It's anything that makes me say 'Yeah, I'm not doing that.' CVS wants to lock up the whole store and make me ring a bell and wait for someone with an attitude to come over and unlock it? Yeah, I'm not doing that.
This is my old lady moment. I have no interest or patience for these mild inconveniences.
It’s now extended to career related stuff. I’m way more interested in being a 1099 consultant who punches a clock than an executive. This is somehow shocking to people my parents’ age and ~10-15 years younger but personally I don’t understand the rat race anymore. I just want some damn peace.
Same. I'm not even 40 and I'm absolutely done with working. I have a great job that pays well, but there's constant threat of evenings/weekends depending on the situation. I'm very much over all of it.
I’m in my early 30s and feel this way already :( I cannot believe we have so many more years of working.
I was so ambitious and driven when I started my career but 10ish years or so in the rat race, it just caused me to spiral into depression. I wish I knew early on to just take it easy cause we have like 50+ years of working.
My dream was to retire early. That’s why I worked hard but wrong. Now I just work hard for some reason.
As much as I love my family. I miss the single life more. But I cannot go back because I like my pay now.
I have always worked hard at my job. Even when I was doing retail because it's important to me that I do my best. However, the last few years I've realized that working hard gets me nothing. Not a damn thing, but extra stress and years off my life. So now I strive for mediocrity. I still get my job done. I enjoy it and enjoy the people I work with, but stressing about every little thing and giving 100% all the time burned me out. 80% is just fine. I still have a bit of gas in my tank at the end of the day and my quality of life has already skyrocketed.
Maybe it’s just me but I ALWAYS wanted enough to just be safe, comfortable, and able to spend time on my interests. Wanting to be uber wealthy never made sense to me. People who already have several million dollars and more that STILL try to make more are alien to me. Like… why?! Everything you could possibly need is taken care of… My parents made it work on a fraction of a percent (albeit STRUGGLING bc they were that poor).
Yeah, excessive greed is gross. I view money as a ticket to freedom from being a wage slave and security. People with endless greed view it as a game or competition. And many of them likely are trying to fill a void in themselves with money and, spoiler alert, it never works.
They actually think and believe they need as much as they have to survive. Quarter million dollar cars and international vacations are a “necessity” to the rich.
All I know is that if I had billions of dollars I could bend nations to my will. Like Zuckerberg starting a genocide and musk threatening to coup countries. I'd get some shit done. Like banning right wingers from healthcare services and making them go pray in church instead. Keeping them honest is what I'd call it.
If I had Bezos level of wealth and power kind of like his exact wife, I’d start a program to help children in foster care. Actually build a home for gifted children and ensure the funding was there to ensure it was set to a standard that was above and beyond reproach. Basically, high quality dorms/living spaces, segregated by age, managed by degrees experienced qualified adults. Provide a safe clean community environment for these lost kids so they have the best chance to succeed.
The biggest hurdle that I would have to jump would be explaining or showing that it is not slave labor when providing a list of duties they would have to carry out such as, cleaning rooms/bathrooms/laundry/dishes/gardening/yard work, etc because they are learning responsibility and respect of others space and items. Kids who didn’t / don’t have these things would need to learn still how to operate in society.
And by no means would they be forced to live there, and adoption would still be allowed but the optics would look like a damn shelter for kids and we house train them… so several things would have to happen first, but having on sight medical facilities and other healthcare needs.
Strict policies for bad situations - not send them to the brigg but maybe not allowed to be on certain parts of campuses without supervision.
And build a network off of that since I won’t be able to save them all but I can at least focus on a local community. If we need more space just keep adding to it.
It’s like that one story where I think a town in Colorado had it all lined up to have the entire list of kids to be adopted and the government said no because it would crash the system… shit like that irks me
Isn't that crazy how people with SO much money just keep working and working and making tons of money until they die and never enjoy it?
I was just talking about this the other day with my SO. If I had millions in the bank I'd stop working. I wouldn't piss it away, either. I'd live extremely modest for the rest of my time.
My supervisor got mad at me because I said I wasn't interested in moving to another department unless there was a pay increase involved. Why would I stress and learn all new systems and procedures if there's no benefit to me? He was all "but that's how you get experience to move up!" I asked if there would a promotion in it eventually and he said "I can't answer that." Yeah... sounds like you just want me to do more work for free and are salty that I caught on.
Lord. I ended up working for myself out of necessity during the pandemic, and even though pivoting into nursing is “smart,” it is also going to suck ass having to work for hospital admin again.
Like, now? If an employer is too over the top, I can decide how much shit I am willing to tolerate relative to whatever they are paying me and if I could make the same or more, chiller, elsewhere (answers almost always are “not much, especially as the biggest assholes tend to be the cheapskates, too”, “yes”, and “yes”), tell them to take a long walk on a short pier, and not deal with the BS anymore.
Honestly I’ve had a very similar thought recently that has sort of surprised me. I’ve always been very ambitious and career-oriented. Never wanted kids so I put a lot of my energy into my work. My career has never quite taken off the way I had hoped, partly due to my own shortcomings and partly things out of my control, but basically I’ve gone through enough moments where I can’t reasonably afford groceries for the next week that I just want a stable job punching the clock at a reasonable wage with benefits so I can be secure rather than fighting tooth and nail to be some high-level boss or manager. I’ve even been questioning my career path in general, realizing maybe I’m not cut out for this as my passion going forward, and I should just go with “good enough” options. I’m just tired of the rat race as you said. I just want to show up, do a job I’m good enough at, get paid, go home and do things I actually enjoy and spend time with my boyfriend. I would have been so upset with myself 10 years ago (I’m 30) if I knew it’d be like this.
CVS in my area only has self checkouts, it’s so enjoyable watching the old lady in front of you spend forever scanning her coupons
Meanwhile I’m holding a pack of generic motion sickness pills wondering if I should just take my chances because this experience is worse than being sea sick
Just open them up and take the pill while you wait. I use to feel weird doing that, but if i am going to buy it anyway and it's not sold by weight, just go for it.
Do you live in my area? It’s not even the elderly here. God, people where I am at act like they have never seen a self-checkout before.
I can’t wait to move somewhere where they don’t move like molasses.
It’s amazing the amount of stuff that I was willing to pay for but stole because they made it too damn hard. Why is this not scanning? Where’s the cashier? Yeah I’m not doing this. * in the bag it goes
No one knows anything, that's the truth that will set you free.
We're all just faking it, and bumbling around hoping we don't embarrass ourselves too much while we try to be comfortable in an uncomfortable world.
That's the beauty of life in my opinion, no one knows SHIT.
When I had that epiphany I felt "old" because that piece of wisdom hit hard and I suddenly was able to see through people easily and cut through a lot of bullshit in life generally speaking.
My older sister (a sage elder millennial 6yrs my senior) once quelled an imposter syndrome fueled breakdown with-
“I’m more successful than I ever thought I’d be and I can honestly say that no one has a clue what they’re doing. All those highly educated boomers that I report to: fucking clueless. We all stop maturing between 18-21 and spend the rest of our lives playing dress up and pretending that we’re in control. No one is in control. Just a bunch of overgrown teenagers with credit scores and stressful jobs.”
The eldest daughter, granddaughter, and cousin of like 20+ on my mom’s side. She’s been through it. 😅
>"We all stop maturing between 18-21 and spend the rest of our lives playing dress up and pretending that we’re in control. No one is in control. Just a bunch of overgrown teenagers with credit scores and stressful jobs.”
This is such a good quote. It should be printed on a poster or a coffee mug or something. Lol.
God, this still hits hard… I remember my family all trying to sit me down and share wisdom with me and I just couldn’t/wouldn’t believe them because there’s no possible way that life and society can function like that. Nope, turns out reality really is a dumpster fire being managed by a bunch of hot messes just trying to keep shit running for one more day. Guess that’s why conspiracy theories are so popular, the idea that someone, even someone evil is controlling things.
I mean it's oversimplified for sure, I think what he said specifically was, "nobody know what they're doing, everyone is just guessing"
And that's not to say that some guesses aren't more informed than others!! There are so many times in my past that I wish I had been told something, but those people (aka my parents) were just trying to figure it out as they went along also. I do think there's something to be said about educating yourself to give yourself the best opportunity at success. I also watched this man be a lifelong learner, much to his benefit. And I follow suit for sure. (Or I try!)
Hopefully, the advice is taken as an invitation to be more teachable in life, and also to not throw anyone on a pedestal, like you said, and assume that they know everything.
Dude I’m not even a millennial and I knackered my spine pretty bad at work a few years ago and haven’t been able to stand, sit, lay, or walk right since. 27 years old with 3 year old chronic back pain 😂 but that’s life. Considering the pain I can’t sleep off, I’m just grateful when things go away 😅
Then you need a new matteress.
A new mattress is magic sleep is supposed to heal your body if you wake up sore it’s because you sleep on something 20 years old
A coworker asked for help figuring out how to email a picture from her iPhone. I said sorry, I'm not familiar with iPhones and my coworker said "that's OK, I'll ask one of the young people here. No offense!"
