Faffing about in Older Age!

Thank you Witzend, I have bought from them (their bags are very useful too 🙂) but I was determined not to buy more as this is a 'stashbuster' project!

I think faffers tend to be perfectionists. You have to remind them that the perfect can be the enemy of the good

Nope it didn’t resonate with me . I’m very practical and organised and love a list .
Meals , we don’t have set times and now retired sometimes have a late breakfast and miss lunch or a late lunch and miss dinner .
Bins , I check my street , especially my ndn who is a faffer and always has been.
Radio times , never used it. I use the tv guide on the tv . With iplayer and catch up , it doesn’t matter if you can’t watch something in real time .
My DH is a faffer and has got worse as he’s got older . He’s 69. But I and my AC are convinced he’s on the spectrum.
He ticks many boxes .

Glorianny

I don't worry about food- whatever is in the fridge and cupboard, I'm willing to experiment, and I eat when I feel like it. I'm never sure which bin is going out this week, but as mine are never full it doesn't really matter. They go out eventually. Haven't seen a Radio Times for years. Maybe those posting on Mumsnet just know the wrong older people. The rest of us are too busy with other things to "Faff"!!

I do worry about food, more particularly having full fridge, freezer and larder. This paid off during lockdown and recently when I had Covid and flu. Even my husband could produce a meal from our supplies!
I worry less about what I'm actually going to eat, there's always something I fancy.
We no longer use standard television channels, just stream programmes on our smart TV which is great as we can watch the whole of a series when we feel like it - or catch up with the latest episodes of anything that is currently on.
My husband deals with the rubbish and takes pride in recycling much of what we produce!

biglouis

I dont know about "faffing" but I am a planner and an organizer so I have a "to do" list every day which I try to get through. However I dont worry too much if some minor tasks are left at the bottom. I tend to block things off into different compartments of my life and not allow them to overflow. My nephew says I have very male attitudes.

I read threads about people who have an obsession with bins, like my former NDN. She had a mania with bins, drains and rubbish. Possibly because she had dementia coming on for years.

I find the big bins too heavy and clumsy to manage even when empty. So my nephew puts them out for me but only once they are rammed full, which takes weeks. I recycle as much paper and cardboard as possible so my bins take ages to fill. After the bin men have emptied them they generally stay there until nephew brings them back in on his next visit. I have better things to do than mess about with bins.

We have space outside for our recycling bins and a collection every week which I really appreciate. Our landfill rubbish goes in large central bins here, so I can take a carrier bagful over whenever necessary. It's easy to get rid of rubbish here.

DH worries about food now that he's retired, what we're going to eat for our evening meal and fussed quite a bit in the kitchen: he's 73. At 71 I get irritated by his fussing but don't dither, at least not mentally. Recovering in different recent years from hip replacements I have got physically slower and more nervous about being out walking.

Sounds like my dh. Bins brought in the minute they are emptied.
Same food for lunch every day.
Meals at set times and have to finish everything on plate because that’s how he was brought up.
Drives me nuts.

At 73, still working full time, with four dogs and a lazy husband I do not have time to faff! But I think I do things a bit slower now than I used to. I must confess I get really annoyed when behind an older person at the check-out who is taking ages, not merely through arthritic hands but gossiping and joking with the assistant. I try to tell myself this individual is probably lonely, but however lonely I might be I could never enjoy passing the time of day while holding up a queue - but so many seem oblivious!

I'm 82 widow, none of the above bother me and I put the Rubbish bin out every month, the garden rubbish bin every other Wednesday, and the recycling trolley box each week, no trouble at all. I don't have a routine just go with the flow and as little housework as possibel

I can't imagine still working full time at 73. Perhaps it's not through choice.

Grandmabatty

I have always been organised and I still am. I found the Mumsnet thread very ageist and fake 'amused at these old doddery parents '. I suspect it may take some folk longer to make decisions because that's their nature. Nothing to do with their age

I haven't read the Mumsnet page, but suspect that what we are dealing with here is really that at some point when we are adults (for me it was between 30 -40 it was worse) our parents and their contemporaries begin to annoy us.

