So, at age 47, am I classed as a senior?

[Sayitisntsonoooo]

Feeling depressed

Scrolling on here and saw an advert for intermittent fasting…for seniors. It had pictures of all the different ages of women, up to about 80 I think. The youngest category was age 46-51

So age 46 upwards is classed as being a senior 😩

RIP

Perhaps I didn’t convey tone very well.

I’m being <lighthearted>. No actual offence 😂

I agree with this, yes. The problem is not the category, which is simply describing something inevitable like the aging process we all (if fortunate) will live. The problem is the negative connotations we put onto age (especially women's age!).
So I'm embracing my middleageness with much love. No surprises, as it's been said about me many times that I'm like a hippi 😅👌

These are all completely flexible and therefore slightly meaningless categories.

They are indeed. "Middle age" assumes that you can pinpoint the exact mid-point of your life which of course you can't. But they are arbitrary segments of a life and there will always be people who are outliers because of their health etc.

However, these categories were popularised at a time when people generally speaking didn't live much beyond retirement or the end of child-rearing. The terms old age/senior/OAP etc generally correlated roughly with retirement. Nowadays its possible and even common to be alive for 25 years after you've retired and people's work patterns are far less fixed than they were in the 50s or 60s so a person could retire at 30 or equally continue working into their 80s. And by and large people stay healthier and look younger for longer than they did 50 or 60 years ago.

The age you seem in your 40s or 50s will depend on a huge range of factors including genetics, wealth, bone density, mental stamina, the amount of exercise you take, whether or not you work, what you eat, whether you are happy, substance abuse, smoking etc. It's trite in a way to say you're "as young as you feel" because your underlying health is your underlying health and some people are dealt a bad hand.

But I do find it needlessly negative and a bit spiteful when people pop up to insist that you are actually old at 50. Firstly because how on earth would they know? I'm 53 but I have a very demanding job, I run three times a week, I go out clubbing, I do an extreme sport twice a year. I'm not as young as I was but I sure as hell don't feel like an OAP and I'm not going to be told I'm deluded by someone who doesn't know me because I'm not embracing old age.

But also because your outlook on life does impact how young you feel. My dad was still working, travelling and socialising well into his 80s before dying in his sleep in his late 80s. He didn't live a particularly healthy life: he drank more than was good for him and didn't exercise much. I do firmly believe that his enthusiasm for life and his refusal to be shuffled off into the torpor of retirement was a big factor in the fact he seemed much younger than he was.

It depresses the hell out of me when people rush to embrace an old age mindset when they don't have to.

I am now 57. You would not believe the number of adverts I get for funeral plans and for retirement homes… well I ain’t ready for that yet!

@LemonDuck1 So at 50, you go into the old/elderly part of the hospital?!! Wow, I had no idea, that is extremely depressing and also doesn’t seem right!

I very much doubt that's the norm. DH has been in hospital a couple of times during his 50s and wasn't, lots of older people in the same wards.

These threads are a mix of anomalies, ageism and odd attitudes. 'Senior' is a pretty meaningless term - it's a relative descriptor. It's still pretty low down most org charts!

And at 63 there's a few 'senior' discounts available but most start at 65.

This is bonkers! I’m mid 40s, work out multiple times a week and lift weights heavier than a lot of men and have young DC and am mid career! No way will I have ‘had a fall’ if I trip over in five years time!!

I really think given the state of the NHS a healthy 50 year old is not going to be getting special ‘elderly care’ treatment! Perhaps we mean more that medics ask you to acknowledge that you’re no longer 25 and you can’t eat or put your body under the same levels of strain as when you were a bit younger, which seems fair enough.

Also if we were going to class middle aged as exactly mid life - we may well have all passed that point while under 40. It clearly means the middle stage of life - so not young (under 35) and not elderly (over 75-80 depending on how you age).

I'm 47 too and make funny noises when I get out of cars/ theme park rides other than that I feel pretty young.

Wait until the adverts for SAGA holidays come in and retirement homes... even when you've 18 years of work to go!

I’m working on designs for a housing development for 55s and over. The developer is calling it ‘senior housing’.

I am 52 and have friends my age with kids only just finishing primary. Yet they are almost eligible to move into retirement communities.

I was that at 29, that was back in the day when most new mothers were early 20s or late teens!

Absolute bollocks.

No no no

It goes like this:

0-10 - little child
10-12 - big child
13-19 - teenager
20-30 - young adult
30-60 - prime
60-70 - super prime
70-90 - older
90+ - boss

Love this!!

Yep @parsleydog

Spot on!

If life expectancy in the UK is 81, then middle age is from around 40 for most people. Sad but true. I'll consider myself 'older' at 60 because that's when I can claim my concessionary bus pass (Scotland).