At what age do you actually Call old !

Yes Mae13 I was wearing my spectacles when I read your post and I fully understood what you said.
I responded with my own point of view, which just happens to be different to yours. I acknowledge that you didn't mention health issues etc. But your comments caused me to consider how life has changed over the past seventy or eighty years. These changes are relevant to the topic being discussed as far as I am concerned.

Yes, but what kind of 72 are you? Are you a healthy fit 72 that can run around after children and move swiftly in an emergency and keep going all day, or are you not as fit as you where, find difficulty bending, and feeling exhausted by the end of the day.

I suspect your son's reference to age is really a reference to fitness to do the job.

My son says I'm too old to look after my young grandchildren. I'm only 72! Anyone else have this problem.

My son considers I'm too old at 72 to look after 2 toddler grandchildren on my own! I'm fit and mobile. Anyone else have this problem

My son considers I'm too old to look after young grandchildren. I'm only 72 and fit and mobile!

I'm also very lucky with my health, only needing glasses for reading. No meds, hearing loss or walking aids. Fully mobile and compos mentis.
I wear factor 30-50 every day throughout the year, no make-up, no nail colour and no jewellery bar earrings on a very few occasions.
I'm enjoying life, sleep well and eat moderately but no meat of any kind or shellfish and no alcohol - I dislike the taste.

I'm 80 but I feel about 30 although I'm not as busy as when I had my 5 children who are, themselves, grandparents.
I buy current trends as regards clothing and footwear M&S, Zara, Primark and Massimo Dutti among a mix of other brands. I'm a size 12 and 5-6 so I have no difficulty finding suitable clothes and I have a LOT including boots. shoes and trainers/ pumps, quite a number of items from 40+ years ago.

I am entertained by all the posters who say they don’t look as old as they are and wonder if they are really truthful. At nearly 83 I now admit to being old, not liking it, and realising I just have to keep on putting one (ever slower) foot in front of the other, accepting the need for more frequent little rests.

I think one reason old people are treated with such disrespect and even derision, is because so many old people are not comfortable themselves to be described as old. You only have to read this thread to find the proof of this.

As I say chronolgically you are old at 60. What is the problem in accepting this - and then forget all about it and get on with your life.

If old people stopped being apologetic about their age, we could demand more respect for all the people who take their value of us from our value of ourselves.

@Allsorts, my grandmother was horrified that she was in a geriatric ward during her final illness. She was a mere 90 at the time.!

I recently received a letter from the NHS to attend a specific clinic. The Clinic was called "Medicine for the Elderly" !! I am 67. I didn't know whether to be offended or laugh!! Apparently, anyone over the age of 65 is under that "banner"

I really don't think of age, it is just a number and you can be fitter and enjoy life more at 80 than a 40 year old. It's luck and genes. I'm not as fast as I was but I guess I am old as a friend of mine went into hospital, the Geriatic ward, she is 70 and was more upset at that than her reason for being there.

Age is what you are
Old is what you feel

Aldom

I agree with Kate49, although I am several years older than she is. I'm just me.
I don't go along with what Mae13 says. We live in a time where many illnesses are curable and if not curable, treatable. We are fortunate to be able to hear, using hearing aids. Cataract surgery is common place.
Our generation are not sitting in the corner, blind and deaf at 65/70. Or worse still, dead by 63/64 of illnesses such as diabetes, which caused my maternal grandparents deaths at that age.
We have much to be thankful for.

Er......did you read my post accurately? Where did I refer to hearing aids or cataracts or anything health-related? I was musing solely on the perception of oldcage.
Read it again - with your spectacles......

Milliedog

I'm 73. A few days ago I began a major cleaning out of our kitchen cupboards. Felt great. Yesterday, Long Covid hit again. I thought I'd got over it but I feel absolutely exhausted - not sleepy; just absolutely shattered. And now I feel old....😒

Oh, Milliedog, how I sympathise! I'm 76, and many days feel much younger, but then something happens! In my case it was relatives telling us they are coming for a short visit, so now I have to clear my sewing space for two beds, and I'm back to square one with Long Covid. Currently I'm definitely feeling my age! On the plus side, DGDs think I'm young enough to join in a "let's dye our hair purple" week!! 😍

There was an old jazz musician who was quoted as saying, on his one hundredth birthday " If I'd known that I was going to live this long, I'd have taken more care of myself "

Aldom

A completely different scenario in my family though MOnica.
I am amazed to have reached the age I now am. None of my grandparents, parents generation lived beyond early 60's and very early 70's. Some of my cousins died in their 30's and 50's. I also had a maternal uncle who died at 25.

Yes Alcon I agree with you, not all families are blessed with long lives. Both my parents had died by the time I was 13, they were in their forties.
I didn’t know my grandparents as they also died young(ish).
All apart from my mother died of illnesses that we don’t see anymore, including TB and Polio.
My brother and I call each other on our birthdays and like you share our amazement at having reached our late 60s.

I haven't recovered from the fact that I recently attended a weekend course in a place where I spent time just after I started work at 18 and realised it was 60 years (!) since I had last been there. I hadn't felt old until having a major health problem at the beginning of last year but now am beginning to 'feel my age'.

As I have said on previous threads on this topic, I am not old, just later middle-aged (I was born shortly before D-Day). This stems from a production of Dick Whittington in 1966 in which the chorus sang "What you see on stage is The later Middle Ages: We're off to see the Lord Mayor's Show."

I have just played the “ old and disabled” card to get an earlier delivery. The delivery came today rather than being on the list for next week. If it snows over the weekend I need some gas.

Agree with theworriedwell! Thd older we get - old age is still ahead ! 😀

Defo not 60! People are still working at 66/7!!!

Reply I'm 69... 70 this year, people say I look in my 50's my mindset says 20's 🤣🤣🤣 body says differently.. Age is an Outlook and a number and my friends feel the same.. same age,younger and older than me. To me 80's but as I said it's outlook and mindset

Mine. You know when it comes!

I’m 68 and think I’m young, but I’m the youngest of three siblings. The eldest is 79, in poorer health, and thinks of herself as an old woman.

My mother was the youngest of four. She lived to 93 and was still wondering when she’d feel she had grown up. She thought it would be when she married, and had children… or when her parents, then her older siblings die, or when most of her friends had gone. I expect the dynamic of being the youngest in a family, and always being the “little one” even into adulthood, is a huge influence.