Hi everyone. My dad has a birthday coming this Saturday. He's been kind of depressed and not his usual happy self. He thinks he's like getting old. I didn't help any when I told him 40 wasn't old. He will be 39, not 40. Oops. It's only one year but he acted like I killed his puppy. It's not like he's ready for shady meadows and Jell-O or anything. I really don't get it. I didn't think men got upset over getting older. It's surprising me that he's behaving like this. Any suggestions for cheering up someone who's stressing about getting older? Or should I just buy him high wasted pants and yellow socks.
Julia.
40 is not old! I am 51, and feel like 30 most of the time. Maybe you could buy him a pin that says "29 and holding".
39? Ha! What I'd give to be 39 again. I'm 55 and some days I feel it and some I don't.
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Quote from: Gertrude on August 23, 2017, 09:35:39 PM
39? Ha! What I'd give to be 39 again. I'm 55 and some days I feel it and some I don't.
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Same thing!..Even though I'm 55 as well, I usually don't feel it.
39 isn't old, its just getting started good!
Ryuichi
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Oh my!
All these youngsters talking about old age. I just found out this morning I have arthritis in my feet. I knew about it in my shoulders already. I'll be 65 in 17 days.
Take your dad to dinner and the movies. Buy him some popcorn and licorice and call it good. When AARP starts bugging him he can start to feel older. lol
Hugs Julia,
Laurie
Tell your dad to stop being such a girl!
Quote from: Laurie on August 23, 2017, 10:43:45 PM
Oh my!
All these youngsters talking about old age. I just found out this morning I have arthritis in my feet. I knew about it in my shoulders already. I'll be 65 in 17 days.
Take your dad to dinner and the movies. Buy him some popcorn and licorice and call it good. When AARP starts bugging him he can start to feel older. lol
Hugs Julia,
Laurie
Ugh. I started getting AARP spam when I hit 45. He has a few years still. [emoji12]
Ryuichi
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I will be 44 in October, so not to far off from your dad. My family used to do "over the hill" birthday parties for each decade starting at age 40. Then there was to many of us at that age and it stopped. Sometimes the party was set up all in black, almost like a funeral, and sometimes it was set up like a baby shower with pink and blue balloons, and all the other baby paraphernalia. I am down to 1 cousin who is not, legally or physically, older than 40, I have several cousins and a mother who are celebrating anniversaries of turning 35, but won't claim to be older than 35.
I guess my answer is, make it a joke.
Julia,
I thought of a nice gift.
Buy him some nice slippers and a blanket. Maybe a cushion for his head. Prop his feet up and tell him. "Dad, since you are feeling so old. Please tell me about all of those old war stories?"
Run like hell and hope he doesn't catch you!
Then have a nice dinner and a good laugh.
In our morbid family we rather laugh it off and take it for what it is.
I generally tell whoever the birthday boy or girl is that Walmart sells caskets online now. Buy one while they're cheap.
Since I'm the oldest I just tell the others to start buying me some wood. I want ta make my own and use it for a coffee table until I kick the bucket.
My brother and I had plans for his 40th birthday which are ruined because he's only going to be 39. Yeah..we both thought he was turning 40. I guess we are just bad kids not knowing his age. Lol. My brother had a big banner printed that says "Lordy lordy Jack turned 40". He was going to hang it across the garage door. I guess we will have to save it till next year.😞 I guess we will take him to dinner or something. That's awful having to change our plans and be nice to him on his birthday! JK.lol
People get so weird about their age. My mom has been saying she was 35 for the last 3 years when everyone knows she's the same age as my dad.
Cindy, that's hilarious. But I'm sure he wouldn't think so though.Lol My brother told him he would put a rocking chair outside the front door so he could watch the lawn and say " get off my lawn you damn kids!" if any of the neighborhood kids started playing on our lawn. It's just hard to take my dad's attitude seriously. 39 isn't old and he looks younger than his age. They say men have a midlife crash so maybe that's it.
Julia
Geez, that's not old.
I'm 52 and keep so friggin' active with backpacking, hiking and hunting.
Currently I'm immersing myself in every book and blog about solo hiking either the Appalacian trail or the Pacific Crest trail next year. I love hiking...and especially solo.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 24, 2017, 06:48:23 AM
My brother and I had plans for his 40th birthday which are ruined because he's only going to be 39. Yeah..we both thought he was turning 40. I guess we are just bad kids not knowing his age. Lol. My brother had a big banner printed that says "Lordy lordy Jack turned 40". He was going to hang it across the garage door. I guess we will have to save it till next year.😞
Julia I love your posts that's too funny. Don't worry my kids always get my age mixed up. I would like it if they would think I'm younger once in a while. :)
Paige :)
Age ain't nothin' but a number. And the number 40 is definitely not old. He's raised a couple great kids into adulthood, I'd say that's a pretty amazing accomplishment, especially at such a young age!
I'm 36, and don't have much to show for it. He should be proud!
But, truly, sometimes people just get into a funk that only they can get themselves out of. I think showing him love and support from the heart is the best thing you can do for anyone who is down. What form it takes isn't as important as keeping your heart open.
And if that all sounds a little too ethereal, then I suggest looking into some activity he enjoys. A Baseball game or a hike or a Concert. Those sorts of activities can be energizing and make a person feel less old.
Just my $0.25 . Happy Birthday Julia's Dad :)
So I looked up the median age of people in the UK. Apparently it's 40.5, therefore more than half of the people in the UK are older than him.
