Page 5 | To think 30 is now middle aged no longer young

SouthernNights59 · 11/09/2025 22:19

cobrakaieaglefang · 11/09/2025 19:03

I'm 'middle aged' and nearly 60! 🙈😂😂, I refuse to call it old..😂

I'm 66 and refuse to call myself old or middle aged! 😂😂

SouthernNights59 · 11/09/2025 22:27

KidsDr · 11/09/2025 20:42

Haha it's just referencing as a foundation doctor I might come home to my husband and recall some sad tale of someone who's terribly ill or died whilst only "young" and my husband would say "how old are they though?" And my answer would often be something like "75". He would react as you have! The perception of age is skewed in adult hospital medicine by such a large number of inpatients being in their 80s and 90s and so few being below middle age.

There's also I think, a fair proportion of pretty robust 70 something's, still physically strong and active, in a way not too dissimilar to a person in their 50s. After 80 though it's rare to meet a person who does not seem old and frail, functionally limited to some extent by age alone, even if they have no specific health conditions.

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What??? I know several people in their early 80s who most certainly are anything but "old and frail", including my neighbour who I go walking with. She's 15 years older than I am and I have to work to keep up with her sometimes. Recently we went for a walk and got home three hours later! She is also hardly ever home as she has such a busy life.

MsSmartShoes · 11/09/2025 22:35

Thirty is usually a fun decade.
Careers pay off, marriage, kids,
moving up the property ladder, usually parents still independent and healthy ish.

KidsDr · 11/09/2025 23:12

SouthernNights59 · 11/09/2025 22:27

What??? I know several people in their early 80s who most certainly are anything but "old and frail", including my neighbour who I go walking with. She's 15 years older than I am and I have to work to keep up with her sometimes. Recently we went for a walk and got home three hours later! She is also hardly ever home as she has such a busy life.

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To be fair I didn't say impossible or exceptional, just rare. I don't think people going for 3 hour hikes at a pace in their 80s are typical, but if course it's very heartening & aspirational to know that they are out there. You see a different cohort of people in hospitals of course.

Solaire18381 · 11/09/2025 23:14

I've never thought 30 as "young". I would call young, up to early 20's.

Ramalam · 11/09/2025 23:26

Middle aged is a state of mind, not a number.

whatcanthematterbe81 · 11/09/2025 23:31

Mumsnet is mental today

GigsandSkittles · 12/09/2025 00:01

ShesTheAlbatross · 11/09/2025 18:59

Well if life expectancy is 80, then 40 would be the middle. So for a range to be considered “middle aged” you could argue 35-45, or 30-50 I guess.

I do think it’s silly when people try to say that middle age doesn’t start until you’re in your 50s.

DH saw his pension advisor this week, and he said they are now basing people's predictions on the premise of them living to be 100, so 50 sounds about right...

OooPourUsACupLove · 12/09/2025 00:08

Yep - I always thought of it as dividing life into thirds.

0-30 young, 30-60 middle, 60 -90 old. Past 90, bonus!

Mistyglade · 12/09/2025 00:33

Yeh 30 is middle aged, 40 is old and the over 50s are basically irrelevant fossils.

susiedaisy1912 · 12/09/2025 06:44

SouthernNights59 · 11/09/2025 22:27

What??? I know several people in their early 80s who most certainly are anything but "old and frail", including my neighbour who I go walking with. She's 15 years older than I am and I have to work to keep up with her sometimes. Recently we went for a walk and got home three hours later! She is also hardly ever home as she has such a busy life.

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Equally after working in a hospital for nearly 20 years I’ve seen thousands of people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are ill, frail, vulnerable and unable to live a full and active life.

SouthernNights59 · 12/09/2025 09:24

susiedaisy1912 · 12/09/2025 06:44

Equally after working in a hospital for nearly 20 years I’ve seen thousands of people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who are ill, frail, vulnerable and unable to live a full and active life.

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Surely you can see that working in a hospital it is obvious you are going to see those who are ill and frail?

I have been surprised a few times lately when people have told me they are 80, or in their early 80s, when I would have taken them for a decade younger. All these people are active in the community and lead busy lives.

AliceMaforethought · 12/09/2025 09:35

Fatiguedwithlife · 11/09/2025 18:59

Nah it’s grown up, not ‘young’ but not middle aged (40-60)

I am 42 and I think of myself as young, not middle aged. Part of that is that I look a lot younger than my age, but it isn't just that.

Nevertrustacop · 12/09/2025 09:37

Well DS is 30 and I'm 63 and we were described as 'those two middle aged people over there' yesterday. One of us was not best pleased.

KimberleyClark · 12/09/2025 09:39

ArmySurplusHamster · 11/09/2025 19:12

It’s very odd:I’m sure the usage of ‘elderly’ has changed in my lifetime from ‘getting on a bit but not actually old old’ to ‘well into coffin-dodging territory’.

I agree. Elderly is younger than old to me.

SushiDisco · 12/09/2025 09:42

If you were asking leonardo dicaprio then yes maybe.

Idontknowhatnametochoose · 12/09/2025 09:42

No 20s and 30s are still young. Middle aged is around 40 to 60 years. I didn't feel that I'd properly left my youth behind until I hit 40.

OooPourUsACupLove · 12/09/2025 12:02

Mistyglade · 12/09/2025 00:33

Yeh 30 is middle aged, 40 is old and the over 50s are basically irrelevant fossils.

Only if you associate age with irrelevance.

Why does it matter if 30 still counts as young or not?

Being young might be better than being old because your body is in better nick and you have more years ahead, but if you are 30 the nick of your body and your years ahead don't change depending on whether your age happens to be considered young or middle aged 😂

lalaloopyhead · 12/09/2025 12:12

If anything surely 'middle aged' would be going up in years not down? What with longer life expectancy and everything.
I would consider myself middle-aged but I am 52 so maybe that is optimitistic - but I'm not old yet surely?? what is the bit between middle-aged and old called?

My eldest daughter is 26 and I think after a long Uni stint I think she would consider that she is only just starting to adult 😂

I think of 30 as young now, but its all relative I suppose isn't it?

heybabeyourhairsalright · 12/09/2025 12:18

30 middle aged? Actually find that quite amusing!

cattykinns · 12/09/2025 13:02

Shame the OP didn’t bother to come back.

TheGreatWesternShrew · 12/09/2025 16:23

ShesTheAlbatross · 11/09/2025 19:13

Yes but middle aged has always been a range, not a single age. And it makes sense to me for that range to have the average actual middle of life age (41, as you say) in the middle of it. Rather than as a starting point.

I don’t know why people get so defensive about it tbh.

ETA - having said that, I think there’s a reasonable argument to be made for just including adulthood. So adulthood 18-82, middle of that is 50. Therefore middle aged is 40-60

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You don’t start adolescence when you’re 7 because 13 is the midpoint… or early adulthood before you turn 18. So why wouldn’t middle age start at the age where you ‘hit’ the middle?

TheBeaTgoeson1 · 12/09/2025 17:21

Have the schools not gone back?

LoyalMember · 12/09/2025 17:26

It's nothing of the sort, ffs.. 30's still quite young.

mamaduckbone · 12/09/2025 18:07

No way! Maybe 40...definitely not 30.