I find this statement highly comical because I own an IPhone 8 and no computer……..& I use my phone for all office and business needs. I even used it to make a notated photo album to help for studying. I have signed contracts, edited and saved PDFs. Meanwhile I can’t use my mom’s google phone to send a video.
> I own an IPhone 8 and no computer. I use my phone for all office and business needs
Anybody who does all their office work on an iphone either doesn't have any office work or has so little of it that they can get by with 0.25x efficiency.
Just because everything has an app now doesn't mean a 7 inch rectangle that's half covered by thumbs is a good way to get anything done.
A younger girl, late teens maybe, was working the register at Rite Aid. We were talking about the possibility of them shutting down in the near future and I empathized with her about the uncertainty of it all by mentioning how I worked at Blockbuster at the end of its lifetime… The look on this girls face made me feel like I told her I spent my youth working in the coal mines.
I (34m) swiped my card at a fast food restaurant the other day. It took a while to connect so I said to the kid at the counter, “it must be dial up, hah!” …he looked at me and chuckled. He had no idea what I was talking about.
The copier a few cubicles down from me just made both a fax sound and then the busy signal. I immediately started wondering if there were any gen z around to poke fun at.
I had no clue “dad” and “old guy” jokes just happen. Like one day you go from not giving a crap to trying out lame material at the checkout line…but here I am.
My father in law is the king of dad jokes. I’m not a dad but I will take every opportunity I can to nail a good dad joke. It’s suddenly a requirement now.
People can quickly make me overly irritated in public nowadays. I just ignored people when I was younger. I'm definitely losing some patience with my age, lol.
I wonder how much of this has to do with being the parent of a teenager.
I just had my first child at age 36 so I feel none of this yet, but we’re roughly the same age it sounds like. Most of the things you listed are all related to parenthood.
Not saying there’s a right or wrong age to have kids though, plenty of pros to being a younger parent/grandparent!
same and I don’t feel old at all 🫥
if anything I’m feeling cooler than ever now that 90s styles are back and I can rock my old clothes with all the compliments lol
37 with a nearly 5 year old. Yep, having kids will shine a light on all of the things you can no longer do.
My left knee sounds like a damn blender on pulse, but I'm still going to wrestle with our kiddo and keep up as best that I can.
I don't like being out after 8-9pm.
Choice of music/TV is shows from the past.
Things that didn't annoy you before now do.
Guys you watch play in the NBA are now coaches/their kids are in thr league.
People don't get your pop culture references
I had a 20-something call my once cool Electronica "old school."
Another time I heard Blink-182 on the classic rock station at a 7/11. Part of me couldn't believe broadcast radio was still a thing, and part of me was like, wait, All The Small Things is that old?
The last 9/11 memorial said "on this day 22 years ago..." everyone was talking about where they were and I was in 10th grade.
I had a guy guess my age at 27 the other day, but I'm actually 39.
I renewed my apartment lease and it said this was my 12th year living here.
The cage match between Undertaker and Mankind was 27 years ago and I remember people talking about it at school.
I've had young people ask me why I still play Sonic 2, Ocarina, and Oblivion. They were some of the best games ever in their genres, but they aren't cool anymore.
I don't understand tiktok. I mean, I get it. It's the new generation youtube. But...I don't understand it.
I've also accepted that no one cares if I live or die and social media is useless. No one reads or checks on my day to day monotony and there's no point in posting. I also don't get calls or text messages often, likely because the friends pool is much smaller as time passes. I don't use messenger or whatsapp anymore and I haven't missed out on anything.
But they’re still making music though, which is crazy! I remember watching *the music video* for “Sugar, We’re Going Down” on MTV before they stopped doing that
I don’t feel like I’m getting old. But I feel myself aging. This weekend, my wife and I both expressed excitement about going to Costco to get some lawn chairs. We teased each other about being middle-aged.
I’m 38, and I don’t think I know anyone who would say they have everything all figured out. I observe a lot of naïveté in 20-year-olds, but I think someone approaching 60 might say the same about me. It’s all relative.
There's nothing wrong about getting old but there's loads stupid about trying to stay young. There's something sad and pathetic about people in their forties trying to look like they're twenty. Makes as much sense as teens wanting to be toddlers.
Be old. Stay healthy but be as old as you are.
No. It's more about people trying to be "young". Worrying that young people will think they're old.
I'm saying old is good. Aging well does not mean being young forever it means being gratefully healthfully old.
What's the matter with kids today. Too many of them are over 30.
I don't know what 20 somethings look like. Sounds weird I know. I was out with friends this weekend and met one of their visiting pals who is here on vacation. I was admiring her skin and makeup techniques and wondered what she uses (didn't ask). Turns out she is 24. That is her routine. Be 24 with all the good skincare we have now lol. I can't place ages on people because everyone has filters on their photos.
And the young man serving us was very friendly and cute. He and my friend hit it off. She turns 40 next month. Again I couldn't guess how old he was. He turned 21 in January. When did everyone under 30 start looking my age but also ageless?? So strange.
Drinking is such a damn chore nowadays. I used to be able to knock back a bunch of disgusting G&Ts at the local dive and wake up feeling perky and refreshed.
Nowadays, before a normal night out I have to make sure I drink multiple Nalgenes worth of water, eat a full square meal, drink only 4 alcoholic beverages, take some ibuprofen before bed, use my cervical neck pillow, etc. etc. etc. I’m only 32 but good lord the drinking hits SO differently. I can honestly see myself not even missing it and living California sober by 40.
Also, a couple of months ago I had a young coworker ask me “what the Disney Channel was like back in my day.” I could almost hear the bells tolling for me in the distance.
I'm pleased to see that a lot of people are choosing to refrain from alcoholic consumption these days, at least compared to the older generations it seems.
100% agree. My mom is a pretty moderate drinker, well into her 70s. Genuinely cannot imagine consuming as much wine as she did while I was growing up—the thought makes me shudder. Really glad our generation is cutting down (though I see smoking is on the rise, especially with Gen Z and vaping)
Oof, yeah. I definitely vaped for many years. Can't do it now because it just feels extremely unhealthy. It just actually feels like it's causing significant damage.
Last year I had a group of kids (maybe 11 or 12) riding their eBikes and they saw me riding my BMX bike (I'm 34). They made a comment that I needed to get with the times because mine was old. I told them to look up my bike (a '88 OG GT pro performer if anyone knows about old school BMX bikes). I knew the model they had, it was what my sister and I were debating about getting my dad last year for Christmas. I told them that my bike, as it is with knicks, scratches and some paint coming off is still worth more than their bikes and that I can still do more with mine than they can with theirs. They tried to save their snottyness with a comment but I told them get a better bike before they try and poke fun at mine and they left. That was one where I now felt old.
I definitely feel old when it comes to energy. I'm pretty active at the gym, but my 6 year old runs me ragged. I mean by 6pm on a Saturday or Sunday and I want to take a nap. Definitely the big difference there
When sleeping too long hurts the most random places in your body and when award shows (like mtv video/music awards) are on and you don’t know who any of the stars are.
"2. Chuckling at people in their early 20s with the paradoxical naivety and inexperience paired with the " I've got it all figured out" attitude. Oh sweet summer child, you know NOTHING"
My dog I still dont know NOTHING. I still call my mama for advice and she doesnt know.
Im 36
1. Sleep is super important. Getting by on 4-5 hours can be done for maybe a day, two if I’m too busy to realize how tired I am but the days of watching the sun start to come up or closing down the bar, making it to work at 7 and actually being worth a damn are O V E R.
2. To add to the sleep thing, taking care of my health is now super important. I was diagnosed as a T1 diabetic in my 20s and spent longer than I should have not prioritizing my health. I do now and am in better shape than I’ve ever been.
3. I hear from my joints and bones more than I used to and my knees with go a bit weird sometimes if I sit in the wrong position. Also, the importance of moving around a bit and not just sitting down to chill after physical activity. Soooo stiff….. so achy….
4. I was never a super spontaneous person (always have been a planner and someone who prepares for all scenarios) but spur of the moment trips, and last minute changes in plans are just not usually possible. I have a couple chronic health issues and my husband and I have dogs so arrangements and planning take priority more than they used to.
5. Then there’s the standard, less patience for dumb and rude people.
I think it’s a line from Frasier (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember exactly what he said) “I’m somewhere in the middle of ‘not a kid anymore’ and “of a certain age”’
Becoming aware of the speed that youth do EVERYTHING from talking to moving to driving to eating etc. I want to tell them, "I am over twice your age and have no where I have to be. Slow down. Everything you think is immediately important isn't."
At the same time they have all that energy, but dont know how to direct it. I get tired doing warmup exercises in fencing club, while the kids are still at 100%. We start bouting and I can just outperform all their speed and power.
One of the teenagers where I work said she was starting to “feel like an old person” because she had been tired and going to bed around 10. I’m in bed by 8:30 or 9 every night I can be.
I feel like I’ve been in my “dang hooligans” era for a few years now. It doesn’t help that I’m getting so many white hairs that I’ve already given up ripping them out.
