Have we stopped ageing?

I'm glad it's not just me! I am 68 in November but keep very (very) busy and active every day. Sometimes though I do feel tired and like another G'netter thought about going to my GP as some days I do feel tired out. I have a husband who has had a heart attack to keep an eye on and a lively grandson who I care for a lot plus sleepovers. The thing I find is that adult children and their families think you can go on forever doing big family meals, "let's all meet up at your house mum" etc when in fact I find it hard work. I do notice that after catering/organising en famille days the following day I feel "wiped out". No one ever thinks perhaps we might like to be asked over for a coffee/drink (never get meal invites). When I think of how my mother/aunts were at my age - they had settled into "little old lady/grandma" roles....not me! We just need to"cut ourselves some slack" and if we need to put our feet up with a cup of tea/gin and tonic in the afternoon I say we deserve it! Make time for yourself.

Watching old cine films of our parents made us realise how much older in looks they were and we are now decades older than they were when the films were made. OH says he started slowing down at 68 due to various medical problems me due to fall and broken bones, really slowed me up, however, we are out and about a lot more than my parents at the same age.

I agree that even though we may look younger and have much better health care than years ago, we still have age related problems. I am 69 and for my age look ok but in the past 6 years I've had surgery for cancer and two hip replacements. I have had to fight my way back to health and I am reasonably active and look after my GC two days in the holidays and pick one up from school once a week and take him to some after-school activities. I'm a taxi for my teenage GD's and friends,I love being involved in their lives and and they know they can phone me anytime 24/7 if they are ever "stuck" anywhere. I am pleased to be healthy enough to be a support to my family but working would be out of the question.

Should mention though that I am treated very well by son and daughter and families. Son does lots of jobs for me around the house and anything to do with my car. Daughter invites me for lovely Sunday lunch every couple of weeks. Feel very blessed.

So pleased to have read your post Grannyticktock. Whilst I agree that many people 60+ look at lot younger than they did, bodies are still slowing down and getting illnesses and deteriorating just as they did in the past.

I feel for people who have had their working life extended. Many women have had retirement deferred twice now. I've had the dreaded arthritis since early 50s, but many suffer with it in their hands and shoulders by the time they reach 60. Which can make even an office job very painful. I wanted a change from office work several years ago and after a couple hours of picking up the lightest of things I was left barely able to walk from standing for 3 hours and couldn't pick up the kettle or a book for several weeks after. You cannot even see that I suffer with arthritis!
However I think of those people who build and lift heavy things, the sort of jobs that most men do for a living. How can they keep working when often the hands are too painful to lift things as they did and they have bad backs etc. My father had an engineering business and had to retire a couple of years early simple because lifting heavy castings etc made his hand too painful and swollen. It's all right these politicians keep extending retirement, they have Directorships and fingers in many pies that they can eventually just work the hours that suit and no heavy lifting or sitting at a desk for hours at a time.

It's about time we were able to speak up for the man in the street!

You're right, Anya, (oh, and I liked Y6 too, especially the boys at that age!): part time work should be made more widely available. There also needs to be a radical rearrangement of working practices so that people who need the money are able to do jobs that are comfortably and safely within their capabilities as they age. Waiting until they give up because their bodies and minds just can't cope, and then refusing them any benefits on the grounds that they're"fit for work" is simply cruel, and inflicts hardship on people who don't deserve it.

Retail is indeed an option; a relative of mine who works as a manager for a large supermarket chain says they'd rather employ over-65s than under-25s on the tills, as they are more likely to turn up on time and not have mysterious Monday-morning illnesses, and they're often more comfortable making small-talk with the customers.

In teaching, though, as in other child-related work, even if you have the physical and emotional stamina, there's a whole world they have to navigate that older people know little about. Social media, messaging, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Instagram .... then there's "sexting", and online pornography available in forms we never dreamt about. Adult who are closer in age are more likely to be able to keep up with this and know how to educate and prepare young people for the adult life ahead, which will be worlds away from ours when we grew up in the 1950s/60s/70s. Some jobs are best left to the younger generation.

I think all this "70 is the new 60" is just nonsense as I think every poster here has said.

