What do you consider "middle-aged?"

[L A Woman]

I am 38 and I was called "middle-aged" today by a very young, annoying lady. I was about to bitchslap her, but then I realized she might be right. :shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

1. Well, if you figure 76 for average life span...

...shit, I'm 38, too.

:(

I should add that I feel about 28 though. So, go figure. :shrug:

[Sanity Claws]

2. starts about 38 or 40 and goes to 55 or 60

You are just on the cusp of being middle-aged.
I was probably 42 or so before I accepted the fact that I was middle-aged.

[Left Is Write]

3. I'm 40 and consider myself middle-aged.

It doesn't quite have the negative connotation for me that it used to.

[Arugula Latte]

28. I'm also 40, but, strangely, I'm feeling younger than I did in my late 30s

I think because I started working out more when I realized I was almost 40 ...

[Left Is Write]

42. I'm definitely stronger and in better shape than I was five years ago....

but I know I'm not "young" anymore.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. The older you get, the farther the definition of "middle age" moves

toward the old range. I used to think 40 was middle aged; I now think it's pretty young.

[ikojo]

22. I'm in my early 40s and definitely do not feel nor

act it. Of course I think the lack of children is one reason I think I don't act like a woman in her 40s. I have never owned a minivan (I have a scooter) and I am into Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Dr Who and such. Not many suburban moms are into that kind of stuff.

[Left Is Write]

43. You might be surprised by the number of suburban minivan moms...

who ARE into that stuff. Remember not to judge a book by its cover.

[CTyankee]

59. Im in my mid 60s and very active (I look 10 years younger I'm told)

If I am not in middle age, what am I in? I'm certainly not "elderly" but I guess I am a "senior" altho I feel funny saying it when I buy my movie ticket.

[bridgit]

5. 50...

[RetroLounge]

6. Well, I'm 45 and I hope I am middle aged

90 years is long enough...

RL

[reyd reid reed]

27. Yup

I wonder if I'll still think that when I'm 89....

[zanne]

46. A line from "Postcards from the Edge"....

Shirley McClaine, the mother, claims to be middle-aged and the daughter (Streep) says; "How many 112 year-old women do you know"?

[Deja Q]

7. 30...

I'm 34

[Blue-Jay]

8. Anyone older than me is "middle-aged".

That works.

[prolesunited]

21. Just dropped by to say hello

love,
your middle-aged wife (bastard) :P

[Blue-Jay]

23. oops!

[radwriter0555]

38. Family troubles?

Whoopsie!

Sofa city for you, sweetheart.

[Mike03]

9. Question's been on my mind too

I'm 42 but I feel like a very immature adolescent. Last week I was carded for buying nicotine gum. My sisters are going through the same thing. A nurse assumed, for example, that my sister was in menopause, and she wanted to knock her head off. When I look at my sisters or my parents or my friends, to me they always look the same--they look the way they looked when we were in high school. I don't have any fear of aging, but the world itself sends us so many mixed messages about what our status is and where we belong in the world. Most people still treat me as a child even though I'm a man entering middle age. It's just confusing and bizarre.

[Ariana Celeste]

10. 45

Sigh. My mom is 44, so next year I will say "46". I don't want to think of my mom as middle aged! :(

[pink-o]

11. Well, I expect to live till I'm over 100

So at 51 maybe I'm just on the threshold:hi:

BTW, I eat mostly healthy foods and love to run and cycle. I expect the quality of my life to last as long as the chronology. When that declines, I'm ready to go no matter what the numbers say!!!

[Canadian Socialist]

12. Nowadays, I would say 50ish

mainly because I'm 50ish. heee. However, I'm a senior at my local liquor store - love the 10% discount! Although they demand proof that I'm over 50 - such sweet children!

[RebelOne]

13. After 50 would be middle-aged.

I have passed that milestone many years ago and still hate to be called middle-aged or elderly.

[terrya]

15. That's right.

I turned 50 in April. I'm middle aged.

I'm not weirded out or upset or anything. It's aging. We all go through it. Nothing I can do about it.