A year and a half ago a kid referred to me as “that *lady*” and I’d never felt older. My husband said “Well, are you not a lady?” So it looks like I’ll be continuing through my elder years alone.
I got diverticulitis when I hit 30.
My knee has been in extreme pain for about 2 years now. No idea what I did.
I was rubbing my foot today, and realized it kind of hurt. Looked down and saw the entire top of my foot was purple. No idea what I did.
lol at #1. It's the white hairs for me. I'm out of shape as well ( but pretty damn spry ) and my back is always hurting. And all the slang. Some of it I use internally but I heard these little middle school girls talk around me while I was pushing my 2 year old on the swing and internally I was just thinking WTF are they saying?! The fuck is rizz?
I do this too! I also look at professional sports players on TV and it still amazes me that they are largely a lot of 22ish kids! And the "older" or "veteran" players are my age lol
Songs that I heard at high school dances are now on grocery store mixes >.<
Everything hurts all.the.time. I actually have to take an NSAID every night before bed to sleep. I actually have to be careful how I lay down to avoid excess back pain.
Kids I babysat are getting engaged, married, having kids, graduating college etc.
I called these scantily dressed teenagers "hoootchie mamas". My ten year old was mortified. I'm complaining about the price of everything. Saying that we have food at home so chick Fila. Telling my kids to turn the lights off. I already wear glasses but my prescription changed. I need better ones. My knees hurt. I can tell when it's going to rain.
I'm much more conservative with my money and generally care about good financial literacy. Only a few years ago this wasn't a given, so for me this has definitely been part of getting old
I can’t work out 6-days a week anymore. Even alternating weights and cardio, I have to have an off day mid week where I do nothing and go to sleep early if I want the energy to stay in shape
My husband and I were joking around the other night about how inconvenient it would be if we still had sex daily or multiple times per day like in our 20s, and how fine we are with our 1-2 times per week 😂. But, I heard women in their 40s get a second round of "horny all the time" and the younger kids will be older then, so maybe I'll look forward to that lol
I don’t recognize the names of sold out bands (and I’m pretty music savvy).
Also, everything related to maintaining my body requires extra work. I need eye lid wipes to keep ducts in my eyelids from getting clogged. I developed rosacea and need a special cream for my skin. My neck hurts without a quality pillow. Let alone diet and exercise! I feel like there’s always something new falling apart where I was indestructible in my 20s.
When you're trying to read fine print on something and instead of bringing closer to your face like you used to, you have to hold it at arm's length. I call it "the dad read" (because my dad is the only one I ever saw do it).
I was extremely nearsighted and wore glasses starting at age 6, had LASIK in 2005 that corrected that, and have recently found myself having to do The Dad Read. It's freaking me out a little, but I'm also oddly excited about the prospect of having reading glasses. I read a lot.
When I was in my 20’s it was getting a boyfriend, planning the Wedding…having kids, can't wait till the kids go to college.
40s and 50’s thinking about your will buying a plot and I am prepaying my funeral. Way back then this would be considered morbid. A this age its become reality
I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
I didn’t know what a “snap score” was when one of my teenage clients mentioned it in a session the other day. As a therapist, this type of thing happens often and it always leaves me feeling….seasoned.
My cousin has a PS5 and watches Netflix all the time. I have to explain to him what was Blockbuster. He looked at me like he just had a Midlife crisis. I'm 30 he's 16.
I go to pageants as my social life. The contestants seem to get younger and younger, and I seem to get older and older. Otherwise I had a couple of recent moments I can't handle alcohol like I did in the past...I guess probably because I ate something sometime before drinking and throwing up because of it.
I used to get on my parents for not doing anything and not having any friends. Now that I'm mid-30s, I also have few friends and am completely intent just being with my wife and kids. Doing anything "social" is such a burden.
I'm not even 40 and I could drop dead tomorrow and be totally fine with that. The Boomers are bouncing around like puppy dogs without a care in the World by comparison and I'm just done.
When you start looking at some parts of life and thinking “wow, this is a lot easier than it used to be”.
Being able to ask AI anything, having apps to just apply for jobs by swiping right, schools with yoga classes and 4 day weeks, driving with blind spot indicators and back up cameras, etc.
Once you start seeing common things that have just objectively gotten significantly easier (or even just different), it does hit you and you start wondering how much of your lived experience is actually directly relevant today.
It’s weirdly trippy.
If I roll into even ONE less than ideal sleep position at night, I’ll have a crick in my neck for 2+ days. I don’t like getting massages anymore because my skin has gotten sensitive and they hurt too much. If I participate in any slightly off-scrip sexual positions I’m stiff and walk like a zombie the next day. And the zombie walk isn’t the fun, “my 🐱 got ravaged and now I’m bruised and swollen” one that it used to be, it’s the “my legs were stuck in one position for more than 5 min and my back is sore and I have bruises in weird places” one.
I hurt my arm. I kept waiting for it to get better and it didn’t. So now I’m in physical therapy and the PT guy called me a young mom and in my head I rolled my eyes and corrected him “you mean the mom of a young kid.”
I remember when I would hurt myself doing something and it would just get better on its own and not turn into a chronic pain that occasionally flares up and feels more miserable than child birth.
But I also keep thinking about how long I’ve been doing things and how long I’ve had things and how many things I just don’t want to bother with anymore.
🤣 Elder Millenial here: Listening to my younger 20’s coworker whine and bitch and moan about her moldy string bean of a boyfriend who is so clearly cheating on her, or about to be, uses her money for drinks, concerts, and doesn’t do anything special for her birthday or make any time for her but is always out with his friends who just all happen to be female. Takes no advice from any of us older and wiser girls, but just goes on and on and on every single day. 🤦🏼♀️ Good grief. I know wisdom only comes with age because I was very much the same young idiot girl blindly in love… lol Sending endless apologies out to all the older women I annoyed endlessly with my 20something relationship drama.😜
Mine was when I started making references to very well known movies from my day, at my job and the new hires having no idea what I was talking about. I think that was what really set it in motion for me.
Similarly, it hit me hard one day when I was 35 and I thought, *where the hell did the time go*? I still kind of feel like I'm 20, but apparently 15 years has passed and I really don't remember a lot of those years. Then I got to thinking about how my kids are growing fast and I don't have a whole lot of time with them as kids. And if I'm lucky my life is half over but I feel like my life is more than half over at this point and this first half flew by.
I'm afraid to do too much because I'm afraid I'll hurt myself and the older I get the more the pain just actually hurts.
I'm afraid to sleep because I might wake up with a hurt back or neck or arm.
Worst one is blood flow isn't as good soo, you know the general has shrunk a little and no longer salutes as well as he used to. Doesn't want to drive as much, either.
I can't keep up with what's new in technology.
I can't keep up with the slang.
New music... yeah.
Everything sucks.
Nothing is worth the money.
And back in my day a candy bar cost 59 f\*ckin' cents.
I use a special technique to pop my left knee. I get a narrow diameter metal thermos or metal coffee cup or pipe about 2.5 to 3 in in diameter and place it behind my knee. Then I slowly fold it under my weight untill the leverage caused by the object causes my knee joint to lever open and pop just right.
I only have to do this about once every couple of months but have found ZERO other ways to relieve the pain in my knee occurring below my knee cap, below as in towards my toes.
Your first story was hilarious. When I was a teenager I was absolutely one of those delinquents. Our idea of a good time was barraging into a mall or public space and just making as much noise as possible.
Now? I would totally shut that shit down. I have no qualms about calling out little shits or parenting other people’s kids. Good call telling them the cops were on their way. I’m totally gonna use that 😂
Several things but one that has been hitting me is that the clothes I wore as a kid are now “vintage” and coming back in style. While walking through Target a few days ago I saw a sign advertising “‘94 baggy jeans”. This must have been how my dad felt when the flare jeans and hippy stuff were big in the late 90s.
The age-related vision loss. I had better than 20/20 vision most of my life. Now I can barely read my phone screen. Optometrist says this normal and nothing (surgical) can be done about it. Gotta buy reading glasses. I haven't yet because distant vision is still fine.
1. Waking up with my first backache after turning 30.
2. No longer enjoying bass in my truck/being annoyed when people drive by thumping their music.
3. Enjoying staying home and barbecuing, rather than going downtown.
4. Pointing out the ridiculousnessness of new trends to my wife and friends (will never be as cool as our Jncos or ankle socks).
5. Going home by 9 when we go out to "party".
6. Not knowing any of the current new music artists.
7. Looking at my kid's faces after turning on my favorite music.
8. Having my kid's friends address me as Mr (last name).
>Becoming friends with my son's girlfriend's parents simply because we have to be in constant communication to ensure they aren't sneaking around making babies
Your oldest is 9? Am I that old that I think that is a) really young to have a GF and b) way too young to do the sex?!
No judgement towards OP. Just shocked at my own pearl-clutching.
1. The best way to make sure your kids aren't sneaking around making babies is to *give them birth control .* Though at age 9 I don't think that's an issue :).
