How OLD is it when you consider people being old

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Had this chat with some friends recently. In particular a guy - Graham- whom we haven't seen in ages. When I was younger I thought 60 was old and to be fair I still do.. Reason it was relevant to Graham was that around 25 years ago he was struggling with his fathers dementia. We remembered him saying its ok that people are living longer but. The but being that bodies might be lasting longer but seems minds aren't.
I know it isn't as simple as that but personally I cant imagine being 80 odd. We have had chats with our children over this. It's odd as well sometimes at school. So many parents of the 6/7 year olds are only mid even early 20s.
We have never heard anyone confusing us with grandparents but we have some friends similar ages who do fostering and they have been subject to the your too old to do it call
 
70 for me, I keep moving the goal posts though. Lots of people still working in active careers in their seventies. My GP is in his seventies, he is useless now though tbf.
 
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Yel

Moderator
People's minds are probably giving up from all the toxic household products, microplastics in food, artificial food and long times sat around doing nothing.

70 is old to me. Not sure what will happen now retirment will be a thing of the past for many people and life expectancy for the first time is beginning to fall. It's going to be rough!
 
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I see 60 as being older, but not old. Most people are still working at that age and doing just fine. I'm in my 40s and feel pretty old due to chronic health conditions. My parents are 80 and 85 and still kicking around doing stuff. In the past couple of years they have both had major operations and recovered well. Sure, they are old. My mum felt okay in her 70's but when she turned 80 she has started to worry because "people die when they are 80-something". It was hard to hear her say that. Her mother died at 84, so I can understand her fears.

Generations below me have grown up with phones glued to their ears, and cheap, fast food. (not everyone, of course) Heaven knows how that will catch up with their health and brains in the future. Like Yel says, it's not going to be pretty.
 
I remember clearly being 12ish and saying I didn’t want to live until I’m 40. It seemed ancient to me at the time ?

Now I’ll be 37 in a couple of weeks and I still feel like a teenager in my head
 
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I'm in my early twenties and I think 60+ is old. 40-50 is middle aged lol ?

Can we get this troll banned please, she’s crawled in from nursery and the hips don’t let me bend down to pick her up and return her ? maybe after my nightly hot toddy.
Actually I felt middle aged at 22. Life is quite long these days. All these 24 hour days add up.
?
 
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I find this a hard one because I work with the elderly and I find if I have a patient in their 70s who passes away I can still think "but they were still fairly young."
I usually think of old as in 85+ and it's probably because I've worked with some pretty sprightly 100+ year olds 😂
 
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I’m 42 this year and really struggle to think of myself as old. Old to me is 80+
HOWEVER...I work with people who are 21, 29 and 30 and they seem “young” to me and some of the tit they come out with makes me feel old and wise 🤣
 
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I’m 27 and my parents are 55 and seem really young and youthful still so I feel like around 80? Some 60/70 year olds are still very active and working etc so nowadays I’d probably say 80+ one of my aunts is 73 and still mistaken for about 50! She looks great and never sits still! So I wouldn’t see her as old really! X
 
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I find this a hard one because I work with the elderly and I find if I have a patient in their 70s who passes away I can still think "but they were still fairly young."
I usually think of old as in 85+ and it's probably because I've worked with some pretty sprightly 100+ year olds 😂
I agree. I don’t think 60 is old because if someone dies in their 60s or younger I think it’s too young to die. In my head, I think thats down to the retirement age. If you die 60s or younger you’ve not had a chance to enjoy it.
70s is old but 80s+ I would class as ”having had a good innings!”
 
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I'm not sure - my gran is 91 and still goes shopping every day but she looks so fragile, she's had some nasty falls lately and I'd hate to be that vulnerable. So I suppose I think 91 is old lol. My mum died at 60 and she was too young. Sometimes my gran thinks I am my mum ❤
 
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I’m 25 and have felt old since age 21-22. I know how ridiculous that is in hindsight. I’m a self conscious person and I think what made me think that way was starting uni late and being 3 years older than my classmates (the gap in maturity was more than expected). These days I have moments of thinking that I’m actually still fairly young and it shocks me

If I was describing someone as ‘old’, they’d probably be 70+? It’s hard to say really as people the same age can be wildly different
 
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I work with the elderly & a few of them are in their late 90s & I find them still quite young! Sometimes I don't think it's the age as such but perhaps how they act. But for me, probably 90s is old!! My grandad died at 69 and I feel that is a young age to die.
 
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My gran is 96 and still lives by herself. She has help come in every day. I think that is very old and I am not sure I would want to live that long. She herself keeps saying people are not meant to get that old. All her friends have long passed.

I think it depends on the person rather than the age. Some people look very old and unhealthy in their 50-60s and some people look great at 70.
 
Elderly to me is 75+. Also, at what age do we stop describing people as ‘babies’ - I don’t mean in Afacetious way but when people absentmindedly say ‘ah you’re still a baby yet’.
 
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It's funny as when i was younger, i thought 30 was old then when I got to 30 I thought that was young! I remember being friends with a couple in their 40's in my 20's and they mentioned having sex and I found it bizarre to think they still had sex in their 40's but as you age, you start to realise the ages you used to think were old aren't!

Like a friends Dad who died in his 40's i still thought that was old but of course it's not when you get into your 40's and still feel young.

At the moment I would say 80 is old but no doubt if I get to that age I'll think it's still relatively young!
 
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