I felt mine were making endless demands on my time, never realising that I was working full time because they had retired, and seemed to expect that I could and would help them with anything they felt they needed help with IMMEDIATELY.

As a teenager living at home, I had been expected to help promptly when asked (fair enough). This attitude was carried on especially by my mother, at at time in my life where it was no longer reasonable for her to expect it.

This had nothing to do with her getting older or with "faffing about" simply the much more common inability of mothers with grown up children to accept that their children are now adults with jobs and family commitments apart from parents.

So no, nothing to do with aging. If I start something, I still want to finish it fairly quickly. This has always been my nature, as apposed to others, DH amongst them, who are content to take absolute AGES to finish anything they have started ,or to make up their minds.

As yet, at 72, I have not noticed it taking me longer to make up my mind, although not having the strength I had forty years ago, it may take me a litlle longer to finish a project I have started.

Everyone who says they aren’t gaffers. Would you notice it if you were and if so would you admit it ?
I am what I call a glitter. I start doing something then get distracted by something else and so on. If I’m not strict with myself I can go through the day doing lots of half jobs. I don’t remember this from being young.
Does anyone else recognise this trait ?

That should read flitter.

I always have lots of "jobs" on the go, all at once.
I'm painting my kitchen cupboards as we speak.

I find it incredibly boring though, so I need a sit down and a distraction.

Until or unless anyone pays my mortgage then I couldn't care less if they find it annoying.

Anyway, my mortgage is paid off. (Very humble brag)

Have to admit to stressing over the minutiae, things that I wouldn't have given a second thought to before DH passed away do prey on my mind nowadays. On the plus side never worry about food or bins and don't have set days for doing things,

Pippa22

Everyone who says they aren’t gaffers. Would you notice it if you were and if so would you admit it ?
I am what I call a glitter. I start doing something then get distracted by something else and so on. If I’m not strict with myself I can go through the day doing lots of half jobs. I don’t remember this from being young.
Does anyone else recognise this trait ?

Oh yes. That’s me too. And I know I’m doing it but can’t stop. I’ll come upon something that I started doing ages ago but stopped without finishing it.

I am not a faffer and don’t have any routines except for the days I mind my granddaughter. I tend not to worry about things that I can’t do anything about and decide on when to eat and what to eat when I’m hungry . I only ever bought the TV Times and radio times at Christmas, in fact I now have Sky Glass which
Is more of a streaming service so I tend to watch what I want , when I want .

I don't understand the general attitude to the Radio Times. I get it every week and enjoy reading it and sometimes highlighting tv/radio programmes I want to watch/listen to. Similarly I have a house diary and kitchen calendar so that I can see at a glance what's coming up. Also have an address book. DH does all this on his phone but I prefer a more "hands on ' approach I don't see this as old fashioned. I love my phone/tablet/laptop and use them every day. I like having some routines- swimming/volunteering but am more than happy to go off piste. Are these traits that people consider doddery? I'm 72 and it's only my body that sometimes feels bit ancient. DH is a bit obsessed with the bins but I'd rather that than us forgetting to put them out.

I'm sure if I had the radio times, I'd see more of the programmes I'm interested in, actually.

I have always relied on a paper diary. I once had an assistant who insisted on using the diary function on her computer. One day the Wi-Fi went down. She was in a real mess.

I have a paper diary, too.
I like things to be written down, in my own writing, on the days i have appointments.

MissAdventure

I have a paper diary, too.
I like things to be written down, in my own writing, on the days i have appointments.

I have had one for the past 30 years and have them on my book shelves. We used them as CPN's and had to keep them for a number of years for legal purposes
I jot down ideas, recipes, images and keep it by my bed..wouldn't be without one

I've got a paper diary, week by week. We can both refer to that, it's in the kitchen.

It's not faffing, sometimes the old ways are the best ways, and quicker. In fact, I think my DD and DIL all use paper calendars too, everyone can see what the others are doing and who has to be where etc at a glance.

Yes me, but I have always been like this.

Can you explain why please? If you dont mind at all?
I dont quite understand.