Riverwalk - I was writing something and had to search hard for a word that would fit the group of older people that I was referring to. So I started noticing what terms people use and how they use them.
"The elderly" for example, seems to be associated with people who are stereotypically older - i.e. with a bit of memory loss and maybe have difficulty managing to get money out of an ATM or paying bills the new fangled way. So seen as a bit doddery and not so good on their feet. (So aggie, you used EXACTLY the right term on the phone! Good on you!)
Whereas "retirees" are seen as more active and get up and go off travelling.
Retirees are quite different from pensioners/OAP whose defining characteristics are that they don't have much money.
"Seniors" is for me rather American.
"Over 60s" can work in some contexts, I agree but for say somebody very frail and say "over 90", it might not be appropriate.
I came to the conclusion that we needed a few more ways of referring to people at different stages of their older life - a bit like children are babies, then toddlers, then schoolchildren, then teenagers, then young adults. We need to distinguish the stages of old age that we go through rather than referring to old people as an amorphous lump of humanity - older people or the elderly.
I just wanted to know if other people felt the way that I did and whether anyone had any good ideas about how we could refer to our various stages of older life.
And when you want ideas, Gransnet is the place to go!!
It's certainly made for entertaining reading! Thanks everyone.
