Forty can be young, old, or the norm depending on who you ask.
There you have it.
I know people in their 20’s and 30’s who are waaaaaaaaaay too serious about things, and they just seem a lot older than their chronological age. They’ll probably all die of ulcers, heart disease, or road rage.
On the other hand, I know people in their 40’s and 50’s who are mentally much younger. Laid back. Seeing the humor in things. It’s all about the outlook.
“Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”
-Bob Dylan
I tend to think of everyone younger than my parents as young, but I have trouble seeing myself over 40, let alone 60. My grandmother and step-grandfather are both in their seventies, but look and act about ten years younger. OTOH, when I’m around children, I feel incredibly old (although I guess it’s more feeling I lack innocence).
My list:
0-15 Kid
16-21 (or college graduation, whichever comes first) Teenager/ “Probationary Adult”
22-29 Young adult
30-50 Young adult, part 2 (I drew the line b/w 29 and 30 because I think 30 is when lots of people marry or start families (Mom had me at 30)
51-65 Middle age
66-84 Older adult (If you’re not retired, you’re still middle aged)
85+ Elderly (Although I know an 88 year old (who was a friend of my late grandfather) who still lives on her own.
I don’t want this to sound negative, but I’m not sure that thinking young has much to do with anything. Perhaps it is the way you would always think anyway. When you age, physically, you do suffer limitations.
And as you really age, those people who share the same frames of reference are no longer around. You live in a world of people who don’t know your world.
I will always recall my grandfather telling me in the 1970’s that he was ready to die. And he did.
I’m turning fifty at the end of next month, and somehow it’s taken me by surprise. I never felt anything other than young until five years ago, when a nineteen-year-old saw fit to fall in love with me, more or less, until he started to recognize signs that I was in fact twenty-five years older than him. The end of that certainly put a new spin on the age issue for me.
Still, I only have a couple of friends who are older than thirty-five, and a number of friends in their mid-to-late twenties, and I seem to fit in with them better than most folks I meet who are closer to my age.
But what’s been freaking me out is the aches and pains thing – getting up in the morning just feels wierd sometimes, and going out dancing all night…forget it. That, and if I do go out dancing, I’m twice the age of most of the people in the club. And once in a while I can see that they notice it.
I didn’t feel old at forty, not at all – not at all! – and if I’m beginning to now, it’s mostly because of the way kids in their early twenties seem to tend to see me, more than any actual change in me. That and the symbolic significance of the half-century mark, I suppose.
I don’t turn 40 'til June, but I’m almost there and I certainly don’t feel “old.”
I’m in the best physical condition of my life, certainly in the best mental health, have some wonderful experiences under my belt and am planning many more, have the income to make most of these plans come true, and, in general, I’m having the absolute time of my life.
If this is “old,” that’s very cool with me.
Today on ABC talk radio Mark Simone said “60 is the new 40,” which is another way of saying what I said–old age begins at 60.
I have ten good years left.
Once you reach middle age - which is about 55, you begin defining “old” as being 20 years older than whatever age you happen to be. At 61, I certainly don’t consider myself old - maybe 20 years from now at 81 I’ll start feeling old. My mother is 91. She’s old.
Forty is…well, maybe not quite middle-aged, but getting there in one tearing rip of a hurry. You’re on the cusp of starting to be too old to keep the pace you used to be capable of. It’s especially noticeable in people who do hard manual labor, like my dad. He used to be able to put in a hellish day at work, then come home and go bowling, or play cards half the night, or piddle around in his workshop. Around 40-45, after a hellish day at work, he was too tired to do anything. Heck, sometimes after a moderate day at work he was too tired to do anything. Now, at 57, he comes home from a moderate day at work, and falls asleep in a chair before dinner’s even ready. He simply doesn’t have the energy that he used to have, and he’s getting to old for the work he does.
My grandfather, now he’s old. He’s always seemed old to me (when you’re six, fifty-odd seems ancient), but lately it’s been hitting me just how old he really is. He’s pretty much the same as he’s always been, near as I can tell, and I’m loath to classify him as being old old. Objectively, though, he’s elderly. He’s 77 years old, and has the standard set of health problems for his age group.