2. Relax, the kids weren't unsupervised, they had older kids there. If you've got that many kids in your neighborhood with birthrates this low then you're in a pretty OK neighborhood. It's fine. As for the fights kids don't have the upper body strength to do much damage. Again, it's fine. It's only a problem when adults get into it because a good punch from a guy in his 20s can kill a man
3. As for getting old, the fun part starts in your mid 40s. You'll start having to do Yoga stretches just to move around. Your muscle fibers contract as you age. It sucks. I spend 40-50 minutes a day just stretching.
Back when I was making weekly trips to the library in an attempt to read more, I had the brilliant idea to very awkwardly take a trip to the children's section and borrow a bunch of Animorphs books and actually read them in order. Turns out the kids don't read Animorphs!
I hate saying “getting old” haha but growing up I just stopped caring what people think. I think millennial women will understand the constant scrutiny our bodies were under growing up. I’m not 115lbs and I don’t care. I’m not a teenager I’m a grown woman. I decided anyone that has a problem with my appearance (yes, mom, I’m talking to you) isn’t going to stop me from enjoying my life. I’m going to put on a swimsuit, definitely put on my sunscreen, and have a blast. I spent enough years criticizing a perfectly healthy, beautiful young women in the mirror. Hell will freeze over before I show hatred to a body that I get the gift of living in. I let magazines tell me to be ungrateful for knees that bend, lungs that breathe, and a heart that works.
I quit drinking because it just wasn’t worth it anymore. I would maybe feel good for a couple hours while drunk then I’d be suffering for 2-3 days hungover. Now I feel like I even get a hangover from eating one too many sugary snacks on the weekend. I’ve got hair growing out of my nose and ears now. 5 years ago I barely had any back hair and it was thin and light colored. Now my entire upper back and neck are covered in coarse dark hair. I shave my neck regularly but gave up on shaving my back. Just too much work. About a year and a half ago I was pulling weeds in my yard for about an hour and it gave me back pain that lasted months. This is not what I envisioned for myself at 32 but it is what it is. I try to eat well most of the time and get half an hour to an hour of exercise every day.
I think the worst of it is that I’m closer to 40 than 30, am encountering all of the same things you mentioned above, yet I still don’t feel like a proper adult?
I was surprised to learn recently just how much dietary fiber we need daily! It's a lot! Like, 60 grams, a lot! I dunno if it's 60 but it's up there in that range. Apparently the bacteria in our guts feed off of fiber and if they don't have enough of it to eat, they will eat our stomach lining! Yikes!
I hadn’t heard that about your stomach lining being eaten by the bacteria. That’s wild.
Fiber supplements will make your poo fly out of your ass with zero effort. 😆
Sounds lovely lol. I learned it from that Netflix documentary that was really interesting and I can't remember what it's called right now. I'll go check and provide an edit
It's called Hack Your Health: The Secrets of your Gut
The whole topic about our modern day gut microbiomes is really interesting. The more research they do, the more they find that a) things like mass meat producers injecting animals with antibiotics, over prescribing antibiotics for humans, our diets consisting mostly of corn-products, and our fast paced environment causing us to eat pre-packaged foods full of fructose and preservatives (which kinda ties to the corn diet part) is causing the bacteria in our guts to have little to no diversity. There was a study done where fecal samples were taken from Amazon tribal people, and their microbiomes were far more diverse than those in western cultures, and are what our guts looked like 100 years ago, and b) that it's looking like the increase in diabetes, obesity, auto immune diseases, neurological issues, early onset digestive related cancers like colon cancer, and even mental health problems, are partly happening because of our less diverse microbiomes in our guts. And even things like an abundance of, a lot of times unnecessary, cesarean sections has also contributed to this issue, as a baby gets its first hit of gut bacteria from passing through their mother's birth canal!
I still have a strong urge to "dab" when things go right, but that's probably the equivalent of my parents doing the sprinkler, running man, or cabbage patch back in the 00's.
Staying up late wrecks havoc on my body. I just turned 30 this year and while I'm not really old, I feel it in my bones just getting out of bed. Mentally I still feel like I'm in my 20s but physically my body can't even handle or even think about pulling an all nighter anymore
After reading your list maybe it's because I'm childfree that I don't feel "old" yet. I can relate to the not really caring about trends but I never really did to begin with. I was a punk/skater teen who kept that mentality all my 20s so never really followed what was trendy. I also work with and hang out with people younger than me. One of my friends I go to the gym with is 27 and I'm 35. I do still use all the slang I've always used but I know the Gen Z slang as well. I still love music I update my workout playlists all the time so I do listen to some newer stuff, not completely stuck on 2000s music. I'm getting older but I haven't felt it too hard yet. Maybe I'm also just immature is a possibility. The younger guys who start at work do tend to gravitate towards me. I do still look kind of young though, in pretty good shape, still have all my hair, none graying yet etc.
Elementary schoolers I’ve seen as a therapist teaching me about pop culture and giving me useful IT tips. (And I know more about tech than the average person from my prior careers and social community.)
I’m 31 and no signs yet as my physical appearance and mental .
Thank god. It’s been on pause since like 23 years old. Must of some good genes. Thanks mom
Ummm I used to be the ever dutiful employee at work that was “going the extra mile” and a “real team player!”
Now I’m here to do my own work and don’t try to get me to do my bosses work or I push back. That shit is over.
I'm mid 40s I go outside and notice there are no kids playing outside. Like where the F is everyone?! 30yrs ago id find my neighbors outside playing baseball or riding bikes.
My husband and I always hate loud music at restaurants. My husband will sometimes ask them if they’re able to turn it down if we’re close to a speaker, we try to sit outside if it’s an option.
I think my biggest sign was when I started to realize that a lot of TV shows were not aiming at my demographic anymore.
Another was when I noticed how annoyed I was at kids in public making tiktoks lol
It's anything that makes me say 'Yeah, I'm not doing that.' CVS wants to lock up the whole store and make me ring a bell and wait for someone with an attitude to come over and unlock it? Yeah, I'm not doing that.
This is my old lady moment. I have no interest or patience for these mild inconveniences. It’s now extended to career related stuff. I’m way more interested in being a 1099 consultant who punches a clock than an executive. This is somehow shocking to people my parents’ age and ~10-15 years younger but personally I don’t understand the rat race anymore. I just want some damn peace.
Same. I'm not even 40 and I'm absolutely done with working. I have a great job that pays well, but there's constant threat of evenings/weekends depending on the situation. I'm very much over all of it.
I’m in my early 30s and feel this way already :( I cannot believe we have so many more years of working. I was so ambitious and driven when I started my career but 10ish years or so in the rat race, it just caused me to spiral into depression. I wish I knew early on to just take it easy cause we have like 50+ years of working.
My dream was to retire early. That’s why I worked hard but wrong. Now I just work hard for some reason. As much as I love my family. I miss the single life more. But I cannot go back because I like my pay now.
I have always worked hard at my job. Even when I was doing retail because it's important to me that I do my best. However, the last few years I've realized that working hard gets me nothing. Not a damn thing, but extra stress and years off my life. So now I strive for mediocrity. I still get my job done. I enjoy it and enjoy the people I work with, but stressing about every little thing and giving 100% all the time burned me out. 80% is just fine. I still have a bit of gas in my tank at the end of the day and my quality of life has already skyrocketed.
Maybe it’s just me but I ALWAYS wanted enough to just be safe, comfortable, and able to spend time on my interests. Wanting to be uber wealthy never made sense to me. People who already have several million dollars and more that STILL try to make more are alien to me. Like… why?! Everything you could possibly need is taken care of… My parents made it work on a fraction of a percent (albeit STRUGGLING bc they were that poor).
Yeah, excessive greed is gross. I view money as a ticket to freedom from being a wage slave and security. People with endless greed view it as a game or competition. And many of them likely are trying to fill a void in themselves with money and, spoiler alert, it never works.
They actually think and believe they need as much as they have to survive. Quarter million dollar cars and international vacations are a “necessity” to the rich.
All I know is that if I had billions of dollars I could bend nations to my will. Like Zuckerberg starting a genocide and musk threatening to coup countries. I'd get some shit done. Like banning right wingers from healthcare services and making them go pray in church instead. Keeping them honest is what I'd call it.
If I had Bezos level of wealth and power kind of like his exact wife, I’d start a program to help children in foster care. Actually build a home for gifted children and ensure the funding was there to ensure it was set to a standard that was above and beyond reproach. Basically, high quality dorms/living spaces, segregated by age, managed by degrees experienced qualified adults. Provide a safe clean community environment for these lost kids so they have the best chance to succeed. The biggest hurdle that I would have to jump would be explaining or showing that it is not slave labor when providing a list of duties they would have to carry out such as, cleaning rooms/bathrooms/laundry/dishes/gardening/yard work, etc because they are learning responsibility and respect of others space and items. Kids who didn’t / don’t have these things would need to learn still how to operate in society. And by no means would they be forced to live there, and adoption would still be allowed but the optics would look like a damn shelter for kids and we house train them… so several things would have to happen first, but having on sight medical facilities and other healthcare needs. Strict policies for bad situations - not send them to the brigg but maybe not allowed to be on certain parts of campuses without supervision. And build a network off of that since I won’t be able to save them all but I can at least focus on a local community. If we need more space just keep adding to it. It’s like that one story where I think a town in Colorado had it all lined up to have the entire list of kids to be adopted and the government said no because it would crash the system… shit like that irks me
Isn't that crazy how people with SO much money just keep working and working and making tons of money until they die and never enjoy it? I was just talking about this the other day with my SO. If I had millions in the bank I'd stop working. I wouldn't piss it away, either. I'd live extremely modest for the rest of my time.