[Blue-Jay]

18. You old fart.

[terrya]

48. Sorry...I didn't see this last night.

I went to bed at 7:30. After my satisifying dinner at the Old Country Buffet. Thank goodness I have my senior citizens discount....

[reyd reid reed]

14. I've recently come to the reluctant conclusion

That I'm there. I don't want to be...but I'm 45 and I think that, by the numbers at least, I am.

[Road Scholar]

20. Hi

:hi: :pals:

[reyd reid reed]

25. Hi!!!

Wouldn'tcha know it...when I was on my way to work today, the mountains looked so cool, the way the clouds were around 'em...reminded me of some of the pics you sent....and my camera was at home.


:hi:

:pals:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. My dear L A Woman!

However you see it, I am waaaaaaaay beyond it!

Being 62 makes me older than middle-aged.....

But I don't care anymore.........

I plan to live my life to the fullest as long as I can.......

I am enjoying myself, too.......


:bounce: :bounce:

[IChing]

34. How are you my dear

I haven't caught up on the lounge are you doing good?
PM me if you feel like it


Anyway great to see you up and around.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

57. My dear IChing.......

I am doing well, thanks!

It is very good to be here, yes!

:hi:

[Road Scholar]

56. My Dear Ms. CaliforniaPeggy...

I am 63, and according to my last calculations, I have moved "middle age" up three times. I usually move it ten years at the time.LOL
I am enjoying every second that I have left. For a poor man, I have an unbelievable life.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

58. My dear In_Transit........

Ah, I'm right behind you! I will be 63 this November....

I feel just as you do......as to enjoying every second we have left!

I feel very fortunate to have a wonderful life as well.......:hug:

[Karenca]

17. Average Lifespan in the U.S. is 75

I don't know how many years middle age is supposed to last---

10?
20?

Are we young until 32, and then at 42 we become old? Because, if you cut it right down the middle, you'de be
half way through your expected lifespan at 37...Give and take 5 years either way, you'de be
middle-aged between 32-42.


I think middle-age is a stupid expression..It really doesn't make sense if you think about it that way.

[Dem2theMax]

19. I turned 50 last month. I am NOT middle aged.

I don't care how young or old I'll be when I die -- I am NOT middle aged!


Bitchslap the hell out of her the next time you see her. Once for you and once for me! LOL.

[crim son]

24. I'm 43, and I'm middle aged when I say I am.

Not yet!

[NewWaveChick1981]

26. "Middle age" is an attitude, not a number.

:) It has truly negative connotations and implies someone who is worn out, tired, and heading into the "twilight years." 40 used to be the age of "over the hill" and other such bullshit. Not any more. :D My mother is 70 now, and she never once hit "middle age". She's going strong and will be until the end (which I hope is a long, long time off). :woohoo: I intend to follow in her footsteps.

[martymar64]

51. Hear Hear!!!

I'm 42 and still consider myself young.

[NewWaveChick1981]

53. Hell, I'm 43 going on 25...

:rofl: It's all about the attitude. :woohoo: Glad to hear it! :applause:

[hyphenate]

29. Technically, 38

is middle-aged by life-span averages, with 76 being the average of life-spans.

However, I think nowadays, that 45 should be closer since most people are living longer, especially women, and you're really not "middle-aged" until you feel it. I'm 50 now, and I say I'm middle-aged, but I would never have said that before I turned 45.

[leftofthedial]

30. I always thought it was 40 to 60

give or take 5 years either way.

[u4ic]

31. Average life span for Canadian women - 83 years

I'm 40, so I'm not quite there yet. :P

I feel younger than I did 10, even 15 years ago. I was born old and am sort of de-aging. I may even go through the 'terrible twos' at 80. :D

[texanwitch]

32. All my grandparents lived until their middle to late 90's so I guess

I just started middle age.

[ForrestGump]

33. To me, middle-aged people are people who

think they're middle-aged. No matter what age they actually are. They usually act 'old,' though.

I'm anticipating a very long life, so I hate to pin the middle down -- the problem is, of course, that you don't know where the middle was until you reach the end -- and I'll never think of myself or refer to myself as "middle-aged." The term, to me, belongs in the '70s and before...I heard it when I was a kid, all the time, but I rarely hear it any more. If I was my current age in the '60s or the early '70s, the odds are fairly good that I'd feel older than I do now, if only because society kept telling me it was pretty much over with...I feel like a kid, still, and like it's still early days.

