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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think there's no upper age limit to wear jeans?

181 replies

RandomGeocache · 28/04/2023 08:13

My mum has always had some weird ideas about what's age appropriate for adults. Women over 30 shouldn't have long hair, for example.

She was telling me yesterday about having lunch with a friend who is in her 80s and turned up wearing jeans. "What's she doing wearing jeans at her age?" I suggested that she might be happy wearing jeans and comfortable in them and that there isn't an age limit. Oh yes there are, says Mum, "older people" shouldn't be wearing jeans.

Weirdo, isn't she?

OP posts:
CharlotteRumpling · 28/04/2023 08:21

Yes.

Original poster
RandomGeocache · 28/04/2023 08:22

I am 50 and wear jeans almost every day. Mum probably disapproves enormously and thinks I should be in comfortable slacks "at my age". I disagree.

I don't think she's keen on my Dr Marten boots either.

OP posts:
Ringmaster27 · 28/04/2023 08:24

Yes. There’s no rules 🤔
My mum is a hairdresser, and I always remember one of her clients from when I was a kid. She must have been in her 70’s, and while most of the other ladies her age had short hair that would be washed and set with rollers, this woman had the most beautiful, shiny, silver hair that reached her mid-back. I was mesmerised by it and thought she was so beautiful 😍

Iambouddicca · 28/04/2023 08:29

My MIL is always in jeans. She is 90!

PuppyMonkey · 28/04/2023 08:29

I’m afraid you’re wrong OP, there is a little known law from the 1980s following Parliament’s approval of the Denim Act 1981 which specifically says anyone aged 40 or over is legally prevented from buying or wearing jeans, dungarees and any kind of denim jacket. I think it’s a fine of £25 for a first offence but it increases to life imprisonment for repeat offenders. I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this tbf.

Kyse · 28/04/2023 08:29

My grandad wears jeans. He's 97

amerthecat · 28/04/2023 08:31

I'm 72. I wear jeans every day and I have long hair!
Don't care what other people think, but my mother would have been aghast.
Do what you want!

LuckyPaisley · 28/04/2023 08:32

I've not known a woman to wear or use the word slacks since my gran who would be 102 if alive today!

My mum is probably similar age to yours and wears jeans, goes to pub gigs following bands she likes. She'd be horrified if she found out she should be wearing slacks! 😆

TheEverdelightfulsamantha · 28/04/2023 08:33

My Granny - who would get on with your Mum, also doesn’t think children should wear jeans, so my Mum (die hard jeans wearer herself) would change my kids out of their soft denim romper suit / cute little baby jeans / denim pinafore and into something more suitable before she took them round 😂

Original poster
RandomGeocache · 28/04/2023 08:33

I have no idea where these weird ideas come from. My mum was the child of an older mother - her own mum was almost 40 when she had her in the late 40s so was almost Victorian in her outlook.

She does a lot of walking and gardening and jeans would be very practical for her. She made my Dad get rid of his jeans too, probably when he was about 60.

OP posts:
LighterNights · 28/04/2023 08:44

I'm 56, I get up in the 70's and 80's, you'll have to peal my jeans off my cold and lifeless body.

LighterNights · 28/04/2023 08:45

*grew up

LighterNights · 28/04/2023 08:46

*peel, fgs!

Doggymummar · 28/04/2023 08:50

My mum was the same re long hair on over 30s I had mine cut and regretted it. When I wasn't pregnant by 28 she said you wouldn't eat a 28 year old egg so why do you think it will make a decent child. She had me and my brother at 21 and 22.

I never did have children as I was so affected by this comment, which I now realise was rediculous.

Spring2008 · 28/04/2023 08:53

I'm a firm believer that people should wear whatever they feel comfortable in.

I've noticed that older women (I mean pensioner age) tend to dress differently to my Gran's generation did, 3 decades ago.
My Gran (and all other women of that age group then) always wore a pleated checked skirt (calf length or just above) with a silky jumper, thin brown tights and flat lace up shoes. It was very rare for any woman over the age of 60 to wear trousers then let alone jeans.

Nowadays, the women of my Gran's age (back then) tend to wear black trousers and a patterned blouse.
Not that it matters. I just find it interesting how times and fashions for certain age groups move on.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/04/2023 08:53

RandomGeocache · 28/04/2023 08:33

I have no idea where these weird ideas come from. My mum was the child of an older mother - her own mum was almost 40 when she had her in the late 40s so was almost Victorian in her outlook.

She does a lot of walking and gardening and jeans would be very practical for her. She made my Dad get rid of his jeans too, probably when he was about 60.

My word. If I tried to make my husband (late 60s) get rid of his jeans, it would lead to divorce. Either that or he'd be whisking me off to the GP for a dementia assessment.

My mum (90) had dead straight hair as a child and hated it. As soon as she started work and could afford it, she started going to the hairdresser and had her hair permed every 3 months or so for decades and decades, with a shampoo and set every week in between to keep it tiptop.

My hair is also dead straight and I have no problem with that. However, my Mum nagged me for years to get it permed as soon as I was in my late teens. Weakly, I did eventually give in for a couple of years - it was the 80s - I managed to avoid a poodle perm or really big hair, but it's odd looking back at my hair like that. It took her a long time to accept that the vast majority of women my age don't have perms these days!

KimberleyClark · 28/04/2023 08:53

61, live in jeans and don’t intend to stop.

Spring2008 · 28/04/2023 08:55

Hair is another interesting one.
My mum in the 1990's when she was the age I am now (40's) had short permed hair. Mine now is long and straight, and I don't intend cutting it shorter any time soon.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/04/2023 08:56

PuppyMonkey · 28/04/2023 08:29

I’m afraid you’re wrong OP, there is a little known law from the 1980s following Parliament’s approval of the Denim Act 1981 which specifically says anyone aged 40 or over is legally prevented from buying or wearing jeans, dungarees and any kind of denim jacket. I think it’s a fine of £25 for a first offence but it increases to life imprisonment for repeat offenders. I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this tbf.

Grin You forgot to mention the Double Denim close, a late amendment from the House of Lords, which I believe led to fisticuffs on the terrace of the Palace of Westminster when Status Quo loving Parliamentarians staged a sartorial protest in the hope of being arrested.

IglesiasPiggl · 28/04/2023 08:57

What you wear is usually governed by your lifestyle and the activities you do, not your age.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/04/2023 08:58

*clause, even.

Original poster
RandomGeocache · 28/04/2023 09:01

I don't have long long hair, it sits just above my shoulders and the reason I keep it that length is practicality more than anything, it's very thick and wavy and any longer it would take forever to dry. Mum has always had short hair for as long as I can remember. Sister and I had very short "page boy" haircuts as children, as we got into our mid-teens we both grew our hair and had a phase of having it very long.

Mum struggled when my DD was little and needed help doing her hair - she wanted it long and I was happy to allow her to have her hair as she wanted as I was never allowed long hair as a child and was really jealous of all the other girls with fancy hair bobbles and pigtails. DD said more than once "granny is rubbish at doing my hair!"

OP posts:
MermaidEyes · 28/04/2023 09:07

My dad's heading for 90 and lives in jeans. I can't imagine ever not wearing them. I refuse to be one of those in frumpy old lady dresses past 65 😆

Sagittariusrising · 28/04/2023 09:10

My mum is 80 and still wears jeans. Her mum and my other grandma, on the other hand, never wore them. Always skirts or dresses.

RichardHeed · 28/04/2023 09:11

Kyse · 28/04/2023 08:29

My grandad wears jeans. He's 97

Mine's 90 and wearing them too. And a leather jacket. He's a badass grandad.

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