Since most people in my family have not lived past 84, I think of myself as middle-aged, at age 42. I am most likely at my half-way point.
What is middle age?
- Thread starter Miss Chicken
- Start date
Middle age starts at 35? Bullcookies. 
With overall better health and longer life spans I'd say middle age is closer to 50 nowadays. I'm 43 and while I certainly don't feel young any more I don't think I'm going "downhill" yet, either, especially as my youngest child is just 11. Besides, as others have stated, middle age is more of an attitude than an actual age.
With overall better health and longer life spans I'd say middle age is closer to 50 nowadays. I'm 43 and while I certainly don't feel young any more I don't think I'm going "downhill" yet, either, especially as my youngest child is just 11. Besides, as others have stated, middle age is more of an attitude than an actual age.
Go to your room son. I'll be 42 in two months and no way in hell am I middle aged. I've got AT LEAST another 15-20 years before that happens.
Completely agree. Middle age = No longer young and stupid
And ends roughly 1453 AD
Gee, you wouldn't happen to be 51, would you?
I would say that middle age is from 40 to somewhere in one's 60's, depending on health/fitness and state of mind.
Going by my body, 35. 
But I didn't really consider myself middle-aged 'til I hit 40. What a crappy age.
Old age? 65 sounds like the border to me, or 70 at the latest. I'll consider myself sliding into old age if I make it to my 65th birthday.
I'm mentally a teenager though.
But I didn't really consider myself middle-aged 'til I hit 40. What a crappy age.
Old age? 65 sounds like the border to me, or 70 at the latest. I'll consider myself sliding into old age if I make it to my 65th birthday.
I'm mentally a teenager though.
Me. I am middle-aged.
Exactly! Wouldn't want to get in a rut, or anything.You are entirely right. I plan to discover and enjoy a series of completely new mistakes!
There are worse kinds of trouble you could be having.
I'm reminded of an episode of Happy Days that I saw in my misspent youth, in which Howard turns 50 and is bemoaning it to everyone. Paraphrasing from a 30-year-old memory of the episode...
Marion: You're not old, dear. You're middle aged.
Howard: Middle-aged?! How many 100-year-olds do you know?
I'm probably technically middle-aged - I'm 44, and judging by my grandparents I probably have another 35-45 years to go. (My maternal grandmother died at 84, my paternal grandmother at about 75, and my paternal grandfather at 90 - my maternal grandfather was hit by a train when my mother was about 4, so who knows how long he would have lived otherwise?)
But I still act like I'm 20 or so, and my last two relationships, over the past four years, were with guys in their early 20s - which helps.
Marion: You're not old, dear. You're middle aged.
Howard: Middle-aged?! How many 100-year-olds do you know?
I'm probably technically middle-aged - I'm 44, and judging by my grandparents I probably have another 35-45 years to go. (My maternal grandmother died at 84, my paternal grandmother at about 75, and my paternal grandfather at 90 - my maternal grandfather was hit by a train when my mother was about 4, so who knows how long he would have lived otherwise?)
But I still act like I'm 20 or so, and my last two relationships, over the past four years, were with guys in their early 20s - which helps.
I'll go with 38-70.
It definitely starts at 38, though. That's how old my next-oldest coworkers currently are, see. As I informed them on their birthdays, their youth is over. It's a good number, too, because I have a ways to go before I get to 38 and they'll probably have gotten Alzheimer's and forgotten all about my little jibes about their ages by then.
The upper limit really depends on how well-preserved you've managed to stay, and can shrink or expand to as low as 55 and as high as 80.
It definitely starts at 38, though. That's how old my next-oldest coworkers currently are, see. As I informed them on their birthdays, their youth is over. It's a good number, too, because I have a ways to go before I get to 38 and they'll probably have gotten Alzheimer's and forgotten all about my little jibes about their ages by then.
The upper limit really depends on how well-preserved you've managed to stay, and can shrink or expand to as low as 55 and as high as 80.
Um, no. "No longer stupid" only happens after you're dead.
And yeah, I speak from personal experience.
Well, don't feel TOO bad. Despite my occasional rantings against the younger generation, I'm 41, and will never mature.
Of course, that's not so much "can't", as it is "absolutely refuse to".
I'd suggest it's traditionally from about 40/45 through to 65/70.
The thing is, people's pattern of life is changing. In the days when someone tended to work at one place from about 25 through 65, it made sense to conceptualise a middle age stretching around the second half of timeframe approximately. However, things are much more fluid nowadays: people move around more, change careers more, and retire both earlier and later. So the psychological concept of middle age has to evolve to meet these changing social patterns.
A more flexible definition would probably revolve around developmental needs rather than chronological age e.g. it starts when a person has been on a stable job/career path for at least 10-15 years, has already begun their family (if they wanted to have one) with the kids are at least in middle school, has lived in a geographical area they're generally happy with for at least 5-10 years, and they're starting to think about how they're going to retire (or change career) in about 15-20 years time. Under this life-event approach, it would end on retirement (or start of second career).
The thing is, people's pattern of life is changing. In the days when someone tended to work at one place from about 25 through 65, it made sense to conceptualise a middle age stretching around the second half of timeframe approximately. However, things are much more fluid nowadays: people move around more, change careers more, and retire both earlier and later. So the psychological concept of middle age has to evolve to meet these changing social patterns.
A more flexible definition would probably revolve around developmental needs rather than chronological age e.g. it starts when a person has been on a stable job/career path for at least 10-15 years, has already begun their family (if they wanted to have one) with the kids are at least in middle school, has lived in a geographical area they're generally happy with for at least 5-10 years, and they're starting to think about how they're going to retire (or change career) in about 15-20 years time. Under this life-event approach, it would end on retirement (or start of second career).
