What age is old?

je55ie

Ok, just wana no am i the only person that has a phobia of gettin old? im 26 and everyday it pops in to my head tat im coming towards 30...i still feel like there is loads i wana do but think i shud be settling down gettin married havin kids like all my friends but tat realy scares me...i am engaged bout 2 years but as the years go on the less i wana get married etc........I really the hate the idea of gettin old?

Hagar

So do I, so I've decided I'm not going to.
Old age is a mental attitude. I've met some young people who were old before their time and some old people who will die young.
It's your choice.

melekalikimaka

23... my age...its horrid

tho anyone 23-30 will prob say their own age and 30 plus will say 40...and so on

AARRRGH

60+

kleefarr

Planet Earth is very old.

Jesus Wept

25

je55ie

25???

davyjose

I'm 30 in December and couldn't give a boll*x. Am I suddenly gonna go bald overnight? Nope!

Makes no difference whatsoever

je55ie

just one thing men dont seem to have a prob wit gettin old not as much as women.like myself

PixelTrawler

I remember a week after I turned 31 i was reading an article in the indo that more people in the US were turning to online vids due to the writers strike.

It went on to say "Especially among the young i.e. 16-30" - b*stard I thought!

I still feel quite young though. I remember thinking 31 was ancient - then again I can remember being 10 and thinking 16 was ancient so I guess your perspective changes over time.

I remember also an interview with Pope Jon Paul II before his death, he was talking about when he started as Pope and he said "When he was a young man" (he said it joking) - he was talking about when he was in his 60s!

Your only as old as you feel as they say...

gcgirl

80 + is old ! i am 2 months short of my 33rd b'day and feel no different to when i did 10 years ago!!

je55ie

i guess it depends on the person!....

IanCurtis

Don't forget that your life can turn and change at any age.

For example,

James Dyson, 44 when the dyson vacuum cleaner launched in Japan
Morgan Freeman, 52 when Driving Miss Daisy came out.

..and just for you JoeBloggs

JK Rowling, 31 when a publisher decided to take her on.



PS - I'm a year older than you and I feel 21

je55ie

tats the ting I still feel exactly the same as when i was 17 i realy tot when i was in my 20's that id feel more responsible etc but i dont .. tbh when i was 21 ...22 i said i cant wait to settle down have kids and now at 26 i feel so scared at the thought it makes me sick...

steo123

ur as old as u feel ..ur only in ur 20s u should b enjoying urself

Dudess

23... my age...its horrid

How on earth is 23 old or horrid? It's a brilliant age! If you feel like that at 23 you're gonna be absolutely miserable at 40 and you'll give your right arm to be 23 when that comes around.
OP, "what age is old"? Obviously old age is old - so at least your 60s. Very bad idea to be worrying about getting older at 26 because you'll be longing to be 26 in a few years and you'll regret not appreciating it at the time. So just live for the moment and stop worrying about getting older - nothing terrible is gonna happen! And have some perspective. I was recently telling my gran who's nearly 91 that my friends (in their late 20s and early 30s) were getting freaked about getting older and she just got annoyed.

And of course you're gonna have the same anxieties that we all have about becoming more adult, more responsible etc (I think that stuff tends to start at 18) but getting older than you want to be is not the same as getting "old".

The amount of years you're alive/date on your birth cert hardly define who you are as a person. And you shouldn't define yourself according to those either.

i am 30 in April, still feel 20

Dudess

30 in May here - couldn't give a fukk. I feel great about myself (in fact a lot more confident than when I was 20) so why get bothered about my age? Not that there's anything terrible about 30, but according to some people the world apparently ends the day you turn 30...

Hagar wrote: »

So do I, so I've decided I'm not going to.
Old age is a mental attitude. I've met some young people who were old before their time and some old people who will die young.
It's your choice.

Spot on. A lot of it is really all in the head.

je55ie

Dudess wrote: »

getting older than you want to be is not the same as getting "old".

The amount of years you're alive/date on your birth cert hardly define who you are as a person. And you shouldn't define yourself according to those either.

