( 18,16 &14 ) keep their own rooms clean and tidy, change the bed linen themselves and cook. My 18 dd can pick me up from the pub. I was sterilized at 28 so I haven't had a period in 14 years. I'm no longer in such a busting great hurry. I have a higher bullshit tolerance. I can now play off scratch. That people matter , not things.

The only thing good about being young is having a youthful body, but even that had unpleasant aspects.

I miss being able to wear any old outfit and look quirky/trendy, and not look like mad old cat lady...

I’m 55 so 43 seems young!

@katy1213
"I'd like to be 43 again. It was one of the best times of my life, old enough not to give a fuck - young enough to have fun - and plenty of money for travel. Glad I seized the day"

@Pyewackect
"I'm 43 and there are advantages. Firstly there is no way I could afford to buy the house we live in now. I'm no longer obsessed with sex. As a band 8 I now earn £50k pa. My kids ( 18,16 &14 ) keep their own rooms clean and tidy, change the bed linen themselves and cook. My 18 dd can pick me up from the pub. I was sterilized at 28 so I haven't had a period in 14 years. I'm no longer in such a busting great hurry. I have a higher bullshit tolerance. I can now play off scratch. That people matter , not things"

Totally with you ladies It's liberating old enough to know better and young enough not to care about minor things

@CharlotteWeb There were soooo many good things about being young

I am quite happy being my age (63), as others have said, the confidence to do what you want and not worry about what other people think. And I enjoy my life at a slightly slower pace, part time job, volunteer work that I can choose (ie; not being obliged to support the PTA, Scouts, sports teams etc just so that my DC could enjoy those activities). No anxieties about dating, juggling career and childcare, comfortably off financially ... just reading some of the threads on Mumsnet exhausts me ).

Never had a decent figure in my life so those thoughts don't worry me!

I am fortunate though to have good health and still have both my parents alive.

I'm 43 and I miss carefree days - not bothered about looks, figure etc but do feel like raising children and being a grownup has ground me down. I wish I'd made better decisions in my 20s so I'd be financially better off now.

I'm late 20s and it's really not that great. I would love to swap places with some of you on this thread. The dream of retirement is so far away.

I’m with you OP!

I’m 37 and feel like the best of my life is well in my past now.

I would so much love to going back to being 20 and savour every single day and have as much fun as I could.

I’m 43 but don’t feel this way at all. I must admit I’m not looking forward to hitting the menopause in a few years or generally ageing but otherwise my life is much happier. It’s less exciting than when I was younger but I am more content now and happier in myself. I have put on weight which I am in the process of losing and feel confident I will get my original figure back. Other than that, my dress sense, hair etc looks much better now and I am lucky that I don’t have many wrinkles yet. However, I do not have children and we are financially comfortable so I do not feel like I have a load of responsibilities weighing me down and I am aware that I am very fortunate in that regards as I am sure if I did then I would perhaps feel a similar way to OP