When Are You ‘Elderly’?

i think anyone over 60 is elderly ..

young= teens, twenties, thirties
middle aged = forties, fifties, sixties
old = seventies, eighties, nineties
elderly = over 100

varian
That makes me middle aged for sometime. Thanks for that ?

Always at least 10 years older than me!

Maybe it’s when you’re proud of your great age - if people ever are nowadays!
As a child I remember a neighbour of a granny who used to say, ‘Seventy-five! - and everybody says I’m wonderful!’ every time you saw her.
75 seems nothing to brag about now, and even then (probably early 60s) I’m not sure it was.
My great-grandfather would have been in his 90s by then - he outlived both grandfathers by several years.

Tweedle24

Those who were termed elderly when pregnant at 28 were doing OK. I had ‘elderly primagravida’ in my notes at 23!

That was in 1968 and I think the average age for first pregnancy has gone up quite significantly since then.

Same for me when I was 23 in 1973. I don’t know what they called me for my third baby at 39.

One proactive response would be a letter to the local newspaper asking for a description of “elderly” and requesting an answer why services vary by age group.

V3ra

I've been on the Tui holidays website this afternoon.
The drop-down box in the "Add Your Details" date-of-birth section gives a list of years of birth starting at 1870.
Now that's old to be still going on holiday ?

Yep, I think I'd agree that anyone aged 150 is indeed 'old'. I recall that my G-Grandparents were born around that time....

V3ra

I've been on the Tui holidays website this afternoon.
The drop-down box in the "Add Your Details" date-of-birth section gives a list of years of birth starting at 1870.
Now that's old to be still going on holiday ?

???

I'm going to the Antarctic on an expedition when I'm 150!
❄❄❄

Same for me when I was 23 in 1973. I don’t know what they called me for my third baby at 39.
Elderly mother!

Elderly is just a state of mind. I prefer to be 'mature' and in my prime. Unfortunately, though, 'geriatric' applies to the over 65s medically.

Hetty58

Elderly is just a state of mind. I prefer to be 'mature' and in my prime. Unfortunately, though, 'geriatric' applies to the over 65s medically.

I think geriatric sounds even worse, oh dear.

Some days I feel elderly although in my head I'm still a spring chicken

WW010

My mum is 98 now and has finally admitted she’s elderly ?. It’s not that long ago she was letting people go in front of her at the post office because they were ‘old’. ?‍♀️

What do you mean "finally"?
She can't have been elderly for more than a couple of years at most!

Hetty and Calli yes a couple of years ago, so late 60’s, my GP referred me to see a geriatrician! I was horrified when I found out!

I was "elderly" primagravida at the age of 25 when pregnant with my first child . I was speechless

I think elderly depends on your own age. When we were 12, my friend and I decided that elderly people should be euthanised as they had reached the end of their life and were a drain on society. Elderly, to us at the age of 12, was 60 (so that would be me a gonner if that had ever come to pass)

Now aged 60, I think of elderly as 85 or older (thinking of my mother in law). But I suspect when I'm approaching 70 that number will be revised

Well it would be more worrying if we were referred to an obstetrician!

Calli

This brought to mind coming back off a cruise with my 15 year old daughter -(she was quite ill that year).
On the way home she mused; "Old people; they're just like us aren't they"
A great fact for her to learn at that age.

I think I will be elderly when I join the local senior citizens club. Which will be never.

I don’t like the word at all but guess it is marginally better than ‘frail aged’. I prefer late middle age up to about 75 I reckon. Could go up to 80 in a few years’ time !

I'm 64. I'm elderly when it suits me, middle-aged when it doesn't!

If you are having a first baby at 35+ you are an "elderly primigravida" (the term is no longer in use - but it is used, nonetheless. So there you are.

My in laws objected to a planning application for a retirement complex in their village on the grounds that it would be full of old people. They were mid 80s at the time.

I have had a number of falls so I was referred to the “fall” clinic. I was taken aback when the appointment arrived. It said geriatric unit! Geriatric, how did that happen?? I’m 75 I now have to walk with a stick but I’m still going strong and do NOT consider myself a geriatric or elderly come to that!

Blinko

In my book, 'elderly' is at least ten years older than me - at any given age.

Absolutely Blinko! Surely there is no other acceptable way to define elderly...