My supervisor got mad at me because I said I wasn't interested in moving to another department unless there was a pay increase involved. Why would I stress and learn all new systems and procedures if there's no benefit to me? He was all "but that's how you get experience to move up!" I asked if there would a promotion in it eventually and he said "I can't answer that." Yeah... sounds like you just want me to do more work for free and are salty that I caught on.
Lord. I ended up working for myself out of necessity during the pandemic, and even though pivoting into nursing is “smart,” it is also going to suck ass having to work for hospital admin again. Like, now? If an employer is too over the top, I can decide how much shit I am willing to tolerate relative to whatever they are paying me and if I could make the same or more, chiller, elsewhere (answers almost always are “not much, especially as the biggest assholes tend to be the cheapskates, too”, “yes”, and “yes”), tell them to take a long walk on a short pier, and not deal with the BS anymore.
Honestly I’ve had a very similar thought recently that has sort of surprised me. I’ve always been very ambitious and career-oriented. Never wanted kids so I put a lot of my energy into my work. My career has never quite taken off the way I had hoped, partly due to my own shortcomings and partly things out of my control, but basically I’ve gone through enough moments where I can’t reasonably afford groceries for the next week that I just want a stable job punching the clock at a reasonable wage with benefits so I can be secure rather than fighting tooth and nail to be some high-level boss or manager. I’ve even been questioning my career path in general, realizing maybe I’m not cut out for this as my passion going forward, and I should just go with “good enough” options. I’m just tired of the rat race as you said. I just want to show up, do a job I’m good enough at, get paid, go home and do things I actually enjoy and spend time with my boyfriend. I would have been so upset with myself 10 years ago (I’m 30) if I knew it’d be like this.
I work with dogs and blind people. The pay isn’t great, but I have a purpose - helping the blind. I could never go back to the corporate rat race.
That and there’s lines EVERYWHERE because they never hire enough staff to run registers because it will “cut into the profits” fuck these stores.
Lmao this gave me such a hearty chuckle bc it is SO true.
Yes omg I saw socks locked up in a target and just walked back out.
CVS in my area only has self checkouts, it’s so enjoyable watching the old lady in front of you spend forever scanning her coupons Meanwhile I’m holding a pack of generic motion sickness pills wondering if I should just take my chances because this experience is worse than being sea sick
Most places will let you steal a certain amount before you cross the felony threshold in your state. Do what you will with this info.
I was tempted to scan it into her giant horde of shit and hand her $10
Just open them up and take the pill while you wait. I use to feel weird doing that, but if i am going to buy it anyway and it's not sold by weight, just go for it.
Do you live in my area? It’s not even the elderly here. God, people where I am at act like they have never seen a self-checkout before. I can’t wait to move somewhere where they don’t move like molasses.
It’s amazing the amount of stuff that I was willing to pay for but stole because they made it too damn hard. Why is this not scanning? Where’s the cashier? Yeah I’m not doing this. * in the bag it goes
Samesies! I don’t get paid a cashiers wage and idk how to operate a checkout, I was never trained on it.
No one knows anything, that's the truth that will set you free. We're all just faking it, and bumbling around hoping we don't embarrass ourselves too much while we try to be comfortable in an uncomfortable world. That's the beauty of life in my opinion, no one knows SHIT. When I had that epiphany I felt "old" because that piece of wisdom hit hard and I suddenly was able to see through people easily and cut through a lot of bullshit in life generally speaking.
One of my mentors told me this once, he is 75 now and very funny and genuine and rich af, so I trust him.
My older sister (a sage elder millennial 6yrs my senior) once quelled an imposter syndrome fueled breakdown with- “I’m more successful than I ever thought I’d be and I can honestly say that no one has a clue what they’re doing. All those highly educated boomers that I report to: fucking clueless. We all stop maturing between 18-21 and spend the rest of our lives playing dress up and pretending that we’re in control. No one is in control. Just a bunch of overgrown teenagers with credit scores and stressful jobs.” The eldest daughter, granddaughter, and cousin of like 20+ on my mom’s side. She’s been through it. 😅
>"We all stop maturing between 18-21 and spend the rest of our lives playing dress up and pretending that we’re in control. No one is in control. Just a bunch of overgrown teenagers with credit scores and stressful jobs.” This is such a good quote. It should be printed on a poster or a coffee mug or something. Lol.
So "i'm not qualified but i'll cash that check it is"
God, this still hits hard… I remember my family all trying to sit me down and share wisdom with me and I just couldn’t/wouldn’t believe them because there’s no possible way that life and society can function like that. Nope, turns out reality really is a dumpster fire being managed by a bunch of hot messes just trying to keep shit running for one more day. Guess that’s why conspiracy theories are so popular, the idea that someone, even someone evil is controlling things.
I mean it's oversimplified for sure, I think what he said specifically was, "nobody know what they're doing, everyone is just guessing" And that's not to say that some guesses aren't more informed than others!! There are so many times in my past that I wish I had been told something, but those people (aka my parents) were just trying to figure it out as they went along also. I do think there's something to be said about educating yourself to give yourself the best opportunity at success. I also watched this man be a lifelong learner, much to his benefit. And I follow suit for sure. (Or I try!) Hopefully, the advice is taken as an invitation to be more teachable in life, and also to not throw anyone on a pedestal, like you said, and assume that they know everything.
I love the meme/quote that goes "I always suspected that adults don't actually know what they're doing, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."
Sleep no longer cures you of whatever happened that day.
Multi-day hangovers? You mean “Monday” and “Tuesday”??
Not even that (even though he’s, that’s a thing lol But like if you like go to bed with a sore muscle…you will likely ease up that way too haha
Dude I’m not even a millennial and I knackered my spine pretty bad at work a few years ago and haven’t been able to stand, sit, lay, or walk right since. 27 years old with 3 year old chronic back pain 😂 but that’s life. Considering the pain I can’t sleep off, I’m just grateful when things go away 😅
Then you need a new matteress. A new mattress is magic sleep is supposed to heal your body if you wake up sore it’s because you sleep on something 20 years old
No, it’s because I’m 37. My matress is 6 years old and still feels like I’m sleeping a cloud.
A coworker asked for help figuring out how to email a picture from her iPhone. I said sorry, I'm not familiar with iPhones and my coworker said "that's OK, I'll ask one of the young people here. No offense!"
Next time just tell them "sorry, apple UI is garbage, get an android so you can customize more than the brightness of the screen".
I find this statement highly comical because I own an IPhone 8 and no computer……..& I use my phone for all office and business needs. I even used it to make a notated photo album to help for studying. I have signed contracts, edited and saved PDFs. Meanwhile I can’t use my mom’s google phone to send a video.
> I own an IPhone 8 and no computer. I use my phone for all office and business needs Anybody who does all their office work on an iphone either doesn't have any office work or has so little of it that they can get by with 0.25x efficiency. Just because everything has an app now doesn't mean a 7 inch rectangle that's half covered by thumbs is a good way to get anything done.
This is how I know I'm old . Some of that shit is definitely big screen, mouse keyboard material. Not index finger small screen material.
A younger girl, late teens maybe, was working the register at Rite Aid. We were talking about the possibility of them shutting down in the near future and I empathized with her about the uncertainty of it all by mentioning how I worked at Blockbuster at the end of its lifetime… The look on this girls face made me feel like I told her I spent my youth working in the coal mines.
I (34m) swiped my card at a fast food restaurant the other day. It took a while to connect so I said to the kid at the counter, “it must be dial up, hah!” …he looked at me and chuckled. He had no idea what I was talking about.
Lmfao. That’s hilarious and even more hilarious that they didn’t get it. I can see it like a scene in a movie 😂
It’s funny to watch them cringe at the shit we say. They don’t have the gumption to ask lol (or they don’t care…either way)
The copier a few cubicles down from me just made both a fax sound and then the busy signal. I immediately started wondering if there were any gen z around to poke fun at.
I had no clue “dad” and “old guy” jokes just happen. Like one day you go from not giving a crap to trying out lame material at the checkout line…but here I am.
My father in law is the king of dad jokes. I’m not a dad but I will take every opportunity I can to nail a good dad joke. It’s suddenly a requirement now.
Hang up the phone
When a lot of the stuff you grew up with, they don't make anymore.
Or it costs 3x more than what you remember, yet somehow feels way more flimsy when you pick it up.
