Apparently, I've reached a good age!!

Yes why do some people find it necessary to adopt a very patronising tone when they realise one is retired. We older people have a wealth of knowledge and life experience which some younger people would do well to tap into. I'm not talking here about common courtesy like offering up a seat etc but the attitude that youth is all important and we old folk should sit quietly in our chairs and fester.

Kitty I too love wearing my pjs so comfy to wear and when I get tired a few hours after putting them on, I can just clean my teeth and pop into bed with my trusty hottie. DH never puts on his pjs until just before bed the Wally ?

Suedonim at a recent visit to a police college we were amused when the Inspector referred to the trainees as Embryos in uniform.It is true the older we get the younger the police on the streets look

There no sign of my mum going anywhere just yet, Luluaugust, she's fully compos mentis, and although she has restricted mobility due to arthritis, she's otherwise healthy. Still lives at home on her own with no help apart from a cleaner once a week.

Sadly, my sister died recently, and that has been a blow.

SueDonim my mum always said we couldn't grow old while she was still around. Unfortunately she has been gone a while now. I have a lovely friend who seems to think its a miracle we are both still walking around in our 70's!

With my mother, it is the opposite - she talks quite normally and people talk to her normally, too. But she is 99 and doesn't really take in what is being said - she does at the time, and can be very witty, but 5 minutes later, it is all forgotten.

Sometimes she excuses herself for being so old and (physically) slow.

My friend is good at saying the wrong thing, chatting the other day I told her I feared being widowed and she said " don't worry, there is no way you will outlive Mr harri ".

I went to see a GP last week, one I had never seen before and I think she was in her late 20's. My R) ear was clogged, she said she would give me some drops with acid in them. Then she said that people get worried when they hear the word acid. I smiled sweetly and said, "do you mean acetic acid?" That shut her up. I felt she was talking to the mentally deficient. I will not be seeing her again- my usual GP treats me as a human being, with a certain amount of knowledge.

I am a beauty therapist and have some quite elderly clients.
In their nineties.
I think they like coming in because we talk ‘normally’. I do hope people talk to me normally when I get to that age.

When I was coming up to 60, full time deputy head of an infant school, and with no dependent children to support money to spend on clothes and hairdressers, one of my colleagues, having watched me lead the school in exercises to music, remarked “you do really well for your age.” I suddenly felt very old.
Then,
Fast forward ten years to last week. I got on a full bus and stood for a couple of stops. A man I know slightly, a professor ten years younger than me, got on, and a young man offered him his seat!

I have begun to quietly, and courteously take it up with people whenthey are too patronising with me. Seats on trains I accept with a smile, even though it is unnecessary,

Recently I was rung up by someone from the political party I suport, asking if I would sign her nomination papers for the local council. At some point in the telephone converstaion I must have mentioned we were retired. As soon as I said this, her voice changed. She spoke more slowly with the up and down voice of patronage.

When she came round and we had had a chat and signed the papers. I told her how her voice had changed when I mentioned we were retired and recommended that in future she talked to older people in the same way she would talk to anyone else because as an older woman I found this this special voice for the elderly incredibly annoying and so do most other older people. I did this quietly as we walked to the front door.

But I think unless we speak up when faced with being spoken to or treated as if we are mentally deficient and hard of hearing, this behaviour and the mindset that goes with it will continue. Women are in a much better place now than they were 100 years ago - and that is because they stood-up and spoke for themselves. It is time older people did the same.

I know I'm not old yet because my mum is still kicking around at the age of 91!

To depict the other side of the coin, my Dd is a trainee medic. She has lost count of the number of patients who've asked her if she shouldn't still be at school!

Actually, I love going home and putting my jim jams on - dont tell anyone. But, so do my daughters aged 44, 37 and 31!

KatyK
That waitress is just plain rude. I'd have had to say something

Yes dragonfly you have to laugh. My 92 year old neighbour was horrified that her GP referred to her as elderly.

My DH and I have had a good chuckle with your experiences. Just love the comment about the Jim jams!

My dad has bought himself me of those chairs that rise up and sort of help you stand up, he is ninety three.

He says he is saving it for when he gets old!

Dragonfly

I always think that if I was in the news for any reason at all, I be described as a 65 year old grandmother!

I know I am one, but that’s not all I am for goodness sake!!!

I agree Charleygirl My sister said afterwards that she wishes she had said something but I think she was so taken aback that she didn't. Also she's not one for making a fuss.

Even at my advanced age I would have had words with the manager. Totally out of place and to a 61 year old who probably works longer hours than that whippersnapper- she should be taught common manners.

My sister is a very slim, trendy looking 61 year old. She was most annoyed recently when in a restaurant she ordered a dessert and the young waitress said 'aah bless'. Then when she served it to her she added 'I bet you can't wait to get home and put your jim-jams on'.

Bellanonna I do not think she meant it because she was showing me the way to get out of Bond Street station using three lifts,

Until then I have been using the stairs with many people stopping asking if they can help. I am rather too heavy for a fireman's lift which is the only other way down the stairs!!!

Oh what a cheek Charleygirl. ?

I was on a tube on Friday and alighting at Bond Street. A young lady with a pushchair said she admired me for being out and about. Did she think I should have stayed in bed? I thought she was going to fall over when I said I was 75 and had bil. knee replacements. The reason for that surgery was to keep me on my feet!

I have noticed recently that whenever I am on a train or public transport, I always (or nearly always) get offered a seat. OK I am 75, but my hair isn't grey, and you would still need hatpins to secure a hat on me. But I have clearly reached a stage ot ageing were no matter what I do I am still seen as a feeble old woman.