Women, it's time to age disgracefully

Ah, thank you, Ana - hadn't noticed that. I was just idly pondering, as tends to be my wont!

Young, not going!

I felt invisible in my 20s on occasion, for all the wrong reasons. My first career was in accountancy, not horticulture, and I was sent along to a dinner for the local chamber of commerce to represent the large company I worked for, as my boss's wife had a baby that day. I was seated at a table of middle-aged men who all looked at me briefly in disgust. It was pretty obvious they thought my boss had sent his secretary - yet most of us must be aware that secretaries can be pretty powerful and know lots of exciting titbits! Having long blonde curly hair and big boobs obviously eliminated all chance of my having any brains, as far as they were concerned, and at 25 I was nowhere near as confident as I was at 40. We were at least halfway through the meal before I was able to get a word into the conversation. I bet they would have treated a going male differently, but if it had been all ladies instead, they would have been drawing a young male out right from the start and teasing him. That dinner still rankles. But it made me very determined to introduce myself loudly after that when I met new people.

I hadn't noticed it was 2014! My head is so last year!

I think sometimes members (possibly new ones) trawl old threads from the Forums list and post on ones that take their fancy!

The deleted post was in July, Ariadne...

Isn't it funny how, a year later, a thread can re-emerge? Suppose it was the deleted post that bumped it up!

I was pregnant when I was a year older than Bronwen.

I like the poem too- I shall aim for it when I am old i.e if I get to 90+

I think that everyone feels some depression as they get older- generally I banish it but it comes back every so often. The writer is almost 39yrs and looking to be 40yrs where you can't pretend to be young. You can feel young inside but the world won't.
The thing that cheers me up is that everyone will experience it, if lucky- the alternative being death.
I don't let it stop me doing things - in fact it makes me more determined to have a go! I get very irritated by comments like one on another thread where someone says that self service machines in supermarkets are for the young!! I couldn't work out whether she was serious or not.

I don't think Bronwen can know many people over the age of forty five. She has no idea!

i like the poem,YaYaJen. It made me laugh. Thanks.

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Mine were 10 and 12 and I had just returned to full time work with a new professional qualification and a new job after 5 years working part time and studying part time.

Child bride that you were, Ariadne! However, I don't regret doing it the other way round and having all my fun in my 20s.

When I was 40, DD was 21, DS1 was 17 and DS2 was 16! Didn't mean to do it that way, but it worked out very well as far as my career was concerned, because I got my first degree when the boys were small, having never worked before, and began teaching.

Yes, I don't care for the wrinkles - but what a story they could tell!

At 39 I had a 6 and an 8-year old. They probably aged me.

(Kept me young, he did)

(I think!)

I had a two month old baby.

At 39 I had a five month old baby!

Yep! DD2 gave me a pot of Oil of Ulay for my fortieth birthday.

And in turn, I remember son in law giving DD1 something similar, although much more expensive, for hers. She secretly gave it to me.

brings to mind a gift from DD... when in my 30's studying at university 45 mins drive away, working pt as company secretary, full time mum and with a partner who worked away a lot ( a blessing at times) and a social life including demos for my birthday DD about 12 year old, gave me a pot of wrinkle cream. It had never crossed my mind that I was old enough to need such products but I think that gift illustrates the way many younger people view older people - as old with all the negative connotations that little word can convey.

My two DiLs, in their early 40s would, I am sure, treat this woman with the withering contempt she deserves. At that age, I was busy with two kids, several part-time jobs and organising events for Amnesty International. Didn't have time to think about ageing. Perhaps the first thing that made me feel like an adult was my mother's death when I was 43!

I was having a pretty enjoyable time, between husbands, when I was 39 and didn't feel a bit worried about being 40. But maybe if I had been "partying" (i.e. smoking, drinking etc) for 20 years then I would have not felt (or looked) so youthful.