Is 40 still Middle-aged?

With our live expectancy increasing thanks to better healthcare and the availability of good advice in terms of healthy living, is 40 still 'middle aged'?.
Not yet there myself but can't imagine feeling like a middle-aged man in a couple of years. Certainly don't think I should be described as a middle-aged man for at least a decade!
Anyone else feel that the label 'middle-aged man' is no longer appropriate to a man of 40?

Give up its over old man

I didn't realise 40 was ever middle aged!

I'll go with dolphinZ

Not like that, that sounded wrong!

aja424 wrote:I'll go with dolphinZ

aja424 wrote:Not like that, that sounded wrong!

Sorry mate, he's en route with a massive tub of lubricant, Just tuck your elbows in and push em back abit so he doesn't leave you incontinent. Also whatever you do, don't allow him to eat chips off your back otherwise he'll be there all day. Read seanmichaels autobiography for corroboration although he wasn't quite nearly so unwilling.

Well all I can say is I'm 40 in October.

I certainly don't look it, feel a lot younger than 40.

40 certainly isn't old, maybe to some 20 year old it might be.

Not to me, still young at heart.

That's what I like to hear. Agree.

Strange one.  I guess it's always always in the mind.  The truth is that middle age is the middle of your life - and so I guess you wait for other people to say when you had your midlife - after you've gone

But for me, we'll I know I felt about 30 when I was only in my late teens.  I felt more mature, I liked more mature company... felt my own age group were not as funny as they thought they were and quite childish really.
Now I'm the other side of 40, by a bit!, and I still emotionally and physically feel in my mid 30s.

But certainly, if you look at old photographs of people in their 40s from the 1800s, or even up to the 1950s - you'll realise quite quickly that the appearance of aging certainly has changed dramatically.  Let nobody tell me Tom Cruise would ever have passed for a 53 year old 40 or 50 years ago.

BUT............. when you then look at the age these ancient looking 40 year olds of the past died at - there isn't all that dramatic a difference there.  'Old' people still lived to roughly the same old ages.... , mid 70s, 80, 90, 100.

So I suppose the truth is that many of us now 'look' younger longer but it doesn't have much impact on actual longevity though.

Well given the average life expectancy of a male is 74 I think regarding 40 as middle aged is a bit optimistic ....

I turned 40 all of 5 days ago.
I certainly don't feel middle aged, yet going off my stereotypical Northern family then I'm probably past it (both parents died in their 50s).

Mum died at 80, dad still going at 85, I'm 45 in July so I think if I live that long I can consider myself middle aged.

However the BIG question is at what stage do middle aged people start to consider themselves old or even elderly?

rodders wrote:Well given the average life expectancy of a male is 74 I think regarding 40 as middle aged is a bit optimistic ....

79 in the UK.

So 40 is pretty much bang in the 'middle'.

Personally I don't think 'middle aged' kicks in until you're closer to your 50s than your 30s.

DAVE667 wrote:Mum died at 80, dad still going at 85, I'm 45 in July so I think if I live that long I can consider myself middle aged.

However the BIG question is at what stage do middle aged people start to consider themselves old or even elderly?

Is that not the same question, Dave?  If they're middle aged, they mostly now don't feel old at all.... but young.

I suppose there are days though when things don't truly feel as young as they should be.  And maybe its that most of us in our 40s truly lose a sense of perspective on what kind of people we truly were in our younger years.  We think we remember the truth, but maybe the 'truth' is just an illusion to comfort our older selves.

I was very intense as a young man - I was driven and pretty damn deep.  I don't really think I'm that person anymore.  I still have a greed for life and meaning but the intensity isn't nearly so ...intense.  

In my happier moments I might say that's a sign that I've matured and become more rounded and content.  
But maybe that's simply age creeping up.  Maybe feeling good at 40 is simply a sign of old age approaching.  Maybe we should be more discontent and edgy still.  Maybe we shouldn't be so satisfied with ourselves. Maybe we should fret about our image more, like when we were younger.

The hormones are cooling down, damn 'em!     I HATE being Middle aged!!!!!

Your Old

Deal with it.

Go buy a motorcycle and get a hipster haircut.

Nando, the beauty of middle age is being able to pass on information that my generation had at your age and when you're middle aged, what I say now will still ring true.

Young people are stupid!!!!

But I'll tell you something, I bloody loved being stupid and "immortal" (drink this, take that, go here there and every which where without fear of consequences). However, I look back and think how the **** did I get this far without any major accidents or life threatening scenarios. Perhaps that's when you get to be middle aged...when you're more aware of what COULD happen/go wrong.

Read something years ago which said "The morning after the night before is only worth if you think, the night before that the morning after will be worth it."

Met a chap in the boozer at the weekend who was pushing 50 and coked up to his eyeballs.

Which one of you was it?

