How do you feel about getting old?

[thalassa]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

It terrifies me. Not aging in and of itself, but becoming a burden, losing my independence, and not being able to do the things I love. That's no life, and I hope I'm either in really good shape throughout my life, or I don't make it to the point where I'm decrepit and useless. I'm really trying to make fitness a priority because of that.

this I agree with...

age itself, aging (to a point), thats cool--its like seasoning the soup! making a fine wine!

But...some of getting old just sucks, and there's a helplessness there that is terrifying--elder abuse in nursing homes?

[Dez]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Wow, that's where I'm at, too.

When I was 14, I helped to care for my grandmother as she lost her faculties. I was there in the days she called me by my oldest aunt's name. I was there when she refused any other outside help, and was dehydrated and half naked. I was the person who she knew well enough that she'd let me clean her bathroom and vacuum her floors. Cook her dinner, and make my grandfather turn his hearing aids back on. I biked to her home three times per day for the better part of a year...and wished she would die because it would hurt less.

If I live long enough to loose my abilities, I want to be gone. I can't stand the thought of living that way, and the pain it causes. That scares me more then anything.

[SimplePagan]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I can't say that I'm old, but I am getting older. I just turned 36 and I have three kids (2 step-kids ages 12 and 15, and 1 bio-kid age 3). I have a very close and wonderful relationship with my step-kids ... and I hate the term "step", I much prefer to think of them as bonus kids .

That being said, I'm finding myself just rolling into the "when I was your age" conversations and it disturbs me a little ... I swore I'd never do that. We've had conversations about how there was no Facebook, Twitter, etc. hell we just barely had the internet when I got into high school. I spent my online time playing on a local Wildcat BBS at 3600 BAUD.

However, I am not afraid of growing older. The aches and pains are a reminder that I have lived a full life so far. I've learned some of the hardest lessons, and I dare say that I have experienced more than the average man of my age. I hope that when I'm 46 ... 56 ... even 96, I will have some amazing stories to tell my children and grand children. Growing old is an honor ... an honor you never fully understand until you being to walk away from your "youth".

[Hoho]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

When I hit 30, bring on the botox.

[Bjorn]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

My concern is less and less about my physical well being and increasingly about my mentality. Every day starts to look the same. I know I'll be working a shit job for the rest of my life, day in and day out, without rest or reprieve. The idea that my life is more behind me than it is ahead and all of those things I dreamed of doing are no longer feasible unless I want to accumulate a mountain of debt and be a slave to the system for the rest of my days. The idea that time is running out. That I'm growing more cynical and hateful by the day while others manage to figure out how to be happy.

And then you can add all that "oh shit, there goes my knee/eyesight/perky tits/youthful vigor" mayhem on top of it.

[volcaniclastic]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

My concern is less and less about my physical well being and increasingly about my mentality. Every day starts to look the same. I know I'll be working a shit job for the rest of my life, day in and day out, without rest or reprieve. The idea that my life is more behind me than it is ahead and all of those things I dreamed of doing are no longer feasible unless I want to accumulate a mountain of debt and be a slave to the system for the rest of my days. The idea that time is running out. That I'm growing more cynical and hateful by the day while others manage to figure out how to be happy.

And then you can add all that "oh shit, there goes my knee/eyesight/perky tits/youthful vigor" mayhem on top of it.

Move to Canada. We'll start a farm and sell our goods at the market. We'll be poor, but sufficient. Poor, but happy. And we can take care of each other for all the rest of our days, in our own little cabins, and we will grow veggies, and have goats and chickens.

<3

[Maria de Luna]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

Move to Canada. We'll start a farm and sell our goods at the market. We'll be poor, but sufficient. Poor, but happy. And we can take care of each other for all the rest of our days, in our own little cabins, and we will grow veggies, and have goats and chickens.

<3

but you won't eat the goats or chickens?

[volcaniclastic]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

but you won't eat the goats or chickens?

but the goats make cheeeeeeeese and the chickens make egggggggggggggs

[Bjorn]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

but the goats make cheeeeeeeese and the chickens make egggggggggggggs

And the billies are essentially useless. May as well eat them! You can't breed them with their family members. Well, you CAN, but no. No incestuous goats for me. There are usually people who are willing to trade you or use their billies as a papa for a fee.

And chickens only lay eggs for so long. After that, soup!

[thalassa]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

When I was 14, I helped to care for my grandmother as she lost her faculties. I was there in the days she called me by my oldest aunt's name. I was there when she refused any other outside help, and was dehydrated and half naked. I was the person who she knew well enough that she'd let me clean her bathroom and vacuum her floors. Cook her dinner, and make my grandfather turn his hearing aids back on. I biked to her home three times per day for the better part of a year...and wished she would die because it would hurt less.

If I live long enough to loose my abilities, I want to be gone. I can't stand the thought of living that way, and the pain it causes. That scares me more then anything.

Yeah, for a time I was part of the "team" of family that helped care for my great-grandmother so that she could live in her own home until she passed a way this last spring. On average, it took 3-4 weeks of nagging and cajoling and bribery and finally threatening the nursing home to get her to take her weekly shower. Someone else had to cook her meals, clean her house, take her to the doctor, do the grocery shopping, etc. I don't think, that until you do this for someone else, that you can really understand what its like. Its heartbreaking, and its a ton of stress. And to some extent, you know that their earlier selves would be mortified. I don't want to live like that...I don't want to be a burden on my children and grandchildren. And, TBH, I don't have enough children for that--she had six kids, 30+ grandkids and 80+ greatgrandkids....it took a dedicated team of people to keep her in her own home, working shifts in addition to their own lives.

[Monk]

Re: How do you feel about getting old?

I'm 56 and have more than a few health issues. I have watched both of my parents die in hospice, lost my brother to agent orange, my niece to a drunk driver on her 21st birthday and lost more than a few of my friends. But I'm not complaining, because I don't feel I have that right.