Oops sorry I could have sworn you said you were from the UK. Oh well the US has a slightly younger median population. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_median_age
Nothing says you've still got it like a wink from a cute girl. Have a waitress flirt with him for a side tip. Don't tell anyone you did it, or it ruins it. I did this for my sister too:)
Bari Jo
Quote from: Bari Jo on August 24, 2017, 06:26:07 PM
Nothing says you've still got it like a wink from a cute girl. Have a waitress flirt with him for a side tip. Don't tell anyone you did it, or it ruins it. I did this for my sister too:)
Bari Jo
That's one of the things I don't get about his getting older worries. Women hit on him all the time! That should tell him something. If he doesn't stop with this silly nonsense I'm going to make him some prune juice and a can of ensure for dinner, buy him a walker and put him to bed at 6 o'clock.
Julia
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 24, 2017, 06:41:50 PM
That's one of the things I don't get about his getting older worries. Women hit on him all the time! That should tell him something. If he doesn't stop with this silly nonsense I'm going to make him some prune juice and a can of ensure for dinner, buy him a walker and put him to bed at 6 o'clock.
Julia
You could always do that to yourself, and when your heading off to bed make some comment about you young ones staying up to all hours when you need your sleep, and to tone it down because you don't want the noise that you young people make.
When people complain about getting old, I remind them that there's only one alternative, and it sucks. Okay, I guess that probably won't help.
Seriously, though, I really only started living at 40. I started doing things that I enjoyed instead of what I was "supposed to". The forties are the decade when you have enough experience to have fun being good at anything you do, while still having good enough health to enjoy it all.
My sixties are shaping up to be my best decade ever, but my forties were not far behind.
Tell me about it. My mother was convinced she'd die at 40 and seems disappointed she didn't because she's been freaking out about age ever since.
Someone obsessed with it probably won't listen. But they'll get over it.
Quote from: Viktor on August 25, 2017, 07:49:52 PM
Tell me about it. My mother was convinced she'd die at 40 and seems disappointed she didn't because she's been freaking out about age ever since.
Someone obsessed with it probably won't listen. But they'll get over it.
When I was a kid I didn't think I was going to live past 35.. I didn't really want to back then. 35 was really really old.
Laurie
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 24, 2017, 06:41:50 PM
That's one of the things I don't get about his getting older worries. Women hit on him all the time! That should tell him something.
But the women flirting with him are probably getting older too.
QuoteIf he doesn't stop with this silly nonsense I'm going to make him some prune juice and a can of ensure for dinner, buy him a walker and put him to bed at 6 o'clock.
Get him a cane, but watch out he might hit you with it and some AARP literature.
Quote from: amandam on August 24, 2017, 01:06:11 AM
Tell your dad to stop being such a girl!
touché ( is that
Marlo Thomas?? ) Now who's showing at 61!! And tell dad to grow up!!!
People still do me!!!
He had fun on his birthday and he's over the feeling old thing for now. Geez, he's going to be worse next year when he hits 40.
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 30, 2017, 04:53:38 PMGeez, he's going to be worse next year when he hits 40.
Isn't it great we got
"The Great Crisis" out of the way early, while still young??
Everyone will feel the same it's normal
I remember when I turn 20 I felt so old now few years later i will kill to be 20 again
and I'm still in my mid 20's
[emoji23] just kidding
It's part of life everyone feel this way
[emoji8] HBD
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 30, 2017, 04:53:38 PM
He had fun on his birthday and he's over the feeling old thing for now. Geez, he's going to be worse next year when he hits 40.
Tell him that you are going to the East Asian age reckoning system for next year. His birthday won't be until February, and he will be 41 ;D
Quote from: Artesia on August 31, 2017, 06:25:34 AM
Tell him that you are going to the East Asian age reckoning system for next year. His birthday won't be until February, and he will be 41 ;D
Lol I like that. But adding another year to his age could be hazardous to my health.lol
Quote from: Julia1996 on August 31, 2017, 06:57:39 AM
Lol I like that. But adding another year to his age could be hazardous to my health.lol
Yes, but the following year when you go back to the Gregorian calendar and way of reckoning age, he will get to celebrate 41 again, and skip the dreaded big 40 that so many people despise hitting.
I wish there was an evil hand rubbing emote, like the old 70's villains.
find him some older friends, guys in their 50s ... let them shift his perspective
40?, Ha, I wish... Been there, done that.
We learn to wear our age as a badge of honor, not everyone is granted the option to get old!
I hit 40 last month, I simply pretended it didn't happen, but now I have to check the 40-49 box on surveys [emoji853].
Seriously though, I'm doing my first Olympic triathlon next weekend, I ain't slowin' down for anything!
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My dad has one more year to enjoy his 30s. He did say having 2 adult children made him feel old. I'm not the one who told him to start having kids when he was 17. I told him on the bright side he would be a young grandpa one day. That didn't seem to comfort him much. Lol
Quote from: Kiera on August 30, 2017, 04:24:43 PM
touché ( is that Marlo Thomas?? ) Now who's showing at 61!! And tell dad to grow up!!!
People still do me!!!
Oh yeah it's her. My idol! That Girl, not Marlo. ha.
Julia, tell dad you are concerned. He's worried about his age like girls do. Ask him, "Am I rubbing off on you? Do you have something to tell me?". LOL.
Quote from: Julia1996 on September 01, 2017, 12:07:03 PM
My dad has one more year to enjoy his 30s. He did say having 2 adult children made him feel old. I'm not the one who told him to start having kids when he was 17. I told him on the bright side he would be a young grandpa one day. That didn't seem to comfort him much. Lol
I'm a young(er) granpa, and its fun!
Ryuichi
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