As far as doing a breakdown of age classes, I’d have to say it’s about like this:
Under 21: Kid
21-30: Young
31-40: Fairly Young
41-55: Middle-aged
56-70: Older
71 and up: Old
There is, of course, a few years of leeway either direction for all categories.
Julio Franco, Atlanta Braves firstbaseman, had two pinchhit hits the other night. In the same inning. His age is given to be 45 (this year) but it varies. In the season opener, he became the oldest starter in Braves history, beating out Phil Neikro who continued to pitch well later mainly for the Yankees and Indians until age 48.
George Forman regained a heavyweight title at the age of 44. There’s talk of a another comeback.
George Blanda was named NFL MVP at age 43.
Well, this is nothing new, but I believe there is a gender component to this question. While it’s true that you are only as old as you feel, some of us are urged to feel older than others.
I just turned 40 and have a heightened sensitivity to the question. Here I am, feeling like 30 (I’d say 28 but that’s pushing it) and forced to face my ‘middle age’ daily.
My ob talks about genetic counseling and invasive tests recommended during a pregnancy.
I know that I bear little resemblance to the beauty standard anymore.
Demi Moore is also 40 and despite the fact that she looks decades younger (but hotter and wiser for her years) she’s raising eyebrows for dating a young adult…Can’t see enough tabloids labelling her long in the tooth. Age doesn’t seem to be such an issue for her male peers in the industry.
Nor does it seem to be such an issue for my male peers in the real world.
Sorry for the navel-gazing. I find myself struggling with the question right now.
(40, atheletic, and trying to conceive)
My advanced age has no positive effect on my spelling.
So if nanotechnology, telomerase therapy, genetic manipulation, etc., ever slow the aging process to such a way that most 60 year olds look like 30 year olds, will 60 still be considered middle aged?
Totally untrue. The average lifespan could have been 30, but it was only because there was a high mortality rate amongst babies, children, etc…, which considerably lowered this average. But if you reached adulthood, you wouldn’t expect to die by 30.
By the way, I would tend to agree with the poster who stated that decrepitude begins at (my current age) + 10.
Apart from that I usually keep in mind that when you reach 35-42 (depending on your sex and nationality) you statistically have more of your life behind you than ahead of you. Which becomes a more and more depressing prospect 
Starguard:
Wow. Between 40 and 50 = old? That makes no sense unless you intend on being old for a very long time, and you’d have to start being middle-aged around when, 25?
I’d say:
Newborn through 35 = young.
35 through 70 = middle-aged.
70 and above = old.
I’m very much looking forward to being an old man, just as I’m currently enjoying being middle-aged, so I don’t think I’m in denial or anything, but really I think it would be awfully damn pretentious of me to declare myself an old man at 45. My 90 year old Aunt, who held my Dad on her knee when he was in diapers, is still quilting, shelling peas and pecans, baking, riding around with my folks to Florida and North Carolina on family history fact-finding missions, and helping her daughter and granddaughter with their financial affairs, and if I’m old, what does that make her? And while I don’t have the privilege of knowing any of them personally, there are folks out there who are old enough to have baby-sat her mom for her grandma about 110 years ago, long before my aunt was born.
Hmm, well, scratch that last part, unless you’d hire a newborn to do the baby-sitting.
While the astonishing Ms. Jeanne Calment did make it to 122 years old or thereabouts, I’ll grant that she was a bit of an anomaly, and so it’s not quite true that “there are folks out there” who were old enough 110 years ago to have been good prospects for baby-sitting my Aunt’s mom.
Old enough to have played with dollies in the sandbox with my Aunt’s mom when they were both in diapers, yes.
Yes, “elderly” is now un-PC. : [post=3113869]“Older person” is “preferred”[/post].
I agree.
I think it’s the age at which you give up living. Could be 95, could be 15.
I once heard, “Age is just a matter of mind–if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” I think that’s pretty true.