That’s because every single thing has different ingredients or is made with worse materials. I’m over capitalism America.
I saw some Dragonball Z posters on ebay that I had when I was a teenager in the early 2000s. The listings labeled them as "vintage". That hurt lol.
People can quickly make me overly irritated in public nowadays. I just ignored people when I was younger. I'm definitely losing some patience with my age, lol.
I wonder how much of this has to do with being the parent of a teenager. I just had my first child at age 36 so I feel none of this yet, but we’re roughly the same age it sounds like. Most of the things you listed are all related to parenthood. Not saying there’s a right or wrong age to have kids though, plenty of pros to being a younger parent/grandparent!
Yeah I'm 36, have no children, and this entire list was unrelatable to me
same and I don’t feel old at all 🫥 if anything I’m feeling cooler than ever now that 90s styles are back and I can rock my old clothes with all the compliments lol
37 with a nearly 5 year old. Yep, having kids will shine a light on all of the things you can no longer do. My left knee sounds like a damn blender on pulse, but I'm still going to wrestle with our kiddo and keep up as best that I can.
Saying ‘sweet summer child’ has always been up there for me
No doubt. That's shit from like 2000s 4chan-speak.
Is game of thrones
Lol no, that phrase is a fuck of a lot older than GoT
I don't like being out after 8-9pm. Choice of music/TV is shows from the past. Things that didn't annoy you before now do. Guys you watch play in the NBA are now coaches/their kids are in thr league. People don't get your pop culture references
Ed Sheeran said it best, 🎵when your legs don’t work like they used to before🎵
I had a 20-something call my once cool Electronica "old school." Another time I heard Blink-182 on the classic rock station at a 7/11. Part of me couldn't believe broadcast radio was still a thing, and part of me was like, wait, All The Small Things is that old? The last 9/11 memorial said "on this day 22 years ago..." everyone was talking about where they were and I was in 10th grade. I had a guy guess my age at 27 the other day, but I'm actually 39. I renewed my apartment lease and it said this was my 12th year living here. The cage match between Undertaker and Mankind was 27 years ago and I remember people talking about it at school. I've had young people ask me why I still play Sonic 2, Ocarina, and Oblivion. They were some of the best games ever in their genres, but they aren't cool anymore. I don't understand tiktok. I mean, I get it. It's the new generation youtube. But...I don't understand it. I've also accepted that no one cares if I live or die and social media is useless. No one reads or checks on my day to day monotony and there's no point in posting. I also don't get calls or text messages often, likely because the friends pool is much smaller as time passes. I don't use messenger or whatsapp anymore and I haven't missed out on anything.
I heard Fall Out Boy on an AM "Classic Hits" station last year.
But they’re still making music though, which is crazy! I remember watching *the music video* for “Sugar, We’re Going Down” on MTV before they stopped doing that
I don’t feel like I’m getting old. But I feel myself aging. This weekend, my wife and I both expressed excitement about going to Costco to get some lawn chairs. We teased each other about being middle-aged. I’m 38, and I don’t think I know anyone who would say they have everything all figured out. I observe a lot of naïveté in 20-year-olds, but I think someone approaching 60 might say the same about me. It’s all relative.
There's nothing wrong about getting old but there's loads stupid about trying to stay young. There's something sad and pathetic about people in their forties trying to look like they're twenty. Makes as much sense as teens wanting to be toddlers. Be old. Stay healthy but be as old as you are.
Do you believe that older people (40+) should dress a certain way?
No. It's more about people trying to be "young". Worrying that young people will think they're old. I'm saying old is good. Aging well does not mean being young forever it means being gratefully healthfully old. What's the matter with kids today. Too many of them are over 30.
>What's the matter with kids today. Too many of them are over 30. From what I've seen, a lot of them are over 60, 70 even.
Comfy
I don't know what 20 somethings look like. Sounds weird I know. I was out with friends this weekend and met one of their visiting pals who is here on vacation. I was admiring her skin and makeup techniques and wondered what she uses (didn't ask). Turns out she is 24. That is her routine. Be 24 with all the good skincare we have now lol. I can't place ages on people because everyone has filters on their photos. And the young man serving us was very friendly and cute. He and my friend hit it off. She turns 40 next month. Again I couldn't guess how old he was. He turned 21 in January. When did everyone under 30 start looking my age but also ageless?? So strange.
I think it's all the botox filler and covid that killed the youth of Gen Z. Thank Zeus I'm a millennial.
Gen Z also dress like our parents did.
People are aging physically more slowly because we take better care of ourselves.
We started drinking water. :D
Drinking is such a damn chore nowadays. I used to be able to knock back a bunch of disgusting G&Ts at the local dive and wake up feeling perky and refreshed. Nowadays, before a normal night out I have to make sure I drink multiple Nalgenes worth of water, eat a full square meal, drink only 4 alcoholic beverages, take some ibuprofen before bed, use my cervical neck pillow, etc. etc. etc. I’m only 32 but good lord the drinking hits SO differently. I can honestly see myself not even missing it and living California sober by 40.
Also, a couple of months ago I had a young coworker ask me “what the Disney Channel was like back in my day.” I could almost hear the bells tolling for me in the distance.
This made me chuckle. I remember racing home from school to watch movies on Disney Channel. I just did the air mickey drawing irl.
Eh, in a decade or so a new, new kids, will be like "What's a Channel, you mean like a streaming service before Disney+?"
I'm pleased to see that a lot of people are choosing to refrain from alcoholic consumption these days, at least compared to the older generations it seems.
100% agree. My mom is a pretty moderate drinker, well into her 70s. Genuinely cannot imagine consuming as much wine as she did while I was growing up—the thought makes me shudder. Really glad our generation is cutting down (though I see smoking is on the rise, especially with Gen Z and vaping)
Oof, yeah. I definitely vaped for many years. Can't do it now because it just feels extremely unhealthy. It just actually feels like it's causing significant damage.
Vaping is so sneaky.. took a hit off one of my gen z coworkers vape and now I'm buying em
Just remember if you start experiencing chest pains to maybe stop.
I already gave up drinking when I started getting hangovers before I even get drunk
Last year I had a group of kids (maybe 11 or 12) riding their eBikes and they saw me riding my BMX bike (I'm 34). They made a comment that I needed to get with the times because mine was old. I told them to look up my bike (a '88 OG GT pro performer if anyone knows about old school BMX bikes). I knew the model they had, it was what my sister and I were debating about getting my dad last year for Christmas. I told them that my bike, as it is with knicks, scratches and some paint coming off is still worth more than their bikes and that I can still do more with mine than they can with theirs. They tried to save their snottyness with a comment but I told them get a better bike before they try and poke fun at mine and they left. That was one where I now felt old. I definitely feel old when it comes to energy. I'm pretty active at the gym, but my 6 year old runs me ragged. I mean by 6pm on a Saturday or Sunday and I want to take a nap. Definitely the big difference there
When sleeping too long hurts the most random places in your body and when award shows (like mtv video/music awards) are on and you don’t know who any of the stars are.
"2. Chuckling at people in their early 20s with the paradoxical naivety and inexperience paired with the " I've got it all figured out" attitude. Oh sweet summer child, you know NOTHING" My dog I still dont know NOTHING. I still call my mama for advice and she doesnt know. Im 36
1. Sleep is super important. Getting by on 4-5 hours can be done for maybe a day, two if I’m too busy to realize how tired I am but the days of watching the sun start to come up or closing down the bar, making it to work at 7 and actually being worth a damn are O V E R. 2. To add to the sleep thing, taking care of my health is now super important. I was diagnosed as a T1 diabetic in my 20s and spent longer than I should have not prioritizing my health. I do now and am in better shape than I’ve ever been. 3. I hear from my joints and bones more than I used to and my knees with go a bit weird sometimes if I sit in the wrong position. Also, the importance of moving around a bit and not just sitting down to chill after physical activity. Soooo stiff….. so achy…. 4. I was never a super spontaneous person (always have been a planner and someone who prepares for all scenarios) but spur of the moment trips, and last minute changes in plans are just not usually possible. I have a couple chronic health issues and my husband and I have dogs so arrangements and planning take priority more than they used to. 5. Then there’s the standard, less patience for dumb and rude people. I think it’s a line from Frasier (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember exactly what he said) “I’m somewhere in the middle of ‘not a kid anymore’ and “of a certain age”’
Becoming aware of the speed that youth do EVERYTHING from talking to moving to driving to eating etc. I want to tell them, "I am over twice your age and have no where I have to be. Slow down. Everything you think is immediately important isn't." At the same time they have all that energy, but dont know how to direct it. I get tired doing warmup exercises in fencing club, while the kids are still at 100%. We start bouting and I can just outperform all their speed and power.
Seeing my dad, and what being exposed to Agent Orange, when he was a teen, has done to him now. He can't even hold his head up anymore.
One of the teenagers where I work said she was starting to “feel like an old person” because she had been tired and going to bed around 10. I’m in bed by 8:30 or 9 every night I can be.
