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What did your life look like when you were half your current age?

(99 Posts)
cheeeyboy Tue 12-Aug-25 16:35:17

I was 16 just done my gcses about to go into six form college

Cabbie21 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:16:10

Teaching. Resumed full-time after being part-time for a few years.

silverlining48 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:17:08

Just as well I didn’t take maths, (but clearly needed to,) I was 38 and a bit. About to graduate.

growstuff Tue 12-Aug-25 18:17:45

I was a Yuppie.

butterfly1 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:20:25

37, three children, 10, 7, and youngest 18months. House up for sale with plans to move to other end of country, which we did following year.

silverlining48 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:21:13

Am sure Yuppie stood for something… just can’t remember what, Youth unemployed….? Growstuff, ? .

silverlining48 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:22:19

Young unusually perfect person ….? smile

Kate1949 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:27:33

I was 38, slim with an 18 year old daughter.

butterfly1 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:29:01

Yuppie- Young Urban Professional

Ladyleftfieldlover Tue 12-Aug-25 18:31:21

I was 36 with a 4 year old, 6 year old and an 8 year old. I was a stay at home mum for another year when youngest started school. I helped run playgroup and toddler group, did some secretarial work for the vicar while youngest was at playgroup and did a little childminding too. OH travelled overseas a lot, to places like Nigeria, Jamaica or Lithuania. Our cat was called Blue and we had her before the children.

valdavi Tue 12-Aug-25 18:36:59

I thought it was young upwardly - mobile.

LovesBach Tue 12-Aug-25 18:37:09

Late thirties, two children at senior school, so moving into the workplace again. So glad I couldn't forsee the future, as destructive and painful times were heading our way. We all survived - just, in some cases!

silverlining48 Tue 12-Aug-25 18:37:36

We had a cat which we loved, so thought we might give children a try (never was particularly maternal) but loved them so much when I had them. All thanks to the cat. 🐱

SueDonim Tue 12-Aug-25 18:38:35

1990 for me. Two sons, a toddler daughter, a PT job. We sold our house later that year and moved just round the corner to a house we’d always admired but never imaged we’d live in. We moved again a few years later for work and the people who bought it from us are still there! They were newly weds then - now they have two AC and must be approaching retirement!

In the years after 1990, we had another baby and moved house again plus spent several years living abroad in the developing world. AC all married now with lovely spouses and 3/4 with children.

merlotgran Tue 12-Aug-25 18:41:38

It wasn’t a good year for us. DH lost both his parents and a grandmother and I lost my stepfather and favourite Uncle.
We got through it…like you do.

grandMattie Tue 12-Aug-25 18:45:11

I had three young children, under 6-9. Full on mothering and housewife-ing!

CariadAgain Tue 12-Aug-25 19:04:13

- Not long bought a starter house (very late - courtesy of single/low-paid).
- Was doing what I could to make extra money (eg lodgers) and had had to ratchet up on that, ie because they put the rate of interest up on mortgages a lot not long after I'd bought it.
- Was a pretty full-on activist (ie political activist) and was going through a series of being an officer of this group, officer of that group, coming out with (successful) ideas for improving society that are still going, had a gawd-awful employer who cordially obviously hated me and I hated them (but needs must) and keeping my fingers crossed for a Lottery win to set me free from having to work for them (didnt happen).
- My intuition was starting to kick in and I started occasionally knowing useful things I had no logical way of knowing - but I wasnt going to turn down any help from any direction....and it was a "saving grace" in various ways
- Still half-hoping Mr Right would come along and dating whilst looking for him....but he never did (but I guess you can't say I didnt try to find him). I was still attractive then and living in a city and so I was certainly meeting men....
- Aware my Society had just started to crumble slowly round my ears and go downhill and so trying to do what I could to protect myself from that (whilst still hoping I was wrong...but it was the late 1980s and I wasnt wrong unfortunately and had underestimated, if anything, how bad things would get in that direction).
- That decade of my life was all about developing willpower and rock-hard determination basically - as I knew my life would get "shot to pieces" and it would probably impact me for the rest of my life if I didn't. Put like that - at back to the wall - I learnt....as the choice was "Either I did learn and became very determined/strong - or my life would get 'shot to pieces' and not because I'd done anything wrong".

TerriBull Tue 12-Aug-25 19:20:51

I was 35 going on 36, we'd been in our early 1920s house in west London for a couple of years and were planning a loft extension which we eventually had done amid the chaos. I had one child 3 and a bit who went to nursery in the mornings. I'd just found out I was pregnant with my second he was born just after my 36th birthday. I remember becoming quite large with him he was a big baby when he was born 9 pounds 3ozs, shock but at least I didn't have preeclampsia, as I did with my first. However, I soon went back to size 10/12, it seemed easier then, that was a decade before I got my under active thyroid diagnosis since then it's become more difficult. I was a sahm from the time I gave up work to have my first child until my second went into reception then I went back to work mornings for my husband's firm. I think I look back on those days with fondness. I remember taking the opportunity to sit down at that certain juncture around the middle of the day that coincided with feeds to switch off and watch Neighbours and contemplate life as it was then which tended to include lots of those mother and toddler groups which eventually you grow out of the sheer tedium of the conversation centred around baby stuff at times could become mind numbing.

Calendargirl Tue 12-Aug-25 19:27:35

I was 36, two children 15 and 13.

Loved my job in a bank, ( that changed as the years went by).

DH did shift work.

Lived in an end terraced house.

Visgir1 Tue 12-Aug-25 19:49:20

I was 35 I had a 2year old, I was back to work part-time.
Moved into a much bigger 4 bedroom house. Happy times.

Celieanne86 Tue 12-Aug-25 20:12:09

I was 44 best time of my life. Lovely house, hard working husband, three lovely children, ages 19, 15 and 10 who were all settled, happy at college and school and gave no cause for worry. Still had my mother and extended family living nearby.

Had my own car and profitable business, involved with the local school and church and was able to take children on holiday without husband, he thought holidays were a waste of a good working day.

Yes it was a happy time but it didn't last I was living in a fools paradise but this post has made me think back, the crystal ball lied and life is so very different now but I'm still here 44 years later.

Desdemona Tue 12-Aug-25 20:18:56

Sounds a bit scammy to me. Mind you I am not very trusting.

HowVeryDareYou2 Tue 12-Aug-25 22:01:25

I was 33, married (still am). Children were 10 and 7, I was a stay-at-home mum but volunteered at their junior school (nowadays they have Teaching Assistants), listening to the children read, helping with day trips, watching swimming lessons, devising spelling tests. Mum and Dad were still alive then (at least for a few more years)

ginny Tue 12-Aug-25 22:18:15

I was 35 working part time and had three girls 5, 8 & 11. DH left home at 7 in the morning and arrived home around 7 in the evening so, pretty busy doing most stuff around the home and ferrying the girls around.
I also managed to belong to a choir and another singing group . Was president of a local womens club and a member of a schools parents association and a very active charity group.
Goodness, how did I fit all that in?

Allira Tue 12-Aug-25 22:19:24

What did your life look like when you were half your current age?

Different.

nanna8 Tue 12-Aug-25 23:30:17

4 kids at home, houseful of visitors and a great group of friends. Good old days, very hectic but fulfilling. We used to booze a lot more ant weekends and worked our butts off during the week.