To think that 40s is not 'middle aged'

[Beancounter1]

Here is how my scheme goes:

0-10 childhood
10-19 older childhood and teens
20-29 young adult
30 to 49 - two decades of 'prime' adulthood
50-59 middle aged
60-69 getting older
70-79 old
80+ bonus time

Do you disagree?

I agree with the first 3...

0-12 childhood
13-19 teenager and adolescent
20-39 young adult

But then I would say

40-49 middle aged
50-64 senior
65+ elderly.

I know people start spitting fire (on here, not in real life,) when you say 65 is elderly. But it is. I don't care if you're as fit as a butcher's dog, you run a marathon a week, you have 3 children still at home and one at school, you think you look 39, and you are still working. Makes no odds... 65 is officially elderly. Again, I have no idea why this upsets some people so much.

Some people really do take umbrage to any suggestion they're not a spring chicken anymore. You only have to see the 'how old do I look' threads on here, and the amount of posters claiming they look 15-20 years younger. (They don't!)

How many people really use the term? My dad is the only person I know who uses it and he's usually talking about someone aged 50-59.

Mine goes:
0-2 infanthood
3-12 childhood
13-18 adolescent
19-25 young adult
26-39 just adult
40-59 middle aged
60-75 senior adult
76+ elderly
Can include ’frail elderly’ as the final stage, usually 85+ for the people I know but different for everyone.

young adult literature is not just for under 18s - I think originally it may have been but nowadays a main chunk of target audience for YA writers are in their early to late 20s actually, there’s quite of lot of crossover with adult fiction to the extent of bookish people often debate if certain titles are YA or adult.

also I used to work with young adults in education and they were classified as that from teens to age 25.

Strictly speaking I guess early 40s is middle aged based on life expectancy in the UK but I’m inclined to agree with you @Beancounter1 That it isn’t until 50s or at least late 40s.

I know teens think everyone is old lol but I’d say when most adults under 40 talk about middle age they mean late 40s/50s. Because younger millennials etc are used to people doing things much later nowadays and acting/looking/dressing “younger” in some ways.

To clarify when I said I used to work with young adults in education I meant children in care so social services and youth work really. And yeah their YA funding was for young adults aged 13-25 which in practice tended to be 16-24

Yes, people in their 40s are middle aged.

So what?

Middle aged women include the Princess of Wales, Beyoncé & Jessica Alba.
Jensen Ackles & Shemar Moore look pretty good for middle aged men too.

None of them look like they are getting ready to move into an assisted living facility anytime soon.

That's because they are not young any longer, but they are not yet old.
They are in the middle.
Middle aged.

I don't think 40s is middle aged, it's in your prime.

I hear 50 + odd year olds referring to themselves as middle aged. I would say in adulthood:

18 - 29 young adult
30 - 49 prime
50 - 60 middle aged
61+ pensioners/elderly

45 is Middle Aged but to me I will say 50

It definitely is. I’m 46 this month, I’d definitely call myself middle age. I mean it’s unlikely I’d live to over 90 so I’m definitely over the middle of my life.

Biology would definitely not agree with this!

0-18 childhood
18-30 young adult/prime
30-42 solid adulthood
42-55 Middle Aged
55-68 older adult
68-100 old

Because it’s not the mid point of your life, or it would be easy define. It’s the period between being a ‘young’ adult and an ‘old’ adult.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Let's face it, you'll only 'find out' what YOUR middle age is when you die.

I think we are split into two camps:

1. Middle age is a period centred around half your expected lifespan. Once you get to the age when you’re almost certainly more than halfway through your life, you are ‘old’.
2. Middle age is the period between being a young adult and an old adult and has shifted a bit culturally as people e.g. have kids later.

I’m in the second group, but the main thing that’s obvious is the potential for mutual incomprehension and bafflement!

The problem with the terms for the categories is that they are not objective descriptors. They are all loaded, and serve no purpose other than to segregate people into groups with (frequently negative) stereotypes attached. Even the holy grail of young (young mums, young people outside the shop, the young people at work) is used this way.
While an estimate of life expectancy may well place anyone over 50 as 'elderly', to use the term to encompass the hugely diverse group of people of that age, given its general usage, can be rather misleading. 'Look out for your elderly neighbours this winter' does not mean taking food parcels to the 50 year old next door who works full time and has children in primary school.
If people feel the need to place themselves into age related groups, I suppose the polite thing to do is to let them self define. Personally I see no need to describe myself as any of them. Its quicker just to say I'm 53, and you can make of that what you will.

Yes, this. Especially the mutual incomprehension!

Same with 'young adult'. Some people use young as a descriptor: of all the official adults, it's the younger ones, hence 18-29. Others (including me) use young as a modifier of adult: not-quite-adult, hence 14-18 olds.

60 until the end = old! Oh god I’m 65 I was feeling good till I read that, think I will crawl back under me covers! 🤣🤣🤪

Technically it is, but when I think of mid-life crisis or middle aged my brain goes to 50+

Yeah, I always thought that human lifespan is 100 years (obviously not everyone lives that long), so 50 would be the middle of it, so middle age starts at 50.

I'm in my late 30th, with a toddler, and it's hard to imagine that in a couple of years some people will consider me "middle aged", lol 😁

12-18 young adult

How can someone under 18 be considered an adult? 🙄

The idea of calling a 13 year old an adult is just laughably preposterous

I had counselling earlier in the year and the counsellor told me I was at “the start of my life”. I thought this was a bit odd, as I am 42 (which I thought she knew) and consider myself middle aged (although I do look a lot younger so I am told and she may have forgotten). Anyway, I would say:-

18-39 - young
40-49 - early middle age
50-59 - late middle age
60-69 - early old age
70-79 - middle old age
80+ - very old

40s can be the start of life though, doubt she meant biologically.

@QueefQueen80s - possibly, but I think in this case she did mean biologically because she didn’t know/had forgotten, as people often seem to treat me much younger because I am quiet and look young.

I do understand that you can “start a new life” at any age though.

But you will be middle aged. You will have a child at primary school, but you will still be middle aged.