Community Chat

[Burnsite]

Due to health problems with my parents, who were divorced (I loved them both so much!  they just didn't agree), caregiving entered my life at around age 40.

I suspect I was not fabulous at fifty, but I was productive,  I am retired now, but am still working at writing and publishing.

Like most people in elder years, I have had some significant health problems, but am happy to be here, and am trying to make a contribution still--it's one reason I am moving to Massachusetts, where I grew up. For me, it's a more congenial setting for a teacher than FL.

[paixmcdao]

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@Burnsite wrote:

Due to health problems with my parents, who were divorced (I loved them both so much!  they just didn't agree), caregiving entered my life at around age 40.

I suspect I was not fabulous at fifty, but I was productive,  I am retired now, but am still working at writing and publishing.

Like most people in elder years, I have had some significant health problems, but am happy to be here, and am trying to make a contribution still--it's one reason I am moving to Massachusetts, where I grew up. For me, it's a more congenial setting for a teacher than FL.

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Welcome back! 

[paixmcdao]

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@KBEANS wrote:

I'll tell you what I'm not expecting. Patronizing comments about my age and looks.

I said  it before and I'll say it again. 
 50 is not the new 40 and so on.

Embrace what ever age you are. If you want to try to look younger go for it. But remember who and what you really are. And don't expect everyone to shower you with praise for not looking your age.

It doesn't make me feel better about myself when someone says I would have never thought you were such and such. You look much younger. 

I don't need smoke to be blown up my kazoo.

I have read so many comments on this forum, relative to people looking younger than their age, older than their age, and those  who "have not aged well." Exactly who decides what a person's chronological age should look like? Maybe I should ask the "Quintessential 50" that question, as they are surely living their "Authentic Selves." 🙄

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[ninjawife]

I have to say that after going through many hardships in my 40s which absolutely s**cked turning 50 was a joy for me and so far my 50s have remained fabolous.   My 40s started with me spending my 40th birthday at my mother's first chemo treatment for her stage 4 cancer.  She lived for almost 5 years after her diagnosis but during that time my father had knee replacement surgery and almost died from an infection.  He had 10 surgeries, had his knee fused and struggled with pain and mobility.  I am an only child and my parents relied on me a lot.  Plus I was raising two young children and working part time.  

My mother died when I was 44 and my father died 4 years later.  We sold our house and my parents house after my mother died and bought a new house where my father could live with us in his own in law suite.  I still had to care for him but it was a pleasure having him live with us.  

DH lost his job shortly after my father died and he decided to start his own business.  I was a contractor and lost my contract as a part time employee just as my DH's cobra benefits ended.  Thankfully I found a full time job with health benefits.  

[willdob3]

@Sooner  I find the subject very - well, I am not finding an appropriate word for it. Anyone creating these marketing ideas and anyone concentrating on them... Are they living under rocks..?

[Sooner]

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@willdob3 wrote:

@Sooner  I find the subject very - well, I am not finding an appropriate word for it. Anyone creating these marketing ideas and anyone concentrating on them... Are they living under rocks..?

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@willdob3 I agree.  Put on blinders I guess?  Or maybe don't get out of your nest?  Not on my planet apparently!  

[just bee]

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@lgfan wrote:

I am waiting for the "60 and Sexy" campaign.

I am going to be 60 years old next month.  My 50's brought me menopause and a hysterectomy.  I am happy to say goodbye to that decade.

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@lgfan 

I was just thinking that the best thing about turning 50 was menopause...

[bikerbabe]

I do know that the older I get the more it reinforces my belief that focusing only on the negative in my life does me no good.

It’s a lesson I have to keep relearning and a lousy way to live, regardless of the challenges life throws at me.

As for a marketing campaign, it’s not important. 💕

[just bee]

I'm trying to think what I was doing when I was fifty.

Shortly before I turned fifty I had decided to change careers, get an entry level job at a hospital and get a degree in Nursing.

Worked full-time, completed the degree, secured a nursing position and started work on another degree.

Still working as a psychiatric nurse at age 64.

I urge anyone who has a crazy idea about changing careers at fifty to just go ahead and do it if you feel that this is what you want to do.

I had never thought about the profession and I'd earned my first degree in an entirely different area, but by age fifty I'd taken care of a mother with Alzheimer's and I'd lost my favorite sister who had been her primary caregiver.

Suddenly nursing made sense.  I work with children, adults and older adults -- some with neurocognitive disorders as well as their family members who are caregivers.

Life is short.  Your body will betray you.  If there's something you want to do, give it some serious thought and figure out how you'll do it.

[Marsha2003]

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@hopi wrote:

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@pinkcrystal wrote:

Let's face it, it's a marketing ploy.  Nothing more.  

Well said....

Seems maybe at least 10 years when they started getting rid of all of the heading towards 50 well spoken, intelligent hosts and catering to a new generation of buyers  it really was the beginning of the fall of Q.

Now they are just trying to win us old buyers back.  Can't buy into it as much as I respect some of the the listed ambassadors.  I will buy when the  good pricing,   product  and service is what it used to be.

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If I could like your post multiple times, I would because you said what I think perfectly.