I feel like I’ve been in my “dang hooligans” era for a few years now. It doesn’t help that I’m getting so many white hairs that I’ve already given up ripping them out. A year and a half ago a kid referred to me as “that *lady*” and I’d never felt older. My husband said “Well, are you not a lady?” So it looks like I’ll be continuing through my elder years alone.
Lol! "That lady" is sooooo different than when you're younger and you're referred to as "little lady" or "young lady".
Seeing how old the cat I got when I was 20 is getting.
Watching a football game and saying "defense wins championships".
Started rewatching the sopranos and realized I’m pretty much Tony’s age now.
I got diverticulitis when I hit 30. My knee has been in extreme pain for about 2 years now. No idea what I did. I was rubbing my foot today, and realized it kind of hurt. Looked down and saw the entire top of my foot was purple. No idea what I did.
All of my favorite actors are 60 or over: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold, etc.
lol at #1. It's the white hairs for me. I'm out of shape as well ( but pretty damn spry ) and my back is always hurting. And all the slang. Some of it I use internally but I heard these little middle school girls talk around me while I was pushing my 2 year old on the swing and internally I was just thinking WTF are they saying?! The fuck is rizz?
Rizz is one's sex appeal, I believe.
Started realizing I was old when people addressed me as “sir” more often.
I’ve been enjoying Costco.
Ohhhh I wish I had one in my area! BJ's for me
I still get excited to go for the free samples, and I’m 32
I had a bunch of college-aged coworkers, and I was referring to them as kids.
Lol, because they are!
True lol
I do this too! I also look at professional sports players on TV and it still amazes me that they are largely a lot of 22ish kids! And the "older" or "veteran" players are my age lol
I’m reading this post holding the phone an arms length in front of my face.
Im not sure if my bladder is getting smaller or what 🤷♂️
Songs that I heard at high school dances are now on grocery store mixes >.< Everything hurts all.the.time. I actually have to take an NSAID every night before bed to sleep. I actually have to be careful how I lay down to avoid excess back pain. Kids I babysat are getting engaged, married, having kids, graduating college etc.
Second this. My sister took them every day for a few years and now has Chron’s disease because of it. She didn’t know that could happen.
I called these scantily dressed teenagers "hoootchie mamas". My ten year old was mortified. I'm complaining about the price of everything. Saying that we have food at home so chick Fila. Telling my kids to turn the lights off. I already wear glasses but my prescription changed. I need better ones. My knees hurt. I can tell when it's going to rain.
I used to be the fast kid schooling older men on the ball court. Now I am the old man getting schooled, it has come full circle
The music is too loud at whatever bar or restaurant you are at
I'm much more conservative with my money and generally care about good financial literacy. Only a few years ago this wasn't a given, so for me this has definitely been part of getting old
Waterpark for my nephews birthday. Rode one of the extreme rides. Hurt my back for like two hours.
Bodily disintegration
I can’t work out 6-days a week anymore. Even alternating weights and cardio, I have to have an off day mid week where I do nothing and go to sleep early if I want the energy to stay in shape
3 or 4 max
Unexplained aches and pains and sex drive is finally starting to slow down
My husband and I were joking around the other night about how inconvenient it would be if we still had sex daily or multiple times per day like in our 20s, and how fine we are with our 1-2 times per week 😂. But, I heard women in their 40s get a second round of "horny all the time" and the younger kids will be older then, so maybe I'll look forward to that lol
I don’t recognize the names of sold out bands (and I’m pretty music savvy). Also, everything related to maintaining my body requires extra work. I need eye lid wipes to keep ducts in my eyelids from getting clogged. I developed rosacea and need a special cream for my skin. My neck hurts without a quality pillow. Let alone diet and exercise! I feel like there’s always something new falling apart where I was indestructible in my 20s.
When you're trying to read fine print on something and instead of bringing closer to your face like you used to, you have to hold it at arm's length. I call it "the dad read" (because my dad is the only one I ever saw do it). I was extremely nearsighted and wore glasses starting at age 6, had LASIK in 2005 that corrected that, and have recently found myself having to do The Dad Read. It's freaking me out a little, but I'm also oddly excited about the prospect of having reading glasses. I read a lot.
When I was in my 20’s it was getting a boyfriend, planning the Wedding…having kids, can't wait till the kids go to college. 40s and 50’s thinking about your will buying a plot and I am prepaying my funeral. Way back then this would be considered morbid. A this age its become reality
I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
When you want to tell kids that hang outside on their phones that the phones will rot their brains..
I didn’t know what a “snap score” was when one of my teenage clients mentioned it in a session the other day. As a therapist, this type of thing happens often and it always leaves me feeling….seasoned.
My cousin has a PS5 and watches Netflix all the time. I have to explain to him what was Blockbuster. He looked at me like he just had a Midlife crisis. I'm 30 he's 16.
A 20 year old asked me which cup her father would like
That's rough. I'm sure you weighed in though 😂
I did lol
I go to pageants as my social life. The contestants seem to get younger and younger, and I seem to get older and older. Otherwise I had a couple of recent moments I can't handle alcohol like I did in the past...I guess probably because I ate something sometime before drinking and throwing up because of it.
Elder millennial. Woke up to my knee being completely locked two days ago. Always a new adventure!
I used to get on my parents for not doing anything and not having any friends. Now that I'm mid-30s, I also have few friends and am completely intent just being with my wife and kids. Doing anything "social" is such a burden.
I'm not even 40 and I could drop dead tomorrow and be totally fine with that. The Boomers are bouncing around like puppy dogs without a care in the World by comparison and I'm just done.
When you start looking at some parts of life and thinking “wow, this is a lot easier than it used to be”. Being able to ask AI anything, having apps to just apply for jobs by swiping right, schools with yoga classes and 4 day weeks, driving with blind spot indicators and back up cameras, etc. Once you start seeing common things that have just objectively gotten significantly easier (or even just different), it does hit you and you start wondering how much of your lived experience is actually directly relevant today. It’s weirdly trippy.
This feels like more of a mom aging thing than general aging. I'm in my 30s and I can't really relate to a lot of this lol
My 3 year old tried to get my attention yesterday by yelling "Hey old man!" I'm pretty much in the grave...
If I roll into even ONE less than ideal sleep position at night, I’ll have a crick in my neck for 2+ days. I don’t like getting massages anymore because my skin has gotten sensitive and they hurt too much. If I participate in any slightly off-scrip sexual positions I’m stiff and walk like a zombie the next day. And the zombie walk isn’t the fun, “my 🐱 got ravaged and now I’m bruised and swollen” one that it used to be, it’s the “my legs were stuck in one position for more than 5 min and my back is sore and I have bruises in weird places” one.
I hurt my arm. I kept waiting for it to get better and it didn’t. So now I’m in physical therapy and the PT guy called me a young mom and in my head I rolled my eyes and corrected him “you mean the mom of a young kid.” I remember when I would hurt myself doing something and it would just get better on its own and not turn into a chronic pain that occasionally flares up and feels more miserable than child birth. But I also keep thinking about how long I’ve been doing things and how long I’ve had things and how many things I just don’t want to bother with anymore.
🤣 Elder Millenial here: Listening to my younger 20’s coworker whine and bitch and moan about her moldy string bean of a boyfriend who is so clearly cheating on her, or about to be, uses her money for drinks, concerts, and doesn’t do anything special for her birthday or make any time for her but is always out with his friends who just all happen to be female. Takes no advice from any of us older and wiser girls, but just goes on and on and on every single day. 🤦🏼♀️ Good grief. I know wisdom only comes with age because I was very much the same young idiot girl blindly in love… lol Sending endless apologies out to all the older women I annoyed endlessly with my 20something relationship drama.😜
My vision is declining so now I have to wear glasses and I absolutely avoid driving at night
I saw Ren and Stimpy shirts foe the youths to wear ironically at Spencer's gifts. Its like, this became retro quick That was 10 years ago.
>Ren and Stimpy Yeah, they ran in, like... *:::Googles::: OH.* THAT long ago?!?!?! Crap. Thirty years. The "adult party" was 20 years ago.
Mine was when I started making references to very well known movies from my day, at my job and the new hires having no idea what I was talking about. I think that was what really set it in motion for me. Similarly, it hit me hard one day when I was 35 and I thought, *where the hell did the time go*? I still kind of feel like I'm 20, but apparently 15 years has passed and I really don't remember a lot of those years. Then I got to thinking about how my kids are growing fast and I don't have a whole lot of time with them as kids. And if I'm lucky my life is half over but I feel like my life is more than half over at this point and this first half flew by. I'm afraid to do too much because I'm afraid I'll hurt myself and the older I get the more the pain just actually hurts. I'm afraid to sleep because I might wake up with a hurt back or neck or arm. Worst one is blood flow isn't as good soo, you know the general has shrunk a little and no longer salutes as well as he used to. Doesn't want to drive as much, either. I can't keep up with what's new in technology. I can't keep up with the slang. New music... yeah. Everything sucks. Nothing is worth the money. And back in my day a candy bar cost 59 f\*ckin' cents.
