What age is old?

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

Xiney

Correct me if I'm wrong (I admit to grazing over some of the longer posts) but have we forgotten completely about the word "Adult"? People are saying this age to this age = young, next age to that age = middle aged. Folks, you do not go from young to middle aged, I'd see it more like something:


0-17 = infant, toddler, child, teenager (young)
18-29 = young adult
30-45 = adult
45-60 = "middle aged"
60-75 = "silver aged"
75 + = elderly (doesn't mean you can't stay young at heart, throughout)


I'm 22. That said, I was married two weeks after my 20th birthday. Being married, having kids, a house, (the latter two I don't have - yet) does not make one old. It means someone has responsibilities, definitely, but responsibilities don't mean you can't have any fun ever!


If not being responsible makes someone young, then I turned old when I turned 3.

AARRRGH

Being married doesn't mean you're a responsible person.

deisemum

I'm nearly 44 and it doesn't bother me, in fact I'm much happier now than I was in my 20's or 30's.

Age has given me the wisdom to realise that you shouldn't sweat the small stuff. When I think back to my 20's and remember some of the trivial things that I used to worry about or being too shy to do what I would have liked I think what a waste.

Xiney

dublindude wrote: »

Being married doesn't mean you're a responsible person.

Of course not, but it means you have responsibilities - being responsible means you don't let these responsibilities fall.

Dudess

It's true. People freak out at the prospect of having to grow up and take on board responsibilites, but they mix that up with getting old. It's disproportionate to be 23 and freaking out about, for instance, getting a career sorted, getting your own place etc and likening that to being 80 and noticing that you can't climb the stairs any more.

Some people kinda want to be older than their years too. There's plenty of premature old man-ism and old woman-ism from 20-somethings and 30-somethings. They complain that they're getting old and it's terrible, but they must find some enjoyment in it - why else would they insist on something that's completely untrue unless they wanted to?

IanCurtis

Xiney wrote: »

I'm 22. That said, I was married two weeks after my 20th birthday. Being married, having kids, a house, (the latter two I don't have - yet) does not make one old. It means someone has responsibilities, definitely, but responsibilities don't mean you can't have any fun ever!


If not being responsible makes someone young, then I turned old when I turned 3.

OMG

Married at 20??!!!!!!

Well I hope it lasts, but it's extremely unlikely.

Dudess

Some people get married very young because that's what they want to do. I find it quite admirable really - it might be considered conformist, but in this day and age it's actually very non-conformist. Why shouldn't they? If others think it's "ridiculous" etc, fine. They're not the ones doing it. And there's no guarantee it won't last. Who's to know something like that? If a person gets married at 35 there's no guarantee it's going to last either.

Marksie

Ian curtis: that is both off topic and unfair to teh poster.
Thats a warning

Xiney

IanCurtis wrote: »

OMG

Married at 20??!!!!!!

Well I hope it lasts, but it's extremely unlikely.

Marksie, if you don't mind I'd like to make one further off topic post in respectful rebuttal to this comment.


My husband and I were both young when we married - far younger than either of us anticipated being at marriage. We did not enter into marriage lightly, and we were aware the statistics are not good. However, we both come from families who's parents are still together - so our chances fare better in that way. We are both University/College educated, so again, chances are better. We have not had a child in the first x months/years of marriage, and every year more (for a few years) this only serves to increase our chances of succeeding.

So yes, there were risks. But we took a leap of faith, sooner than we normally would have (if things were different we would probably have gotten married closer to age 25 or so, but immigration rules, etc.)

But the bottom line is, my husband and I never had a percentage chance of making it as a couple. A statistic doesn't apply to a single case - any statistician can tell you that. And I certainly don't count two years as having "made it" - it will be a sad day when our relationship finally makes it: because at least one of us will be dead.

Marksie

I will indeed Xiney: fair rebuttal.

Back to topic now