I think too there is an element of justifying the lack of funding investment and cuts in our local authority funding and stagnating economy may be one of the excuses politicians make for supporting these daft ideas.

Not read all the posts, but I'm sure someone will have said - would you like a 65 year old fireman/firewoman dashing into a blazing building - obviously with his glasses on, and having had his knee or hip replacement done to keep him/her at work.

I think basically nearly everyone over 65 is in agreement that it is problematical to visualise working until one is 70. (I know I am thankful that I don't have to). The problem is how do we convince the politicians that putting up retirement age is a bad idea?

Nearly all European countries either have raised retirement age, or are doing so gradually. They all have a greater or lesser number of young people out of work, or who have never been able to get a job and so have no experience to write in their applications.

BUT the politicians do not seem able to see that if the 20-30 year olds cannot get work, then it doesn't make sense to keep the 60-70 year olds at work.

Surely the birth rate will fall even more drastically, if young people cannot get jobs - the more sensible of them will hesitate to bring children they cannot support into the world.

Someone I know has worked as a moulder, one of the heaviest jobs in a foundry. He had to give up on health grounds at age 62. There 's surely no way HMG can expect people in these physically demanding jobs to continue till they're nearly 70. As people have remarked on this thread, it's hard enough to keep going through your 60s at optimum efficiency in the professions or administrative work.

I understand that in some other countries, pension arrangements are such that you can 'wind down' as you approach retirement age, gradually going part time till you stop work altogether.

If other countries can make it work, why can't we

We may be healthier but I find at 80 that I am often the oldest because I don't always do things that my generation does.
If I go to classical concerts I am with people like me, nicely dressed but all with grey hair and men wearing a tie.

In the French class they can hardly believe that at 80 I am as good at French as they are. They can hardly believe a person should want to learn French at this advanced age.

I remember my grandparents being old and tired but if I had done all the washing by hand in a house with coal stored in the kitchen and the dust that that made, I know why they were tired.
So our generation is always going to appear younger and fitter than our parents and we had a good healthy diet but this generation will not make old bones like we have done.
This 70 is the new 60 will soon stop as the poorly nourished obese children of today get older.

Most likely just 'spin' to justify raising the retirement age for women like me to 66 - I have worked all my life as an NHS wage-slave and was looking forward to putting my feet up at 60! No chance - I'm still working full-time! That said, it's an incentive to keep myself fit so that I can still do all the things on my 'bucket list' - except I'll be doing them later than planned!

I quite agree grannyticktock. I am 72 and I know I am slowing down.

My husband is disabled (statins!) so we asked man who comes once a year to trim the lelandii if he knew anyone who could erect a flat pack plastic shed for us. "No problem at all" he said and arrived with two nineteen year olds to do it. They disappeared round the corner of the house with the box and all went quiet. 15 minutes later Mr Smith (2 ffs) was back. "No, sorry" he said "can't be done. Its all in Chinese and there's hundreds of bits". DH was furious and after two weeks acknowledged he couldn't find anyone to do it. My daughter (50) looked at it and said she thought she and I could do it. And we HAVE!! I'm delighted. But we managed it in half a day. I'm 72!

I am just about to turn 70 next month, I do yoga classes about 6 times a week so quite flexible, I also meditate every day, I think no matter what aches and pains you have, if you can have a positive mindset and a can do outlook, it's amazing what you can achieve, at my yoga class I mix with all ages and at times I think There is not a lot of difference between all of us, sometimes there are younger people who struggle to move their bodies as well, so I believe in positive thinking and not giving in to thinking I am old now so I can't do that.
I do realise that not everyone has the health to do certain things but sometimes if you think you can do, you may amaze yourself what you can achieve

This is all a wicked plot to keep us in the employment market until we drop. I was a teacher and it is now much more a young persons game. I was part time for the final 3 years of my career and still exhausted at the end of a day. I love being retired, am very active and support elderly mother and grandchildren. Who will do all that when we're all working until we're ancient? Grrr!

I don't see the problem in slowing down and taking things easier if that's what is needed, or even just wanted. I have no intention of not ageing, just because experts say I shouldn't.