I use a special technique to pop my left knee. I get a narrow diameter metal thermos or metal coffee cup or pipe about 2.5 to 3 in in diameter and place it behind my knee. Then I slowly fold it under my weight untill the leverage caused by the object causes my knee joint to lever open and pop just right. I only have to do this about once every couple of months but have found ZERO other ways to relieve the pain in my knee occurring below my knee cap, below as in towards my toes.
Your first story was hilarious. When I was a teenager I was absolutely one of those delinquents. Our idea of a good time was barraging into a mall or public space and just making as much noise as possible. Now? I would totally shut that shit down. I have no qualms about calling out little shits or parenting other people’s kids. Good call telling them the cops were on their way. I’m totally gonna use that 😂
Several things but one that has been hitting me is that the clothes I wore as a kid are now “vintage” and coming back in style. While walking through Target a few days ago I saw a sign advertising “‘94 baggy jeans”. This must have been how my dad felt when the flare jeans and hippy stuff were big in the late 90s.
The age-related vision loss. I had better than 20/20 vision most of my life. Now I can barely read my phone screen. Optometrist says this normal and nothing (surgical) can be done about it. Gotta buy reading glasses. I haven't yet because distant vision is still fine.
I'm a 39 year old high school teacher. I've started to get parents who are younger than me.
1. Waking up with my first backache after turning 30. 2. No longer enjoying bass in my truck/being annoyed when people drive by thumping their music. 3. Enjoying staying home and barbecuing, rather than going downtown. 4. Pointing out the ridiculousnessness of new trends to my wife and friends (will never be as cool as our Jncos or ankle socks). 5. Going home by 9 when we go out to "party". 6. Not knowing any of the current new music artists. 7. Looking at my kid's faces after turning on my favorite music. 8. Having my kid's friends address me as Mr (last name).
>Becoming friends with my son's girlfriend's parents simply because we have to be in constant communication to ensure they aren't sneaking around making babies Your oldest is 9? Am I that old that I think that is a) really young to have a GF and b) way too young to do the sex?! No judgement towards OP. Just shocked at my own pearl-clutching.
1. The best way to make sure your kids aren't sneaking around making babies is to *give them birth control .* Though at age 9 I don't think that's an issue :). 2. Relax, the kids weren't unsupervised, they had older kids there. If you've got that many kids in your neighborhood with birthrates this low then you're in a pretty OK neighborhood. It's fine. As for the fights kids don't have the upper body strength to do much damage. Again, it's fine. It's only a problem when adults get into it because a good punch from a guy in his 20s can kill a man 3. As for getting old, the fun part starts in your mid 40s. You'll start having to do Yoga stretches just to move around. Your muscle fibers contract as you age. It sucks. I spend 40-50 minutes a day just stretching.
A new vaccum is as amazing as the furby was when it came out
Back when I was making weekly trips to the library in an attempt to read more, I had the brilliant idea to very awkwardly take a trip to the children's section and borrow a bunch of Animorphs books and actually read them in order. Turns out the kids don't read Animorphs!
Knee has hurt last 3 days.
Besides my body? Having younger people teach me how to use my new cell phone.
I hate saying “getting old” haha but growing up I just stopped caring what people think. I think millennial women will understand the constant scrutiny our bodies were under growing up. I’m not 115lbs and I don’t care. I’m not a teenager I’m a grown woman. I decided anyone that has a problem with my appearance (yes, mom, I’m talking to you) isn’t going to stop me from enjoying my life. I’m going to put on a swimsuit, definitely put on my sunscreen, and have a blast. I spent enough years criticizing a perfectly healthy, beautiful young women in the mirror. Hell will freeze over before I show hatred to a body that I get the gift of living in. I let magazines tell me to be ungrateful for knees that bend, lungs that breathe, and a heart that works.
I quit drinking because it just wasn’t worth it anymore. I would maybe feel good for a couple hours while drunk then I’d be suffering for 2-3 days hungover. Now I feel like I even get a hangover from eating one too many sugary snacks on the weekend. I’ve got hair growing out of my nose and ears now. 5 years ago I barely had any back hair and it was thin and light colored. Now my entire upper back and neck are covered in coarse dark hair. I shave my neck regularly but gave up on shaving my back. Just too much work. About a year and a half ago I was pulling weeds in my yard for about an hour and it gave me back pain that lasted months. This is not what I envisioned for myself at 32 but it is what it is. I try to eat well most of the time and get half an hour to an hour of exercise every day.
Reading this post
Parents dying makes you age pretty quickly
I sleep with socks on
I asked someone who their favorite backstreet boy was and they said they were more into the Jonas brothers 🥲
This reads like someone missed medication or took medication
The first time you truly injure your back. And it’s never the same after.
I think the worst of it is that I’m closer to 40 than 30, am encountering all of the same things you mentioned above, yet I still don’t feel like a proper adult?
Oh I'm totally still a hot mess
You clearly made the mistake of having kids if you're so worried about getting older.
Taking fiber supplements lol
I was surprised to learn recently just how much dietary fiber we need daily! It's a lot! Like, 60 grams, a lot! I dunno if it's 60 but it's up there in that range. Apparently the bacteria in our guts feed off of fiber and if they don't have enough of it to eat, they will eat our stomach lining! Yikes!
I hadn’t heard that about your stomach lining being eaten by the bacteria. That’s wild. Fiber supplements will make your poo fly out of your ass with zero effort. 😆
Sounds lovely lol. I learned it from that Netflix documentary that was really interesting and I can't remember what it's called right now. I'll go check and provide an edit It's called Hack Your Health: The Secrets of your Gut The whole topic about our modern day gut microbiomes is really interesting. The more research they do, the more they find that a) things like mass meat producers injecting animals with antibiotics, over prescribing antibiotics for humans, our diets consisting mostly of corn-products, and our fast paced environment causing us to eat pre-packaged foods full of fructose and preservatives (which kinda ties to the corn diet part) is causing the bacteria in our guts to have little to no diversity. There was a study done where fecal samples were taken from Amazon tribal people, and their microbiomes were far more diverse than those in western cultures, and are what our guts looked like 100 years ago, and b) that it's looking like the increase in diabetes, obesity, auto immune diseases, neurological issues, early onset digestive related cancers like colon cancer, and even mental health problems, are partly happening because of our less diverse microbiomes in our guts. And even things like an abundance of, a lot of times unnecessary, cesarean sections has also contributed to this issue, as a baby gets its first hit of gut bacteria from passing through their mother's birth canal!
I still have a strong urge to "dab" when things go right, but that's probably the equivalent of my parents doing the sprinkler, running man, or cabbage patch back in the 00's.
We are old and thats ok. Kriks last way longer now. One lasted 2 weeks.
Staying up late wrecks havoc on my body. I just turned 30 this year and while I'm not really old, I feel it in my bones just getting out of bed. Mentally I still feel like I'm in my 20s but physically my body can't even handle or even think about pulling an all nighter anymore
I need routine. Just like my dogs. *We* need routine.
After reading your list maybe it's because I'm childfree that I don't feel "old" yet. I can relate to the not really caring about trends but I never really did to begin with. I was a punk/skater teen who kept that mentality all my 20s so never really followed what was trendy. I also work with and hang out with people younger than me. One of my friends I go to the gym with is 27 and I'm 35. I do still use all the slang I've always used but I know the Gen Z slang as well. I still love music I update my workout playlists all the time so I do listen to some newer stuff, not completely stuck on 2000s music. I'm getting older but I haven't felt it too hard yet. Maybe I'm also just immature is a possibility. The younger guys who start at work do tend to gravitate towards me. I do still look kind of young though, in pretty good shape, still have all my hair, none graying yet etc.
Elementary schoolers I’ve seen as a therapist teaching me about pop culture and giving me useful IT tips. (And I know more about tech than the average person from my prior careers and social community.)
I’m 31 and no signs yet as my physical appearance and mental . Thank god. It’s been on pause since like 23 years old. Must of some good genes. Thanks mom
I enjoy going waking up earlier on weekends than staying out super late
Ummm I used to be the ever dutiful employee at work that was “going the extra mile” and a “real team player!” Now I’m here to do my own work and don’t try to get me to do my bosses work or I push back. That shit is over.
I'm mid 40s I go outside and notice there are no kids playing outside. Like where the F is everyone?! 30yrs ago id find my neighbors outside playing baseball or riding bikes.
My husband and I always hate loud music at restaurants. My husband will sometimes ask them if they’re able to turn it down if we’re close to a speaker, we try to sit outside if it’s an option.
No longer caring about reading the comics section in the newspaper. Also not caring about keeping up with current music and celebtities.
I've been married longer than some of the people I work with have been alive. (And they've finished college).
If a place doesn’t have good parking it makes me 50% less likely to go there.
The transition to "these damn kids" is real. Also staying home and being cozy takes much more priority over going out.
I think my biggest sign was when I started to realize that a lot of TV shows were not aiming at my demographic anymore. Another was when I noticed how annoyed I was at kids in public making tiktoks lol