I went with a friend to The 50 + Show on at Olympia at the weekend. I hasten to add that I am nowhere near 50 yet, but my friend was doing some research and I was interested in the sort of things that would be on offer and what I might have to face in the years to come. It’s a funny old time, this getting older business but if you’re remotely concerned about it I would strongly advise you not to go to a show like this because it was highly depressing. More like an 80 + Show. Full of electric wheelchairs and retirement homes, rambling, cures for arthritis and clumpy shoes. It all felt a little bit grey. Not Fifty Shades of Grey. Just one shade of grey. Grey.
However, there was at least a climbing wall that several brave octogenarians attempted:-
and then there was ballroom dancing:-
But where was the Zumba? The sailing? The yoga? The cool festivals? The delicious food and wine? Surely, moving forward, we don’t have to follow the age old path if we don’t want to? Growing old is compulsory. Growing up is not.
This is not a good state of affairs and things are going to have to change. One person in six is now over 65 and by 2030 there will be a million people over 80 in the UK. More than a third of today’s children are expected to live to be 100 and hopefully in a more positive way than my 99 year old grandmother who is in a home with dementia having outlived all of her friends, her husband and one of her children.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to spend the next 55 years gardening. So here I am then. Back to the Gap Year for grown-ups. Travel, adventure, mentoring, life experiences, you name it, it should have been there.
We can collectively do better. It is our responsibility to set the new scene.
Muddling Along
July 19, 2012I’m definitely planning a grown up gap year when we get the girls off our hands – be nice to travel with enough money to do it in style rather than just out of a backpack?
My parents seem to have embraced the concept and are forever off out on jaunts
Family Affairs
July 19, 2012I know, but it’s sort of annoying when your parents are doing it isn’t it ? Members of the SKI club (spend kids inheritance) love it….Lx
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July 19, 2012“No where near 50″…..? interesting use of the language….xxx
Family Affairs
July 19, 2012Ha ha – I know….Lx
Gracelin
October 31, 2012Everyone would benefit from raednig this post
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July 19, 2012Having said that – I do so agree with you on the line that ‘growing old is compulsory, growing up isn’t ‘…our mutual friend M, commented the other day that You, (meaning me) and ‘C’ will be eternal teenagers…(something to do with our choice of TV viewing!)….I, sure as hell, am going to go down fighting. Think our new mantra should be ‘We Will Not Grow Up’ xx
Family Affairs
July 19, 2012Definitely – why should we? It’s too boring. Lx
saz
July 25, 2012bloody hell…with my 54th looming…I’d best check out boots for some Tena pads, the stairs for a chair,
hell no better consider a ground floor flat, what the hell throw in some assisted living…
clear our the ‘toy’ drawer and join a dating site stating gsoh and a zimmer frame…
what was l thinking dating a 36 yr old…what was he thinking..or was it research?
gonna go drown my sorrows in a stout..
saz x
Family Affairs
July 25, 201236!! You go girl – even if just a research project. Well worth it I’m sure, if only for a brief moment Lx