One thing's for sure, 40 in the 2000s is light years away from 40 in the 1960s.

[Broken_Hero]

35. well, I base it off the life expectancy

I believe, last time I checked/heard that life exp for women was 74, for men 72....so if you are a man who is...36 you are officially at the begining of mid life...if you are a woman who is 38, than you are at the begining of mid life...

[pitohui]

36. age 35 to age 55 or 60

after that you're old

it tickles me people getting the senior discounts then tryin to explain why they're not really...seniors

[AlienGirl]

37. At 33, I think I'm middle-aged

But then, I think Everythingsxen is an old man, and he's not quite 30.

Tucker

[Robeson]

39. I'm 42, so it means anybody who is older than me at the time...

...:-)

[Withywindle]

40. I'd say 40 is middle-aged

but only because I take it all too literally and don't expect to make it to 80 (I smoke, after all).

I'm 37. I still like punk rock dive bars, spicy food, and sex. In fact, I think I appreciate those things more intensely now than I did when I was 20.

[idgiehkt]

41. I think

it's neutral terminology. It just means in the middle. If someone called me old, I'd be pissed.

[In_The_Wind]

44. 45

[zanne]

45. Anybody older than me is middle-aged. nt

[KayLaw]

47. 31

The way I see it, your first 30 years are your young years, the second 30 are your middle years, your third 30 are your golden years, 90 to 100 are your bonus years, and anything over 100 are your super-bonus years.

[mitchum]

49. Point out to her that statistically males born after 1980 have smaller...

genitalia (according to British research findings released last year) and then tell her, "Uh, have a lot of fun, honey"

[elocs]

50. Some definitions that will make many happy:

http://www.answers.com/topic/middle-age
"The time of human life between youth and old age, usually reckoned as the years between 40 and 60. Also called midlife."

Even better: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/middle-aged
middle-aged - being roughly between 45 and 65 years old

I remember in the movie On Golden Pond where Katherine Hepburn tried to tell Henry Fonda that he was middle aged and he told her it was ridiculous because people didn't live to be 140.

By the latter definition, I am in the middle of being middle aged although not many live to be 108. I did have a grand uncle who lived to be 102 and his brother, my grandfather, lived to be 86 and he smoked most of his life and drank also and chased women to a ripe old age.

[SOteric]

52. Middle-aged is when

You're sufficiently old enough to know better, but still too young to care.

Your 'very young, annoying lady' is not old enough to know better, and if you were any older, you might actually care.

[LeftyMom]

54. 35!

No, I just wanted to say that to bother somebody with a birthday coming up.

"Middle-aged" only makes sense in retrospect. My maternal grandmother died at 58. Surely she didn't think she was middle-aged at 24. At the same time, my paternal grandmother would only have been "middle-aged" at 46. I don't doubt she was feeling a bit older before then, I'm sure anybody who had teenage girls and toddler boys at the same time would. ;)

Labels don't matter. Do you feel "middle-aged" or whatever? If you don't, then you're not.

[Blue_In_AK]

55. Older than me.

[buddhamama]

60. age is a state of mind

you are as old as you feel.

[Habibi]

61. Oh, I was called "middle-aged"

in my *early* thirties, by some 20-something person.

I'm 48 now and have accepted that at last, I am indeed middle-aged. The demarcation for "elderly" though, I'm gonna fight!

[bikebloke]

62. It's relative.

I've seen twenty-somethings who were up to their eyeballs into middle age. I'm 50, but seem to have stayed at the plateau of my 30's. An active and healthy lifestyle, plus the right genetic mix from the folk I came from. I have a former younger -sociopathic-sibling (and if there's any justice, it's dead or locked up) who was definitely into old age.

[Guava Jelly]

63. Im 40 and in better shape then i was at 30

And I have noticed a lot of very very hot ladies that are many years my senior.

[AngryAmish]

64. 35 (i'm 37)