Jules...although it was actually Lemsip

Eejit wrote:Met a chap in the boozer at the weekend who was pushing 50 and coked up to his eyeballs.

Which one of you was it?

God, are we not learning any lessons from this thread at all.

That guy was 75. He only looked 50. Keep up, folks.

Just like Bill Hicks said, "I saw an old guy smoking and said 'Dude, you're my hero'. Guy looked back at me and "I'm 28!'"

I have also just turned 40 and only have to spend time with people in their early 20's to feel middle aged.

Obviously I say spend time with them, generally that means sitting near them whilst they play on their phones and talk to each other online.

I think there are certain signs that you're getting old:

You describe someone else's music as "just a noise"
You have an item / items of clothing for the garden
You wear slippers
Your first thought when buying new clothes is "will this make me look like an old man tying to look young"
When you flick past Escape to the Country on the tv you actually stop to see what's happening and find yourself watching until the end - you are double old if you point out the valuations are way off as the programme is 6 months old.....

F*ck's sake, HUW, you are elderly, not middle-aged

DAVE667 wrote:F*ck's sake, HUW, you are elderly, not middle-aged

Ha-ha, thanks Dave!

At least it means I'm closer to be able to say what I think about people without worrying about how it makes them feel, you cockwomble....

huw wrote:

DAVE667 wrote:F*ck's sake, HUW, you are elderly, not middle-aged

Ha-ha, thanks Dave!

At least it means I'm closer to be able to say what I think about people without worrying about how it makes them feel, you cockwomble....

I wouldn't diss Dave, If I were you Huw, he's our resident 98p shop hitman professional prostitute assassin, you might find yourself trussed up in a corset and high heels with all your organs missing.

You describe someone else's music as "just a noise"

I was saying that about punk when punk first came out.

You have an item / items of clothing for the garden.

I don't have a weekend Gardening kit, or even a weekend 'casual' look of pink jumper and sun glasses welded to my forehead.

Things are looking good for me so far!

You wear slippers Never!

Your first thought when buying new clothes is "will this make me look like an old man tying to look young"

I still look like Nick Kamen in my old 501s ... classic style never ages...... Strictly NO white socks and shiny Black or brown shoes though!!!.... that really is a sign of being old if you match them with jeans.

When you flick past Escape to the Country on the tv you actually stop to see what's happening and find yourself watching until the end - you are double old if you point out the valuations are way off as the programme is 6 months old.

....[/quote] That show (that I Never watch...........) is stuffed with young chancers trying to get into the recycling-of-houses game....

I'm a fecking toddler by that test!!! This calls for a celebration. Time to open the bottle of milk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The answer to the OP's question is...It's middle aged if you want it to be !!..

Reaching 40.......(Though I'm still 39.. I have been for the last few years )

See others growing older around me but don't see myself getting older..

Don't feel any different than I did when I was 21.......Haven't matured much despite having a family....Still the same perverted, gregarious, no good wretch I was before.....Perhaps a tad more cynical....But it comes with the territory..

Whilst I'm not physically as sharp as previous years..You do learn more about your body to compensate for this.....

You never really learn from your mistakes....

You compromise more..

You realise that years seem to flow by so much quicker.....

You become more fatalistic about family you rarely see..

You realise that age really is just a number......Some boring people are middle aged at 18......and others are 18 in their 40s....
Me I'm going to stay in the latter group for the rest of my life......Gonna check out with some horny young blonde bouncing on me at the age of 39........+43

Age is a state of mind.....

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

You compromise more..

Oh yeah???  I wish I had some of that on other threads, Truss

Depends on many things. It was more likely to be perceived as middle-aged a generation or two back because you probably had adult or teenaged kids by then. Other factors such as ethnicity, obesity, alcohol consumption, physical labour, general health and plain old DNA will also have a bearing. But generally I'd say that it's not middle-aged for most men in the developed world any more. I actually had more girlfriends in my 40s than I did in my teens, 20s or 30s. That's because I was never married, never drank too much or worked too hard, did a lot of sport, had been a member of a gym for 16 years, and had good genes on my side to boot. So I still looked young basically until I was 50 In fact, I'm only just starting to feel middle-aged now...

60 is the prime of middle age. Or at least I hope it is.

Easy to feel middle aged in you 40's until you hear about people dropping dead at 50 and think "Oh f*ck!"

Another sad trait of being middle aged is that you've acquired so much information about all kinds of things that you always end up with having too much to say...about everything.

Thus why poor Rowanbi seems to have been banned, if my reading between the lines of another thread is accurate.

So that's it - ban all of us middle aged guys - we all got far too much to say.

It's what you have to say, not how much.

It's how much of what you have to say that other people don't like hearing.

It's the bigots that don't like hearing things that scald their ears.... and cry for censorship to sooth the pain.

TopHat24/7 wrote:It's what you have to say, not how much.

