I'm 60. That's not old. Of course, "Old" is a moving target, something like 5 years older than I am.
I told a teenage friend a story, finishing with, "And I'm not old." She looked at me as if to say, "And what planet are YOU from?"
I work Private Duty, taking care of medically fragile children in their own homes. I had one mother tell her 6-year old (in front of me), "Be careful, don't trip the nurse. She might fall and break her hip!"
And then there was the mom who told me that she was glad that I was spry!
Spry: (definition) Markedly brisk and active, especially at an advanced age!
OK, I have gray hair. I earned it. And I'm not about to bother coloring it. But I don't act old. I play with the kids on the floor, and I pop right back up.
Specializes in Broad range, mental health, school nursi.
is it just me, or do you notice that, once you past the 40 mark, you have good days and bad days? Days when you feel and look awesome, you get carded, and your students (school nurse here) ask if you're so and so's sister. And the world still seems to be your oyster. Other days you look and feel ancient, and you get asked at the drug store if you've signed up for their senior citizens program, and your students ask you if you are so and so's granny. What's going on with that?
Sometimes I'm SO tired when I leave a home that I just want to go out to the car and lean against it, face-down. But I don't. I walk out briskly, get in, and drive off. (They can't see my face! That's probably a good thing.)
I used to be 20 in college and said to someone casually that I didn't think someone older would be in school still. He was 26.
Last year 2015 I called the MD for an elevated BP and he asked me if the pt was old...I didn't remember the age exactly. I said yeah, he's kinda old. Then I found the age and it was somewhere around late 40's early 50's. MD was like "(my name) that's not old!!"
Yes I get surprised when someone is "that old" and active in all aspects; but if I say it, it's in compliment.
If my 74yo mother isn't old (she recently went sky diving and is planning to go skydiving with her grandson when he turns 18), then now way are you old! Old is 90. (So says the woman who tells everyone she is 21, and has been for man MANY years)
I took up skydiving when I was 60, and it is still my hobby. I've been solo diving since 61, and love it! I quit hospital nursing (L&D) at 65 but still work as a practitioner in busy health department. When I left the hospital, there were nurses in their 40s who would "disappear" when the elevator doors opened so they could avoid taking on another patient. I never hid. I could manage two laboring mothers, a triage patient, break down the labor bed by myself, play OR tech as needed (which included cleaning the OR room). There are many young "old" nurses! At 71, I'm now at the point I want to play and have plans to travel and live throughout South and Central America, as soon as my house gets on the market (which I'm busy painting inside) and sold! Thanks to my mom's genes!!! Old is when I'm dead.
despite that I am also OLD, its the rudeness of the people that make the comment. Develop a thick skin toward this attitude. It aint going away. Dont try to make a rebuttal back, because they wont hear it. Save your energy and time, just do your work. They are not worth the come back.
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
Yes, they do.