<p>As I am approaching 53, I am starting to realize that I am getting old. I am beginning to feel like I am closer in age to my mother than my daughter! Just last week as I was stepping up onto the curb, I tripped and fell landing on my elbow and knee. My husband and I were with 2 other couples, so they proceeded to tease me the rest of the night that I needed one of those alert buttons; the “I’ve fallen and can’t get up!” monitors. I wasn’t hurt luckily, and the teasing was all in fun. Then 3 days later while walking the dogs, they caught sight of a coyote and try to bolt. I was able to hold on to their leashes, but they were able to pull me down and drag me about 20 feet! I had on shoes with no traction and was standing on damp leaves, so I didn’t have a chance to stay on my feet. Landed on my left thigh/butt and again I am fine other than a bit of road rash. Two falls in only a few day did not make me feel like the agile young woman I wish to be.</p>
<p>I hear myself saying things I use to hate coming out of my mother’s mouth. My children are old enough to have their own lives, so being will old mom is not on the top of their to do list. I look forward to going to bed at night, yet I don’t stay asleep too long; several bathroom breaks during the night keeps me from sleeping through the night. A night out for my husband and I consist of dinner and home to wash up, watch a show on tv and go to bed. </p>
<p>There are of course thinks that remind me I am still young:
I have been known to roll my eyes when my mother tells me something; I just have enough sense at my old age not to let her see me!
My kids listening to my music, but I also listen to some of theirs.
I can text with the best of them.
Not that I have ever done it, but I could probably drink my daughter under the table.
According to my daughter, I don’t dress like an old lady.
I still watch the same soap opera I watched in high school-OK, maybe this one shows I am old!</p>
<p>I think I feel like I am a young 50 instead of an older 50, but as I age, I am reminded that I am not getting any younger. Adults in their 50’s do seem to be so much younger that the 50’s of my parents generation. I always thought my parents friends in their 50’s were old fart, yet I think my kids, and their friends, think their parents are pretty hip; that really showed my age by using the word hip didn’t it?</p>
<p>I completely get how you’re feeling, snowball. I’ll be 50 this year and I’ve been having the same kinds of thoughts. I haven’t fallen down or anything although I’ve always been clumsy but I’ve always thought of people in their 50’s as old so that must mean that now I’m…old.</p>
<p>I know what you mean about sounding like your mother too. And a big night for hubby and I is exactly what you described!</p>
<p>In some ways though, I’m so much more content with my life and myself now than I was years ago. I think now I realize where the real priorities in life are. And I enjoy the little things more like sitting on the back porch with our little dog watching the ducks and geese on the pond…but that sounds old doesn’t it? Ha I think getting older sometimes makes you more mellow…at least it has us.</p>
<p>My husband keeps saying he hopes DD doesn’t wait too long to give him granchildren or he’ll be too old to enjoy them…but she’s heading into a doctoral program so that could be a ways off.</p>
<p>When I hear someone is 50+, my mental image is of someone much older than me. This year, I’ll be 51! </p>
<p>Sometimes, if I’ve been sitting too long, I hear myself making the same as my mother when I stand up. Sort of a little efforting noise. Then I shuffle bent over for a few steps before I stand up. How can this be happening to me? I do yoga!</p>
<p>rodney- My husband and I both watched All My Children, Another World and Ryan’s Hope in high school and college. We use to gather in the frat house’s tv room and watch with a crowd. As All My Children is the only one still on, that is what I watch. Before becoming an empty nester, I would catch it at most once a week; now I actually watch/Tivo everyday. It is always funny when my husband is home and sees one of the older characters; he will always ask what has been going on in the story line. My daughter makes fun of me when she is around and I am watching; she thinks soap are stupid!</p>
<p>I’m 50 and while I’m not particularly happy with my face anymore, my body is still working for me. Or, rather, I work for my body. I work out like a mad woman almost everyday - it’s a big effort and not for the faint at heart, but I’m energized and I feel the same as I did 20 years ago.</p>
<p>I am 55. 55!
