The Seniors Thread :-)

[darksideofthemoon]

"This is for the Senior members of CS, those born before 1947. Baby Boomers and Generations X & Y are welcome providing you are over 18 🙂

But this is definitely for people who are facing the last long haul.  We have survived babyhood, childhood, being teens and twenties... We have learned to read and write, to drive, have probably been married and the women have survived child birth.

The challenges are constant and the near misses of death are also there.  If we have become a senior we have learned to survive so much, and along the way we have, of course, gathered a great deal of knowledge about life.

The  belief that age diminishes us is not true, it changes us and not all of it is bad.  Yes there can be various forms of dementia for some, but that is also a disease that can happen in younger people.  Alzheimer's can also occur - it is another form of dementia and generally occurs in people over 65, although that can occur much earlier too and not everyone is going to get it.

Most of us keep our mental alertness up to the moment of death, even if we lose our hearing and our eyesight, but of course this can happen at any age too.

What changes is our physical strength, which diminishes but our mental strength and patience grows, it has to of course, to deal with this aging thing.

Arthritis, heart trouble, strokes - all these things associated with age can happen at any time in your life - arthritis can happen when you are a child but they don't like giving out new hips and knees until you are in your 50s and 60s or later.  We can talk about that too.

Cancer can happen any time and that is also something we can discuss here if you like.

The point of this thread is to give the Seniors a chance to talk about how they are coping with age, the challenges it presents and the fears that can come with it... loss of hearing or sight, aging spouses, living alone, retirement villages, even death...

So I will ask that the Juniors treat us in kindly fashion and remember, all this is going to happen to you too - providing you avoid death before you get here 🙂

So, onward and upward.  Let's go...."

[rosieglen]

Kwozie !!!!!  Has been a while :-x

[rosieglen]

I dont think I was too silent - I marched against Vietnam - much to my mother's horror.

[azureline**]

😮 Rosie.

I protested Apartheid.

[jean2579]

rosie, so did I. We had a deal with the police. They would throw us in the back of the wagons in front of the media, drive around the corner and let us out. No paperwork, good vision for the cameras, the police looked to be doing their job and we went back onto the end of the march.  As for the 60's, well you know the saying, if ytou can remember them you weren't there.

[jvharrison]

I think one of the most important things that can happen for the older generation is to feel wanted to be appreciated by the younger generation as still being very capable of very complex resolution of issues.....

I see a very disturbing trend amongst quite a few people that i know in my age group whereby they are expected rather demanded that they care for grandchildren on a very regular basis., no matter their state of health

Seems as though many younger parents can or are not capable of caring for the little ones.

We have a friend who very regularly is expected to care for small children.......she is a bad diabetic and asthmatic etc........her tireless work is not appreciated We find it very sad to see her so used:(

[lifechange2007]

Can your friend just say no, she can't mind the kids as often as she does.

[jean2579]

I realise that it can be extremely hard to say no to your children, but your friend has a duty to herself and imagine if she finds it hard to say no, how much harder will it be to explain to the childrens parents if she has a health attack while she is caring for them. It really is a dangerous situation for the small children.

[purple_haize]

I agree your friend needs to talk to the mother of the children & explain about her health.

I look after my granddaughter 3 days a week for 4 hours each day, even when I am feeling well 100% I find it extremely tiring, so it would be very hard for someone who is so unwell.

Little kids have so much energy it is very hard and near impossible to keep up with them all the time.

Maybe the mother of the children doesnt realize the pressure she is putting on your friend to look after the children.

[alexander*beetle]

I'm happy to join the 1955 club. The worst part of being this age is when I sign up for something online I have to scroll through years and years cos it's right near the bottom. :^O

[jvharrison]

Morning yes i agree that the parents of the children needs to be spoken to trouble is the mother is an RN and is very very aware of the health issues of her mother.............kids love being with Nana.  Had to laugh my friend and her hubby went away on a cruise........family had plenty of time to organise care for the kiddies but whinged and said what are we going to do with the children whilst you are away for 3 weeks:(

Hope everyone has a magic and safe day:)