Thanx...wot u say makes sense...:)

Dudess

You're welcome. And if you feel like you're not ready to settle down yet, then don't. It would be a big mistake. I know it's sometimes easier to just do what the crowd are doing, but you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice if that's not what you really want to do.

biko

jessie37 wrote: »

Ok, just wana no

26, or 16? English please.

Dudess

Harsh, but yeah, 26 now is a lot younger than it was back in the day (some 26-year-olds are like older teenagers). When my dad was 26 (1972) he was in charge of building a dual carriageway in Dublin and was married with a kid. But that was 36 years ago...

charlesanto

jessie37 wrote: »

What age is old?

A year older than you are right now !!!

LegacyUser

55 here & still feel relatively young. With people living longer & being more active longer , I'd say you still might not be old in your mid 70's

anthony4335

You are only old if you feel it. When you are no longer able to go out all weekend and get up for work on the monday thinking that you had a great weekend. When you make strange noises every time you rise from a chair or from your knees. I am totally fu**ed. All i need now is to start complaining all the time, oops ,I do that al ready. no hope for me. i do like the post about Morgan Freeman, makes me feel like I can at least change my life at any time. Sell up an move to Asia ,buy a bar and live like a king.

Sqaull20

0-27 Young
27-54 Middle Aged
55+ Old

Simple as...

IanCurtis

Sqaull20 wrote: »

0-27 Young
27-54 Middle Aged
55+ Old

Simple as...

Oh jesus

Annnnyway, I think I'd much rather be 32 with the attitude of 22 than the other way around.

I work with people in their early twenties who have houses with their husbands and are planning to have kids.

All the stuff their gonna miss out on...plus if I was married to who I was with when I was 24 I'd be one sorry bastard now!!!

Dudess

Sqaull20 wrote: »

0-27 Young
27-54 Middle Aged
55+ Old

Simple as...

Ye-ess. "Simple as". 27 to 39 is definitely middle-aged. Christina Aguilera (born in 1980) is the epitome of middle-aged.

What are you? 13?

And your "young" category - 0 to 27 - could probably be broken down slightly more.

TerrorFirmer

My immediate reaction to the question would be that young would be >35, whilst old would be 70+

In between can vary, but it'd be a case of 'older' rather then 'old'.

anthony4335

Woo Hoo, I am less than 35................................................

chump

drunkenness [snip]

davyjose

Dudess wrote: »

And your "young" category - 0 to 27 - could probably be broken down slightly more.

Don't you see, a 26 year old has more in common with a toddler than with a 28 year old :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: x infinity

IanCurtis

Well he's just taken the average age of death and divided by three.

The terms have more connotations than that though.

I think it's more to do with lifestyle.

Young to me is still learning, discovering, new relationships etc. etc.

Middle age strikes me as teenage children, settled, etc.

Old age is retired, grandkids, that kind of thing.

So I'm still young, and if this drought continues I'll die young at the age of 80.

PS: Who's older?

Richard Madeley (51)
Frank Skinner (51)
Randy Jackson (51)
Kim Catrall (51)
Catherine Zeta Jones (38)

:-)

Overheal

when youre 5, 10 year olds seem ancient. Its all relative.

mukki

gcgirl wrote: »

80 + is old !

not anymore, did you see bruce forsythe on jonathon ross last night?

Dakeyras

i'm old (oh me bones!) but the oracle of pi is older. i think ruthie might be a day or two older than me, she hasnt lost a bit of her bite though and she doesnt seem a day over umm 21

though some have said that she has existed before and outside time and i tend to believe that.

oh and on topic old is probably 5 years beyond your current age, that is if you for some reason need to consider a definition of old.

LadyMayBelle

jessie37 wrote: »

tats the ting I still feel exactly the same as when i was 17 i realy tot when i was in my 20's that id feel more responsible etc but i dont .. tbh when i was 21 ...22 i said i cant wait to settle down have kids and now at 26 i feel so scared at the thought it makes me sick...

