Age is a state of mind, but...

[DreamerRose]

I attended the funeral for my former husband a few years ago, and it was great to see so many of his family, who I got along well with. As I looked around though, I noticed all the "old people" in the family were gone and the children were grown and had children of their own. I realized then that his sister and I were now the "old people." It was a sobering moment.

 

[Jem]

My sister and me are older than my cousins by several years. And I'm sure everyone can agree that when you're young a, 5-10 year difference between kids is quite large, and less so as we get older. So this leads me to one of my first "I feel old moment". Growing up, I used to play a lot with one of my cousins. He used to follow me around like a puppy at family gatherings and we used to go visit them quite often, so we ended up playing make believe (usually Ninja Turtles or Batman) and legos.
Then (long story) I didn't see them as much, usually only at major family events. And then, I hadn't seen him in a few years.
When I was about 18? or so, we went to my great aunt's house for a big family dinner and someone came up behind me and simply put their arm on my shoulder and leaned on me like I was an arm rest. I turned around, and it was my little Batman buddy cousin, now WELL over a foot taller than me! I immediately felt old because he used to be my mini shadow. And being the tallest in my entire family, it was just such a shock. And I seriously mean the tallest, I'm even taller than my Dad by an inch, and have several family members that are less than 5 feet. I think I get my height from my paternal mother's side, I did have a few great aunts/uncles that were tall.
Anyway, he took great pride in making feel like an old shrimp...

 

[Kieka]

For years I worked in childcare so I had to stay current with slang and popular culture items to keep up with them. Even now, my 11 year old niece forces me to stay current with things so I can talk to her. Although it does scare me when something when I was young is now considered vintage or I see childhood toys for sale in antique or consignment shops. The biggest age issue I have is when I see someone with a baby who looks like a kid themselves. I have an 11 year old niece and I have friends with newborns, seeing an 18 year old pregnant or with a baby just makes me feel old. They just look so young.... It probably doesn't help that I know someone whose 18 year old stepdaughter looks 14 and is pregnant (legit, they were stopped by cops one time because the girls boyfriend looks older then his 18 and she looks so much younger).

My Mom though has one of those "old" habits. She will ask my niece if her and her "girl-friends" had a good time. We keep telling her to stop calling my nieces female friends "girl-friends". But she's having a hard time understanding that you don't call female friends "girl-friends" because the "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" is for dating while a friend is just a "friend" without gender specific terminology in-front of it. She just doesn't see that asking a pre-teen girl how her girl-friends are is implying that she is dating all her friends. Shes still thinking back when a female having a girl friend was just defining the gender of a friend not saying that the female in question was dating another female. It just gets confusing and if my mom ever called one of my nieces friends a "girl-friends" in their presence it could cause a world of confusion.

 

[DreamerRose]

I wouldn't know that girl friends is a no-no either.

 

[SpecterOhPossum]

When you start to out-smart your elders, and become smarter than most "adults" you looked up to; that's what makes me feel old. lol

 

[Kieka]

I wouldn't know that girl friends is a no-no either.

Yeah, I do get it. But if you ask a teenage today how their girlfriend is you are implying they are dating. And if you ask it in-front of said friend it implies that your child has suggested romantic inclinations towards the other child; which then can cause all sorts of awkward between the two friends in question. Doesn't matter if both of the teenagers or kids in question are the same gender because to them girlfriend or boyfriend is reserved for romantic and gender of those involved doesn't matter at least when talking to anyone under probably 21. Talking to someone 40-21 and they get that someone older is using the gender descriptive for a friend but they probably won't use it themselves.

 

[Kieka]

Yeah, I do get it. But if you ask a teenage today how their girlfriend is you are implying they are dating. And if you ask it in-front of said friend it implies that your child has suggested romantic inclinations towards the other child; which then can cause all sorts of awkward between the two friends in question. Doesn't matter if both of the teenagers or kids in question are the same gender because to them girlfriend or boyfriend is reserved for romantic and gender of those involved doesn't matter at least when talking to anyone under probably 21. Talking to someone 40-21 and they get that someone older is using the gender descriptive for a friend but they probably won't use it themselves.

And this type of language change is natural and happens all the time. Specific words change meaning or how people talk changes. Its more obvious in regional variances and how people speak but specific words change meaning too.

• You used to be gay, if you were happy.
• You used to be knocked up, if someone knocked on your door to wake you up in the morning (before alarm clocks).
• Being nice used to mean you were ignorant.
• While if you were awful at something it used to mean you were worthy of awe (think awesome).

Don't even ask about some of the words that get changed by singers so they can get away with some things in songs or popular culture.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I had to explain to my son the other night why we can't watch all of the new season of The Curse of Oak Island all at once; we have to wait for one episode at a time. Then he nodded and told me "Nonnie has real tv." We've never had "real tv" in his life. Only Netflix and Amazon Prime.