Anyone who thinks we aren't as old as 'old ladies' were in the 50s or 60s, should ask a child of the age we were when we formed our impression of what an 'old lady' looks like. My granny used to wear directoire knickers that came down to knee level, plus a girdle, if not a corset - I certainly wouldn't have dreamt of asking her. She also wore tweed skirts, and commonly wore a hat indoors, as well as a hairnet. She was 52 when I was born. As far as I was concerned she's always been old, and had lived her whole life before I was born in black and white. I've no doubt my young grandchildren feel the same about me, though maybe not about the black and white. When I recently revisited some of my wedding photographs from 1976 I was amazed to see how young some of my 'elderly' relatives looked - only their clothes and hairstyles were old-fashioned, as indeed were everybody else's. As we age, so do our friends, and it is so gradual we don't notice that immediately. And we may live longer, but that's because of better nutrition, public health, and medical treatment with the advent of the NHS, as well as tireless research into ways of reducing mortality at every stage of life. 'They' are just trying to convince us we're still young because there isn't enough money to pay for pensions in an ageing population. We're healthier, yes, but just as old as people our age ever were.

I couldn't agree with you more. For every 60 year old who is as fit as a flea there's another who's really feeling her age. Perhaps they're trying to make those of who are happily retired to feel guilty for not still pushing ourselves off to work? I feel reasonably all right but I know I'm slower mentally and am more forgetful. Those stairs feel steeper, I've more aches and pains etc, etc. I feel like telling them where to get off.

I am shocked at how simple things tire me out at 77.
My mother and my mother in law both lived well into their nineties, and were looking after themselves almost to the end...washing, dressing, taking part in preparing meals, handling entertainment, and I had looked on this as the norm.
I really can't see myself being as independent as they were in twenty years

Is it fear of becoming redundant that people fear age? that they may become useless and a burden [certainly it is for me].
All the other noughts haven't fazed me in the least - I'm 70 next year and am dreading it. It feels really old.
I'm in excellent health, don't take any pills, am flexible and mobile and yet... I find I get tired very easily. If i do a lot during the week, it takes me more than just the weekend doing "nothing" [apart from cooking, washing etc.] to recover. I'm asleep by 9ish, and find it hard to motivate myself to do anything.
I am so sad for my DCs and the younger ones having to work until they die.
We mustn't forget that farming, labouring work is hard and people wear out. DH helps people filling in forms for Attendance Allowance at our local Age Concern and is always surprised at how young a lot of the applicants are [we live in a rural community]. I keep on reminding him that labouring is jolly hard.

I work in care, so will probably end up lifting around people the same age as myself..

My DH says I am a "medical phenomena", I worked until 73 as an agency Nurse, working most weeks three days, I loved it and didnt want to stop, but thought I might as well do other things while I can, and I do, I am in good health and travel a lot, and certainly dont feel 76 in a few months, I travel back and forth to the UK from Sweden where I live, love Airports and the excitement there, I hope things dont go down hill for a while yet. I love rushing around, and never go to bed until after midnight, mind you I dont get up until 9am! There maybe a motto there!

My mum born 1924, worked, by choice until she was 74. She then took up walking.
I also took up walking in my 50's. Many of our walkers are into their late 70's and some over 80, but the oldest who is in the other even faster walking group and he is, astonishingly, 95. Yes its true. Not joking. Really. And fit.
I know there are many other people in the same age group not so fit which is sad, but what all these people have in common is that they have always been active. Me on the other hand took it up late. and though quite a bIt younger some of the over 80's are fitter And still cheerfully overtake me as i puff up the hills.

I'm lucky at 70 I'm still fit and healthy, like blm I do yoga and meditate. I also swim several times each week and love gardening. In fact I am healthier now that when I was working mainly due to the fact that my work was largely sedentary. On the other hand I do find that after my weeky day looking after my very lively 2 year old GD which does include 1hr drives there and back are exhausting . I am just so thankful that I am fit enough to do them.

I retired at 62 and have since been providing childcare for my grandchildren and daily care for my Dad who has Alzheimer's and lives alone 10 miles away. Not sure if I could fit in employment as well. ?