I think everyone has a panic session or a few when they are no longer in their 'teens'..Im 25 and took it quite hard turning 25; no career, no down payment on a house, no car, moved back with family as I had to save...felt s**t! But I think youre juts normal...bebo stalking when youre bored doesn help, seing that annoying person you went to school with now is an orthodontist and has two cars and a their own island....well, not exactly, but..
Youre fine, Jessie 37, It feels crap, but youre not on your own! Wait till we're 35:)

podge79

it depends. i turned 29 on the 15th and this week has just been soooooo depressingly depressing. i feel old - like hitting 30 next year u just think oh sh** what have i done. and then on top of that i went back to college 2 years ago and like it was all 17/18 yo's round me - one of them even said to me this week " jesus i didnt think you were that old - thats like at least a decade older then me - you remember stuff from before i was even born". throw in the various joint pains from old 'war wounds' and its bad.

i suppose you could say how old you feel depends on surroundings and all that - age group you are mostly in contact with, if your joints do hurt during cold weather etc - and i'm not joking i can tell when its going to rain or be warm by the level of pain in my hip and fingers.

in summary 29 for me is old.

Wibbs

podge79 wrote: »

" jesus i didnt think you were that old - thats like at least a decade older then me - you remember stuff from before i was even born".

You say that like it's a bad thing. Hey I was alive when the Beatles were still a band, Elvis wasn't fat and we hadn't landed on the moon. Cool or wha?:D

i suppose you could say how old you feel depends on surroundings and all that - age group you are mostly in contact with,

Well people in my family live long. Whether they smoke drink eat like pigs etc etc. Got some longevity gene thingy. Sweet. I have noticed that the men usually marry younger women(sometimes 20 yrs younger) and have younger friends. They're open to new things. One of my great uncles is a lurker around here at 86. FFS Also they're fairly optimistic and would have the complete opposite opinion to you. They would feel younger around younger people.

if your joints do hurt during cold weather etc - and i'm not joking i can tell when its going to rain or be warm by the level of pain in my hip and fingers.

At 29???? Jesus. Get that checked for God's sake. Get a tonic into you or take up sport or something.

IMHO from what I can see with a lot of people is that their youth is over quickly and then they get old, both physically and mentally very rapidly. Middle age spread in the body, soul and mind. Maybe it's the society becoming more competitive. I dunno, but I do see it and the OP is a good example of the speedy change from "youth" to "old" They're young from 18 to 24 and then overnight they think they're old farts. TBH I can see why women would feel under pressure but blokes? Sheesh.

Marksie

I am nearly 44 OP. In age terms thats middle aged..but what the hell has that got to do with it?

It about outlook and attitude, we all age but it brings us life experience..or ut should.

If yuo spend your time worrying about what it will be like for you in 5 or ten years time. Then you are missing the essential point. You are living in the now.

If you miss out on lifes intricacies and joys then you will reach and age and be loking back and saying ahh i wish i had done this and that and thinking a life wasted. Then you end up living in the past

Sure you get a little slower, the hangovers are a little more pronounced, things take on a different (and much better) aspect, lovemking is much slower and longfer (but their aint nowt wrong in that). In living to the hilt, you have a weakth of experience of life to enjoy and bring into where you are now. But teh angst drops and the worry and you see things with a differnt clarity..its all good
Its a fact we will age, its what you do with what you have that counts.

Then there is the saying:
"frow old along with me, the best is yet to be"

But if you want and old fuddy duddy talk: Text speak is the most horrible thing ever OP. OK?

But thats just me be being a pedantic old fart

whatsgoinon

I'm 28, no house, no boyfriend, no car, even if i did have one, i don't know how to drive!
my mam told be before that some pychologist person on joe duffy (I'm too young to listen to him) said that the people in their 20s are the new teens, the people in their 30s are the new twenty year olds. I think this is true.
I have met so many people that are old before their time, you sound like you are 26 going on 46. There is absolutely no pressure on you to follow your friends and have babies, get married etc. Sure some of my friends are married, some have babies, but the rest of them are having a ball, travelling, doing what they want to do.
My nana is 82, and god help you if you mention her age to her, she tells everyone she's 62. She's hilarious. The public health nurse called into her the other week, and my nana was fit to be tied after. She was asked all sorts of questions about her daily life, what day of the week it was, could she count to 20, asked to say the alphabet. Sure her bones are a a bit stiff, but she still has it all upstairs thank god.

