Have we stopped ageing?

Grannyticktock and Anya - I recently retired from teaching at 63, fit and healthy, and I promise you I could not have done a professional job for a lot longer. Simply put, I was losing the ability to multi-task.
If 25/30yr olds are burning out and leaving, why would this be an appropriate job for those 65+?

I agree with everyone's opinion. I am 65 and I worked till 62 but had to retire because od aching shoulder, backache. I look after my grandsons for one or two days...collecting from school and cook dinner. I feel OK but when I am back home I can feel achy, take a couple of days to recover. Eyes not as it were few years ago and the pain is more nowadays. I am a bit/piece of everyone......same feeling. X

I felt about 25 till 15 years ago when had a serious fall which triggered a whole lot of issues. My arthritis is really painful and my get up and go has got up and gone. Gave up work to become carer for DH and DS, but now we all share the caring role for each other. After work for 16 years got my exercise doing a paper round which kept me fit and brought in a bit of pocket money but decided last year that it was a young person's job (no-one else took it on and no deliveries any more). Summer mornings were great, but winter with rain, ice and darkness were becoming miserable. Still don't feel my age, but things I can't do and get tired quite easily. But MIL (85) looks 20 years younger - still drives, still just starting to go greyer but complains that her hair is thinning. I do think that 70 is the "new 50", and most of my 80s friends are more like 60s. But to me this makes sense, since when I was a kid retirement age was seen as "elderly" with possibly 10-15 years ahead while now we're tending to live to 85-90+ as a reasonable life expentancy and a more youthful outlook, fit, active, demanding more out of life.

Totally agree with Anaya's viewpoint. I'm chasing 80 with horrendous speed but very fortunate to have reasonable health. Didn't retire until I was 74 and was inspired into better health practices (losing weight, exercising, eating more healthily) by the arrival of 1st GC at the ripe old age of 73. I had no death wish before but this young lady's appearance spurted my desire for longevity big time. Still able to run around, play chasey and kick a ball about at the moment. The mirror does not allow me any concessions in the age thing unfortunately but I feel so blessed. Go for it those of us who can. Nature is often less kind to many of us but there are also many of us who could improve our lot. It sure does take effort - don't I know it! - but decidedly worthwhile. Go for it ladies but, when you're tired, take a seat or have a kip. Retirement tends to allow that flexibility. Good luck to us all.

My body felt feels as if it was 90 when I was 53 and now I'm 65 it must be well into the hundreds!

I sympathise, Kittylester.

Helped,out with my two year old gs birthday party yesterday, held in the local,park.

On the go all day, and today I am so tired, I feel quite ill.
At 72 years old today I wish I had more energy to cope with younger children. I love seeing him, but only for a short while. The terrible two's temper tantrums have started now as well. I might have coped better at 60 but now over 70, just can't do it. Have to remind my daughter about that.

I'm definitely ageing physically but I like to think mentally I'm keeping up.

Grannyticktock, I agree with you totally. I suffer from exactly those things that you describe now that I am late sixties, and I certainly never had them ten years ago. I don't know how they draw these absurd conclusions! It's all just to save someone a packet of money, that's for sure!!

I have age spots on my face and hands, greying hair and I appreciate a nap in the afternoon. However, otherwise I do not feel my sixty years. In fact I feel fitter than when I retired five years ago. When I compare myself with my mother I would say I am fitter at sixty than she was at forty and I put this down to a mixture of state of mind, level of fitness and health regime. She smoked, drank and gave up and while I have a moderate amount to drink sometimes I have a different mindset and have never touched cigarettes.

Granny, couldn't have said it better than your post. I may look 10 years younger but I know my body is deteriorating. Young people can talk unadulterated rubbish at times but I love to think that one day they will look back and realise what prats they were.

Kittylester has hit it spot on.
Because we have had access to better food and labour saving devices, happily most of us in our 60's today, are lucky to be more able than previous generations were at our age.
But the expression used by the person in the media was obviously nonsense..... it would be like suggesting the 10 year olds of 2017 have not aged/grown/developed since their birth in 2007!!

Quite right Silverlining 48....I had my first holiday/Saturday job at 11... a milk-round... you know the things glass bottles/in metal crates ... that had to be thrown onto a 'milk float' at 4.30 a.m. 7/8 hours later when my day was done I'd walk 1.5 miles home to be allowed to do my chores for mum.Usually brushing down the stairs and landing with a stiff brush and then washing the paintwork of same.... not forgetting the hallway as you went. Then I could go out to play with friends. No probs... I was fit as a fiddle. 53 years of legal/tax paying work followed and managed to fit in the laziest husband in Christendom and two kids. Now two grandkids take up my time and my energy ...what's left of it. Indeed we now have release from 'work' and can possibly relax we've earn it!! Time to get up and start prep for Sunday roast beef and seven members of my family..... Hey-Ho !!

I really do not think such a thing as how people age can be generalised. All of of us age differently, depending on genetics, how we look after ourselves, what our jobs/hobbies are/were. Going through our family history it struck me that all of my grandparents died in their sixties, the previous generation made it into their seventies and beyond. (My grandparents did not have overly physical out door jobs). Our generation probably made good use of our legs, played outside as children. What of the current parents, very few of them walk their children to the school DGS goes to, the smallest journey must be by car. We notice when we take DGS to the park there are very few children out playing. What will they be like in old age? Then there are the numbers of obese children and adults nowadays. In the future lifespan may be generally shorter than now, different variables.

I largely agree with Anya. But does it have to be all one way or another?

