What is Middle Age?

[Bushmiller]

What is middle age? More specifically, when does middle age start and when does it finish?

I have for many years had this discussion with SWMBO, who is famous for saying there are two sides to every argument and you can agree with me or be wrong.

I have a viewpoint on the timelines but I wondered what the rest of you think. I see middle age as possibly the most important period of your lifetime, which I suppose is another topic for discussion.

For most of our forum members you are either right in the midst of middle age with all the associated phobias and mid-life crises, approaching middle age with trepidation imagining the end of the world or you have left middle age for the serenity of the wintery years . I think that's got everybody except for the handfull of teenagers who are clearly old beyond their years for prefering to converse on the Forums instead of playing on their X-box, trawling through Facebook or texting their mates at 100wpm!

By all means feel free to state your age or not as you wish. I am interested to know your thoughts and I will come up with my philosophy too, unless enough of you petition me to keep stumm.

Regards
Paul

[rwbuild]

Middle age is that point 6 months after and before each birthday.

In context of our life's, age is only important for history sake. It has little or no bearing on the future...... "for we know not the hour".....

What we do in life and how we approach it is influenced by our motivation / passion / surroundings / current circumstances, influences how we spend our available time.

What is important is how we treat and interact with people....

[Chesand]

SWMBO used to say that age was just a set of numbers but now that she has passed a BIG birthday I don't think she is so sure.
At 73, I do not class myself as old but rather at the wrong end of middle age.

[Master Splinter]

It's sorta' like Middle Earth, but with less hobbits.

[corbs]

My Dad thought middle age for me was about 7, once I hit 14 that number just went up by .5 each year

[Scott]

Interesting question.

My Dad is 74 and I don't see him as old yet I see other 74 (or so) year olds and think they're about to kick the bucket. The difference here is that my Dad, when he retired, took life by the horns and decided to make the most of what he had (and still does). Is this why I seem him as still 'young'? Which leads me to your question. Middle age, or whatever age you are, is what you make of it. I'm 48, started a family at 42 and feel like I've got so much ahead of me. Given this I feel like I have the wind behind my back and about to say hello to my thirties. I still feel like a rebel, ready to stick my middle finger up at authority and enjoy what I have.

So, middle age is that point from when you are born to when you die. I suppose you could apply this same definition to old age, young age or whatever.

And no, I'm not smokin' anything.

[michael_m]

Middle age starts when you have kids, and ends when they have kids (so I'm in it for a while yet - my oldest is only 5!).

[_fly_]

Middle age is when you stop growing at each and and start in the middle.

[underfoot]

..Middle age is when you do all those fun, stoopid, risky things...or is that teenage?
..This is my new middleage hobby...it reminds me that I still have an adrenal gland...(and a few less brain cells than I had in my yoof)

East coast beach flying - YouTube

[NCArcher]

Great video Undie. Definately a mid life crisis
I'm less than 12 months shy of 50 but I don't feel middle aged. I creak and ache a bit more than I used to and I have a 4 yr old (which accounts for a lot of the aches) so I have a few more years to go before I can relax into middle age.

[fxst]

I was always under the impression that it was the time inbetween the Roman occupation of Britain and the arrival of Normans in 1066
Pete

[_fly_]

I was always under the impression that it was the time inbetween the Roman occupation of Britain and the arrival of Normans in 1066
Pete

Nope that was the dark age, Middle was from there 1066 until 1485 (medievil) .

[Bushmiller]

Ok some interesting philosophies and maxims on life there many of which I would go along with at least in part.

I had in my mind a purely clinical and mathematical view of middle age in my mind when I posed the question. The subject first came to my attention when my wife reached forty. As she is a whole eleven months older than me I took great delight in telling her she had reached middle age. On reflection it is not in my list of smart things that I have done in my life but it did promote vigorous discussion and finished with the only slightly humourous line that I could go and procreate with myself .

My position (on middle age) was that it started at forty and ended at sixty with "young" starting around twenty. I also made mention that this was generous as it created a fourth category of childhood and adolescence up until twenty years.

This was all based loosely on a life expectancy of eighty years. In fact I just looked it up and I see it is 81.7. Presumeably that is an average of male and female. As we all know the fair sex live slightly longer than men (primarily so they can have the last word.)

As a child I remember thinking that fifty five was middle age. I don't know how I came up with that magical figure, but I did and it wasn't until I was an adult myself that I twigged that middle age was an era of your life rather than one year!

I think several have hit the nail on the head, to borrow a woodworking term, in pointing out that age is irrelevant in many ways and more importantly it is the way you conduct yourself. That does lead us, and men in particular, open to the criticsm that growing old is inevitable but growing up is optional.

I view the so-called period of middle age nowadays as a missed opportunity. I have recently taken to describing myself as approaching sixty, but a work colleague was sufficiently unfeeling to point out that you can only do that from your fifties and at sixty two that was another option no longer available to me.

I think whatever age you are and whatever point you are at it is important to be comfortable with yourself. The trick, in principle, means not minding you are 25, 35, 45, 55, 65 etc.. If age worries you, you nedd to spend more time reflecting on things you can change not on something beyond your capabilities.

Thanks to all of you for the replies so far.

Regards
Paul

[jimbur]

Middle age is an extremely short (perhaps non-existent) period between being in the prime of life and reaching old age.
Cheers,
Jim

[springwater]

Middle age is when your middle develops more interest in leading than it has before