Make the most of the life you have now, it could all be taken from you too quickly, i live each day like its my last. You should be worrying about where to go on holiday or what to wear out tonight, not about who to settle down with for the next 50 years. Live a little

Dudess

Yeah, my 90-year-old gran freaks if people offer to help her cross the street or take some of her shopping bags. My mum is 61 and exceptionally youthful.

podge79 wrote: »

it depends. i turned 29 on the 15th and this week has just been soooooo depressingly depressing. i feel old - like hitting 30 next year u just think oh sh** what have i done. and then on top of that i went back to college 2 years ago and like it was all 17/18 yo's round me - one of them even said to me this week " jesus i didnt think you were that old - thats like at least a decade older then me - you remember stuff from before i was even born".

But there you go. They didn't even think you were 29 so the number of years you're alive doesn't make a difference - that's only making you think you're old because you're aware of it.

throw in the various joint pains from old 'war wounds' and its bad.

if your joints do hurt during cold weather etc - and i'm not joking i can tell when its going to rain or be warm by the level of pain in my hip and fingers.

Agree with Wibbs - that's a hilariously old-manish thing to say for someone who's 40+ years younger.

in summary 29 for me is old.

"Old"? Are you on the pension and using a zimmerframe or something?! Don't you see it's you who's making yourself feel old? If that's what you're like at 29... my god, at 39 (not even middle-aged) you're gonna be a barrel of laughs all together!

AnCatDubh

Age is a state of mind assuming physically you are in reasonable sted. Think 'no limits' then you'll live 'no limits' - think "i'm feck'd" then you will be.

Hagar

Any time you spend smiling or in the company of good friends is taken off your age. Trust me, I'm ancient.

Dudess

Just saw your d.o.b. You're old enough to be my dad. Ah well, you were alive for some great musical eras.

Hagar

You never know, stick up a pic of your mother.

whatsgoinon

my dad was 51 and my mam was 45 when my youngest brother was born, you'd think my mum was still 45, she has a more active social life than i do. She was thrilled to get her bus pass, as it meant she didn't have to drive to cork or galway and worry about parking, she loves getting the OAP rate for the cinema or whatever else gives discounts to OAPs.

Dudess

Marksie wrote: »

But if you want and old fuddy duddy talk: Text speak is the most horrible thing ever OP. OK?

But thats just me be being a pedantic old fart

That's not being pedantic or old, that's just a fact! Textspeak should be criminalised!

Talliesin

As an indicator of age txt-spk is more common in SMS with over-fifties, younger people have moved with the times and use predictive text.

When you've a full keyboard in front of you the only reason to use txt-spk is to be deliberately annoying to those trying to engage with you. This general tendency has been seen as a teenage trait since the 1950s, when the concept of "teenager" came into existence*, but hardly the most worth emulating.











* Though the word "teenager" came into existence in 1941 and the earlier "teener" is late 19th-Century, the concept of teenagers as distinct from both children and grown-ups is a product of a period of affluence and technological advances with social uses (cheap record-players, televisions and radios in particular). In the last decade or so we've seen a similar period of affluence and technololgical advances with social uses (sites like this for a start) but combined with the trends for spending more time in education, having families later, having smaller families, and affluence being to a point were one can still enjoy more of the benefits of it while still having such responsibilities do mean that many of the influences that created the teenager in the 1950s also apply well beyond that age group.

Dudess

Yeah, my 61-year-old mum uses textspeak. As does her mate who's nearly 70. It's cringey.

Marksie

Right: just to clarify. I was indicating the OP posts as regards textspeak.

Back on topic