Nope, we'd still all end up being banned

SecretFly wrote:It's how much of what you have to say that other people don't like hearing.

It's the bigots that don't like hearing things that scald their ears.... and cry for censorship to sooth the pain.

I don't like hearing abject and blatant racism. My bad......

TopHat24/7 wrote:

SecretFly wrote:It's how much of what you have to say that other people don't like hearing.

It's the bigots that don't like hearing things that scald their ears.... and cry for censorship to sooth the pain.

I don't like hearing abject and blatant racism. My bad......

You didn't hear it.. You interpreted as such in an attempt to end the debate by closing down the messenger.

No, I heard someone constantly and specifically refer to WHITE CHRISTIANS and blame them for most of the world's ills, often without support or rhetoric.

It would be equivalent to me blaming 'BLACKS' for most of London's crime. I would expect very short shrift from both the mod team and people in general.

No you heard MUCH support and rhetoric for his expressed opinions. You didn't like it. That's your prerogative not to like his examples or case studies or opinions.

But the dangerous people on this planet are those who seek to censor alternative 'narratives' and alternative interpretations of History. History by its nature is an interpretation. It's not fact, it's an interpretation of fact.

The dangerous people are those that only want one version to be written down.

Why is him blaming 'white christians' different to me blaming 'black men' and, if not different, are you honestly telling me it's ok??

Then again, nothing surprises me from the tin foil hat brigade. If it wasn't that this is a race issue being discussed I could have sworn you were ONETWO.

SecretFly wrote:

So that's it - ban all of us middle aged guys - we all got far too much to say.

Yet the truly good writers on here, of which there are plenty, say twice as much as you in half as many words.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Why is him blaming 'white christians' different to me blaming 'black men' and, if not different, are you honestly telling me it's ok??

Then again, nothing surprises me from the tin foil hat brigade.  If it wasn't that this is a race issue being discussed I could have sworn you were ONETWO.

No, I'm Fly.  That's all I am.  

Trying to redirect perception of a profile onto someone else?   Em was this ONETWO banned too?

Any trick will do.

The discussion was about the perceptions of where war criminals come from, what their Nationalities might be, what the colour of their skin might be and how those perceptions are carried in different versions of World History.

It was a discussion.  You didn't like his arguments, the historical characters he chose to use, the language he used to illustrate his points or having the debate even published online on 606.

If you have an argument that ridicules someone else's then have the courage of your convictions and research to do so.

You weren't alone.  Others circled to join the show and highlight the cause for 'banning'.  Nice work.  One Version of 'truth' will do.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

So that's it - ban all of us middle aged guys - we all got far too much to say.

Yet the truly good writers on here, of which there are plenty, say twice as much as you in half as many words.

So Ban Me......

SecretFly wrote:

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

So that's it - ban all of us middle aged guys - we all got far too much to say.

Yet the truly good writers on here, of which there are plenty, say twice as much as you in half as many words.

So Ban Me......

And deny myself the chance to be enthralled by your beautiful prose and free thinking philosophising. No chance.

I just walk paths, you blaze trails.

Rowanbi was racist plain and simple, the fact he was racist against 'White Christians' means we had to put up with his vile rhetoric longer than we should have. It's nothing to do with censorship, this is a sports forum and the only contribution he had to any subject was to blame the white people of the US and UK, that isn't reading between the lines that is what he did.

It has everything to do with censorship.

You might as well ban Farage. Has he an everlasting agenda? Is he a one-point king? Is he 'racist'?

Ban him too. It's easier than arguing against him.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:

And deny myself the chance to be enthralled by your beautiful prose and free thinking philosophising.  No chance.

I just walk paths, you blaze trails.

No I just buck a few cobwebby trends and conventions. I don't follow shepherds.

Rowan has actually been banned from forums all over the world due to the universally racist nature of his posting.

606 is 606.

If Farage talked on forums the world over - he'd be banned too - without question. His views and arguments aren't popular with those that demand a conformist One World View.

Add a new member - Trump. The Golf course junkie. The placards will be up "Ban him!" when he does his golf-buggy walkaround in the next few weeks

No, Farage wouldn't be banned, as Duty has proven in exemplary fashion.

The burning question, though, is this...

Does Farage consider 40 to be middle-aged?

You can discuss racism and censorship to your hearts' content but I'd like you to stick to the topic at hand as the place is awash with people who have scant regard for the rules and, speaking as one who has never broken the rules on here (apart from the two occasions I've been banned) I find it upsetting and wish to return to the status quo asap.

Rowan was correct to a degree that Bush and Blair are two "war criminals" who haven't been brought to trial but his assertion that it was due to skin colour was, in my opinion, way off. As stated by someone else, it had more to do with their status as world leaders and the fact that the wheels of justice turn so slowly as to be imperceptible.

And yes, you're all racist!!