How old is elderly?

Just had this discussion with my mum - she says 85.
For her, it’s been “three years younger than my current age” for the last 20 years.

I’m inclined to think adulthood is 20-90, so 20-45 young, 45-67 middle age/late middle age, 68 and up elderly.

Baggs

As a society we need to stop being ageist, which is what we are when anyone takes offence or objects to being thought elderly.

Exactly. Being old/elderly/what you will is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m 82 and I think that’s quite old. I am not embarrassed to use the word. Incidentally, to me ‘elderly’ sounds less old than ‘old’..

I bet you both wanted to be thought younger than you were at other points in your lives. Perhaps you still do. ?

Elderly is anyone 10 years older than me. This rule will apply regardless of how old I become. ?

Elderly is older than I am

As a society we need to stop being ageist, which is what we are when anyone takes offence or objects to being thought elderly.

Oh, and BTW, if anyone wants to think me elderly, that's quite alright and doesn't affect how I feel or behave in any way at all.

MayBeMaw

Well, I was scandalised when a fellow member of GN (no names, no pack drill, but you know who you are, Ga-g —o ) recently referred to “two elderly people around 65” ????

Actually, I get this. Some people in their mid-sixties do appear elderly. Before I explain why, I'll tell you I'm 66.

Before the pandemic set in, since which MrB has worked from home so I have had the car, I travelled to work five miles along the road usually by bus. Sometime I cycled – until Minibaggs wanted her bike in Edinburgh.

Anyway, I made some friends on the bus because it was essentially the same people every day on the second bus of the day. One lady I got to know – she used to save the seat next to her especially for me ? – was absent for a few weeks and I wondered what had happened to her. She seemed quite a bit older than me, even sounded older in that her voice was quavery as if a little worn out. Anyway, she returned to the bus in due course and it turned out she'd had a heart attack. At this point she told me her age, which was at that time only two or three years older than me. Colour me shocked.

Similary, back in my Oxford days, I taught some Bangladeshi children English in their own home. One day, as well as the children's mother, there was an older lady there who looked worn and wizened. She was the grandma over from Bangladesh and she was, at 45, only three years older than me but looked about 20 years older.

So you see, it all depends

I think medically you would probably be considered elderly after 65, because if you need medication your age would have to be taken into consideration because older people may react differently to some drugs.
However I think what was considered old some years ago, is not perceived as old now, because health and lifestyle has improved and people live longer.
As was mentioned on another thread, ageing is not a disease, it’s a fact of life.

My soon to be 96 father in law talks of ‘old people’ as if he isn’t one. Asked why he wasn’t using the communal lounge in his retirement complex he said it was full of old people so he wouldn’t be going!

M0nica

Factually old age starts at 60. Take average age at death as 90. 0-30 is young, 30-60 is middle age, over 60 is old.

How you feel, how fit you are , how society perceives us, is just that - perception. 'elderly' is a judgement adjective, not based on chronology but how we present.

I began to be treated as if I was elderly around 75.

Average life expectancy is 81 M0nica. I would think that would make anyone over 81 "elderly" but I have friends rapidly approaching that age who don't seem at all elderly so I think if that is elderly you then have another catagory of "elderly frail" as others have said.

Currently, I'm thinking of counting backwards

Depends on your career. For me it was apparently 50, in the IT industry, no-one wants the nana...we're the illiterate ones don't you know....the stereotype.

Here in NZ you are fit for supermarket work and aged caring once elderly.
Sigh...

Well, I was scandalised when a fellow member of GN (no names, no pack drill, but you know who you are, Ga-g —o ) recently referred to “two elderly people around 65” ????

When you can’t do half of what you used to. I can see anyone under 25 would see anyone over 60 as elderly. If you’re fit and lucky to have good health 70 is young. Inside doesn’t always match the face.

I'm 62, and when I saw my GP fairly recently, she mentioned the word "elderly" when she told me about some test results. She then corrected herself and said that medically, doctors say that 65 onwards is elderly!

Blondiescot

Well, a woman who is pregnant for the first time after the age of 35 is described as an 'elderly primigravida'...
Interestingly, one article by the British Geriatric Society said "Western literature arbitrarily defines old age as people above the age of 65. Few authors subdivide old age further as young old (65-74), old (75-84) and old-old (85+)." However, the BGS itself is calling for the medical profession to take a new look at how old age is defined, now that people are generally living longer and are more active and productive into later life.

Yes Blondiescot, DIL was shocked when the obstetrician told her she was a 'geriatric pregnancy' at age 32. Medical terminology of course, but she wasn't happy!

You are as young as you feel and age is just a number!

15 years older than me, so about 85. My mum was elderly by then, my dad was not- he became elderly about age 94.

Depends how old one is. My GS thinks everyone over 20 is old.

Now I am 73 abd really can’t get away with middle age but can’t get my head round ‘elderly,’ even though that’s what I was 50 odd years ago,

Blondie and Monica in the mid 70 s any pregnant first time mum over 25 had Prima gravida (sp) written across the front of her file in CAPITAL letters. I was 27 and remember it well.

Regarding the warning sign for the elderly…..
My DH says he will look forward to being elderly if he is still getting his bum pinched by the ‘elderly’ woman behind him.

I think of 75 as elderly, I do not see elderly as a negative word.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I think it’s based on the individual. My MIL has been elderly in my mind since 60. She is very old fashioned, I saw her as being more similar to my grandparents than my parents. I have a friend of the same age though who is absolutely not elderly, I can’t see myself thinking of her as such for many years to come. I think the differences are level of activity/mobility and the level of busyness in everyday life.