Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't understand what the big deal is about learning about aging. My mother was 32 when I came along, Dad 41. I never thought of them as "old." Dad told me when we moved to a new town to tell my friends he was 16, which we all thought was hysterical. Age was never talked about.....nobody seemed to think it was necessary. My father's mother was in her 90s when she died. I remember her being old, but so what? It didn't seem important to know. Growing up in my family life was life and we lived it. Nobody questioned painful knees, etc. Dad's back hurt a lot from his work, Mom put hot packs on it sometimes. So what? It just didn't occur for any of us to think it was aging. It was his work. We knew eventually we would die, no question about that. And we saw people of all ages die. My sister's girlfriend dying in a horrendous car accident. My other sister having cerebral palsy and going to a "special" school where there were kids with all sorts of physical problems, some of them dying young.
Like when we are born, dying is a personal thing. We never did it before, but we did it anyway. Life. That's it. I remember a tax man telling me to stop worrying because I wasn't going to get out of this life alive. And he is right. So why make a big deal about getting old?
I think there is too much thinking going on about this. Why does it have to be a major thing? Why can't we just accept it?
I just don't get it and truthfully I'm glad I don't. Plenty of other stuff to think about.
Last edited by NYgal1542; 09-07-2015 at 05:29 PM..
Reason: Added a sentence.
I'm 40 and I honestly don't care what life will be like when and if I make it to 80. Who knows if I'll wake up tomorrow? No point in worrying about something I have no control over.
I don't understand what the big deal is about learning about aging. My mother was 32 when I came along, Dad 41. I never thought of them as "old." Dad told me when we moved to a new town to tell my friends he was 16, which we all thought was hysterical. Age was never talked about.....nobody seemed to think it was necessary. My father's mother was in her 90s when she died. I remember her being old, but so what? It didn't seem important to know. Growing up in my family life was life and we lived it. Nobody questioned painful knees, etc. Dad's back hurt a lot from his work, Mom put hot packs on it sometimes. So what? It just didn't occur for any of us to think it was aging. It was his work. We knew eventually we would die, no question about that. And we saw people of all ages die. My sister's girlfriend dying in a horrendous car accident. My other sister having cerebral palsy and going to a "special" school where there were kids with all sorts of physical problems, some of them dying young.
Like when we are born, dying is a personal thing. We never did it before, but we did it anyway. Life. That's it. I remember a tax man telling me to stop worrying because I wasn't going to get out of this life alive. And he is right. So why make a big deal about getting old?
I think there is too much thinking going on about this. Why does it have to be a major thing? Why can't we just accept it?
I just don't get it and truthfully I'm glad I don't. Plenty of other stuff to think about.
Back in those days, people didn't live as long as were more familiar with the aging relatives. 41 is old to start out being a dad, it should have concerned people.
Back in those days, people didn't live as long as were more familiar with the aging relatives. 41 is old to start out being a dad, it should have concerned people.
I was the third child, so Dad was a first time father in early 30s. I don't think being a father in his 40s was a huge concern ever.
Back in those days? I am 73 and from my perspective, it wasn't really that long ago.
There's plenty of material on the internet and at the library for those who are bored and have nothing better to do.
Is there any area of knowledge acquisition that that does not apply to? Should we not teach them anything, and just let them learn it when they are bored and the tattoo parlor is closed?
This brings to mind the Fox News executive who was asked why they didn't cover a certain story that was politically inconvenient to Fox's editorial slant. He said there are plenty of media sources where the story could be found by anyone who was interested. As if that is an excuse.
When these kids someday lie dying, their regrets will not be for anything they did, but for things they did not do. A good time to be reminded of that is when the time is ripe to do them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss20ts
Who knows if I'll wake up tomorrow? No point in worrying about something I have no control over.
You have complete control over what you leave undone. What if, instead of dying tonight, you are given many years to think about what you wish you had done?
I'm 40 and I honestly don't care what life will be like when and if I make it to 80. Who knows if I'll wake up tomorrow? No point in worrying about something I have no control over.
If you're healthy today, you do have some control over the quality of the rest of your life, no matter how much longer it may be.
And I suspect that you're not really living each day as though you expect to be dead tomorrow, anyway, so why not live it as though you expect to be alive?
My dad was 40 when I was born. I was 8 of 9 so it was acceptable I guess. My nephew has been helping me a lot. There was a time we went outside & I wore a straw hat to protect my skin. He said, Aunt, that looks like an old person's hat. I asked him when he thought I would qualify as an old person & wasn't 62 old enough? He had no reply.
I guess age is in the eye of the beholder & the mind of the oldster.
*We try to teach young people many things that don't interest most of them - supposedly, for their own good.
*If young people think they're invincible, and therefore don't need to learn about aging, then why bother teaching them to drive? They can pick that up from watching their elders, too.
I still think it would be helpful for young people themselves to know what to expect, and to know that these changes are either normal (so, stop thinking of the Old people as disgusting, etc.) or preventable (so, continue to do XYZ if you want, but here's what's gonna happen).
Like this last summer, I tried to teach my kids how to hand-sew, we got some of those kits you find in hotels. At least be able to sew on a button in case of wardrobe malfunction.
How to cook simple meals without burning the house down
How to balance a checkbook
How to drive a car----never did get the hang of that,
W.C. Fields is credited with saying "youth is wasted on the young."
From Bartleby:
Quote:
AUTHOR: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
QUOTATION: Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
... Sometimes heard “…waste it on the young."
Dr. Stanley Weintraub, author and editor of books on Shaw, believes this is incorrectly attributed to Shaw and that it actually belongs to Oscar Wilde, since Shaw often took quotations from Wilde and inverted them for his own use.
There are wide variations among us in terms of how we age. What would we teach young people about aging?
What I wish someone had taught me when I was young was how to manage money. It's tough to learn budgeting in your 60's.
Budgeting isn't the answer, unless you have moderate income. If you're poor, like the average senior citizen, you hardly have any money for a budget. So just learn to be frugal, and to never buy anything you don't really need, and to never carry any credit card debt. Any time you see that your savings is less than six months income, you know you're in deep trouble, and have to quickly find ways to economize even more. If you have any credit card debt, with a low fixed income, you might be beyond help, because learning to live with credit card debt on a small fixed income is like learning to stack tables and chairs up to climb on your roof.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
