Preach it, sister!! I’m 41 - I feel exactly the same way.
I’m 29 and 80+ seems old to me. I used to work in a store with a few people in their late 60s and early 70s and none of them struck me as particularly old.
On the flip side of that, a few years back a 10 year old relative asked my age. When I said 26, her jaw dropped in surprise and she said, “Dang! You’re OLD!” She really put the emphasis on the last word as though I’d just confessed to helping out with the pyramids.
I’m 47 and old.
Started sometime in my late 30s, really kicked in soon after 40.
Main thing was once I had established career, kids, home, I realized how much more I had in common with most folks 10-20-30 years my senior, than folks even 5-10-15 years younger than me.
That and when the number of things you calculate in terms of “decades” increases - HS/college reunions, drinking/voting age, married/parent, in job. Decades are big, and when you start really stacking them up, they are tough to ignore.
Then when you kids get jobs, drivers’ licenses, go to college, etc. Hard to think of yourself as young when your spawn reaches adulthood.
I mean, I’m not exactly a fossil or at the brink of death. And I expect/hope to continue at or around my current ability for a couple more decades. But I’m certainly not young.
Q: How old am I?
A: 56
Q. What age to I consider to be old?
A. Any day, now.
I’m 54.
Part of my job is teaching 7-10 year olds, which is fun!
So I’m not old in that sense.
Apart from inevitable physical deterioration (I don’t run for buses anymore), I think your mental attitude has a lot to do with how you feel.
I want to travel (Las Vegas again!)
I want to eat Belgian chocolate in Belgium.
I want to take the Eurostar and travel at 186 mph through the countryside.
I’m 39 and I think “old” is when you’re in your 80’s or so. Of course, I had that idea put into perspective recently when I went to the grocery store and had to show my licence to write a check. The checkout kid looked at it, did the math and said, “You’re almost 40? Dang, that’s OLD!!”
I’m 46 and middle-aged. I figure 30 is when you stop being young and 60 is when you start being old.
If I am age X, then old is X + 13.
41/70’s
Old age begins when you cross over into the final third of your life. Or, rather, since you don’t generally know how long you’re going to live, the final third of a full life whether you get to live it all or not.
So I’m going to say around 75. Before that is middle age, which starts around 35. Before that is youth.
My parents didn’t start to feel old until they reached 80, and the physical problems started to make an impact on what they could or couldn’t do. But a former professor of mine, in an assisted living center, just turned 90. Even though he’s limited in what he can do physically, his attitude is great, much younger and healthier than that of many people many decades younger.
Sampiro, you’ve made many good points in your posts about your family.
There’s physically young, with a firm, resilient body and the beauty that goes with youth. Then there’s mental youth, that comes with being alive, alert, aware, intellectually curious, and ready and able to try new things.
Since you, Sampiro, mentioned the female fertility cycle, there is a glorious freedom that comes with menopause, and increased energy and enthusiasm. I think of it as a new kind of youthfulness – I’m in the youth of the second half of my life, and I love it. Any other middle-aged female dopers experience that?