What is Middle Age? What is Old Age?
When I was growing up, I never thought about the idea of middle age so much, and certainly, old age described my grandmother’s age. But then…getting older is not what it use to be!
Certainly as we’ve all gotten older, we have changed our definitions of what middle age and old age are - but for most of us, it’s still rather a vague number. While our average life expectancy in the US is around 76 years for women, it makes no sense to me that middle age would be 38. I certainly didn’t feel middle age at 38. May now at 51…but not at 38.
And “old age”? I’m not even sure when that’s suppose to begin. For me, it’s not really a number, but more of an attitude. In my practice, I see women in their 30’s and 40’s who are “old” - their health, their beliefs, their looks. At the same time, I see women in their 70’s and 80’s who cannot possibly be “old”.
How do you define middle age and old age?