I have a friend whose hands have trembled since she was in her 40s and I've worn glasses since my 30s. And i do get tired by the dgc but that's because I'm not used to having them around.

DH did a really responsible job until last year. I think all his patients survived!

We are definitely much more able than the previous generation were at our age.

Anya, not everyone's hands tremble, but some do as people get older. If you reach 70 with the keen eyesight of a 30-year-old, you're extremely unusual and fortunate.

Could you could work a full week in a Reception class and not be on your knees by the end of it? "Unflappable"? I'd be a nervous wreck, as would many grandparents here who find a day with two or three (let alone 30) small children exhausting now.

If you could give CPR to a body lying on the floor, then haul the patient onto a stretcher and help run with it to the ambulance, and keep doing that all day, every day..... well, you would have to be a most exceptional 70-year-old!

Think yourself very lucky if at 70 you still have the mind, body and full faculties of a 40-year-old; most of us find that this is not the case and recognise certain limitations, both in ourselves and in our friends. We may make up for it in wisdom and experience, but there are jobs where these don't count for much, and where strength, stamina and swift reactions are crucial.

My hands don't tremble? I don't need glasses? I'd be quite happy for my GC to be taught by an older (experienced and probably unflappably) granny. And if I collapsed I'd be grateful for anyone coming to my aid.

Bloody hell! This is blatant ageism - from those who ought to know better.

There are some jobs that would be well nigh impossible for most 70-year-olds. Would you want your grandchildren, starting school, to be taught in Reception by someone older than their granny? If you collapsed and had to call an ambulance, would the arrival of a septugenarian paramedic reassure you? Or if you needed delicate surgery, and the surgeon was old, with trembling hands and failing eyesight? There won't be enough "back-office" jobs for all the elderly, and yet they won't be fit for many front-line services.

The phraseology was wrong I agree, but it is true to say that todays 70 years olds are, in general, much fitter than 70 year olds in the past. When I look at old photos of 50 & 60 year olds from the 1950s, as an example, they are old ladies - not only did they look old, but they acted old and thought of themselves as old.

I recently visited a niece I hadn't seen for 40 years. She said 'I was expecting an old lady with grey hair and a walking stick' ?

I'm 65 and working full time. It's not the work I have problems with although sitting at a desk all day is definitely not helping my dodgy hip! Every time I get up for breaks or loo visits, I have to give it time to settle before I can walk. No I find the biggest problem is at home or, if you like, the life side of the work/life balance. When I get home, I'm shattered and I'm really lucky my partner cooks dinner most nights. Fitting everything I need to do into the weekend is becoming impossible and I have had to drop my, never fantastically high, housekeeping standards. I haven't had the time or energy to do any shopping for ages and this recent idea of a 10 min brisk walk each day seems impossible. However I like my job and the team I work with, so I'll carry on as long as I can. Another year will be enough I think.

I'm 80 and looking back to when it all started to go down hill it was at 75. No one who is under 60 can imagine what life will be like at 80-
I was operated on at 72 it was an ear OP so I was bodily still fit and fully dressed in hospital. My entry form had nothing ticked apart from high BP.
As I have just written 75 saw the end of that and when it is hot and humid as it is in S.Germany at the moment I am housebound.
But I:m happier than at 40 or 50!

Well done grannyticktock for noticing that statistical nonsense. Obviously a 70 year old can't be as fit as a 60 year old ten years ago.
20 or so years ago seems more likely.
In my experience (I'm 66) and the experience of my friends and family, in your sixties little problems start creeping in or worsening. Arthritis worsens, new knees or hips, are needed, heart problems or diabetes set in. We're more tired. We're still active usually, but coping with numerous small health issues. Most people I know feel that they couldn't work full time as we near seventy.
I feel very sorry for future generations who will need to work until nearly seventy.

I'm really pleased that it isn't just me who gets tired.

I'm 69 in January and have debated going to the doctor's to see if there is something wrong with me as half a day with dgc floors me!

You are so right grannyticktock. We are just kidding ourselves if we think 60 is the new 70, or 50 new 70 as my sister informed me recently! You are lucky if you remain fit at 70 but it's silly to deny advancing age as some of my friends do. I just feel lucky to be still alive to enjoy life and grandchildren, and however young you may look, and feel, or however many times you go to the gym you cannot deny the fact of aging. Just get over it and enjoy each day as it comes I say. I certainly wouldn't enjoy working into my 70s. Who on their death bed wishes...........??

At 65 I am fit, can do quite a lot but do not have the stamina I used to have. Those just a little younger than me have to work to 66. I was exhausted when I retired at nearly 62 and can't imagine still working full time.

Having posted on the 'what I've done since I've got past 50' thread about some of the upbeat things I've done I'd like to come clean on here. Yes, I've got to grips with new dances of late and lost weight HOWEVER, I've got two hips that need looking after and I certainly can't stay on my feet all day as I used to. My eyesight needs help and I get quite low when my tinnitus seems particularly bad. That being said its great to keep up with interesting hobbies and try new things. I have wrinkles and saggy bits and certainly could not pass for under 50 but I have no intention of having anything artificial done. I will just keep up the activities, be the fittest I can be for my age and stage and balance that with knowing when I need to put my feet up and just chill.
Pretending we do not age is plain daft....we do....we cannot hang around forever....we just owe it to ourselves and those who love us to be as healthy as we can and to still enjoy what we have.
Thankfully we do not now all hit 30 and get a perm and have our teeth out.......but we do have to acknowledge that at 60 or more we are not quite as resilient as we were.