I started a new career at 50.
I just lost 40 lbs.
I am pulled in so many directions-maybe not as many as when I was a mother of a young child-but I feel very pulled: empty nest, involuntarily retired husband, very young staff at work, lots of work responsibility, many work hours in the context of lean and mean economy…
So. I am tired. So very tired. I miss many of the things that I used to enjoy. But this new career business is quite invigorating.</p>
<p>Still, I am tired, and I miss having other dimensions in my life. (I’ll talk about sore hips in another post!)</p>
<p>Well, I will be 58 in a couple of days, so SOME of us aren’t giving you any sympathy! :)</p>
<p>Snowball - thank heavens you weren’t at the Met!</p>
<p>Mafool, talk about changes in your life. It is amazing how new mental tasks and new people are invigorating. They can be also be exhausting. </p>
<p>What I have discovered is that I need sleep or time to rejuvenate more than ever. When I don’t - then I feel old. I can get totally overwhelmed and almost depressed by the demands on me. But if I am well rested, I feel really good. I forget how old I am. </p>
<p>Over on the health, exercise, good living thread we talk about all sorts of things we should do to stay at our best. I need to add one more ingredient and that is sleep.</p>
<p>w’n’p–you have greater “maturity” than I do (NOTHING to do with age). I need the sleep, too. I am not as good as I could be in getting that sleep. Room to grow.</p>
<p>Oh, Mafool, your are giving me waaaay to much credit. About two weeks ago, I had a meltdown. I just felt sorry for myself, I didn’t really like anyone in my family, etc., etc. And then it hit me - I hadn’t had a good nights sleep in about a week. One night, two nights - that’s okay. But it had been too many nights. Fortunately, the only one who saw me having a tantrum was my DH who has terminal optimism. You could strangle a guy like that.</p>
<p>So, for what it’s worth, to my younger “sisters” we need our rest.</p>
<p>I’m 50 also, and when my mom died at 65, it didn’t seem so very young. Now, I am anxious about dying at 65 , which doesn’t seem very old at all.</p>
<p>Agility is one side of the coin. We tend to think of ourselves in comparison with the very young up through teens and the truth is they don’t generally weigh as much as they will as adults. You can fall at 60 lbs and the effect is different than at 130 lbs. It’s also very different jumping off a wall at 130 lbs than at my 170 and I jump off walls all the time. </p>
<p>How often do you see a person in their 30’s fall? Not often. But kids fall all the time so we imagine them and they weigh less and usually are closer to the ground.</p>
<p>It’s so nice to have so much in common with so many on CC!</p>
<p>I have just been thinking the last few days how, for the first time, I am really feeling my age. I will be 50 in a couple of months. 2 weeks ago I got the flu and I am just now starting to feel close to normal. This has totally wiped me out; any other time I have had the flu I have bounced right back, but not this time. Also, I barely ate anything for at least a week and yet only lost a couple of pounds. Also unusual for me.</p>
<p>Also, my neck is starting to have that ‘old person’ look to it. Argh!</p>
<p>I agree about the bouncing back taking longing as we mature. Besides an illness taking longing to recover, I seem to be wiped out after travel, especially plane travel. It seems I need a vacation after the vacation! Does anyone else have trouble with plane travel? I don’t know if it is the air on the plane or what, but the day after flying I just can’t seem to get it together.</p>
<p>Im a little concerned about dying at 65 too. My grandmother died at 86, my mother died at 75, and I have osteoporosis at 52 and I haven’t even started menopause yet.</p>
<p>But I also spent the day with people my age and younger at an environmental educational conference waay outside of Seattle where the closing speech was given by a man much older than me, who didn’t even lean on a podium or use note cards.</p>
<p>( Of course Bill Ruckelshaus probably started out with more little grey cells than me in the first place but still an inspiration)</p>
but still an inspiration)</p>