Second Middle Age and Baby Boomers
If you are like most of us, you probably believe that the improvements in aging and longer lifetimes means that you will be old for a longer time. This comes from the long-standing assumption that “old age” officially begins at the fixed chronological age of sixty-five. So adding more years would mean more years of “old age” to your life.
If you think in terms of old age with adjectives like decrepit, feeble, broken down and weak -what a bummer! I have good news for you because, this really has not been the case.
Lifetimes have grown longer, but physical aging has gradually and rather mysteriously slowed down. If you don’t believe me take a look at these pictures of two well known ladies approximately the same age but taken in different decades…..
Image via Wikipedia
- Image by startinghere71 via Flickr
People are not only living longer, they are entering physiological old age later in life. In fact, there has been a postponement of the physical aging process, and most baby boomers are feeling its impact to some degree.
There is a surprising affect of the postponment of old age. The additional twenty or thirty years of existence gained have been added to the middle of life-the prime of adulthood – as well as to its conclusion. Like a stretched rubberband, the entire length from the life course has stretched evenly, not just on one end. The result isn’t just the addition of time towards the conclusion of our lives, but transformation of the entire lifeline, especially of adulthood.
The time period of what was formally the end of middle age (about age 50) and what is now the beginning of true, physical old age (at some point over 75) forms a new second middle age of adult life – one that never existed before for most people. Now lifetimes may reach 100 years and include this second middle age or second act living as I like to call it.
This is great news for baby boomers who think they cannot start a second career or path in life at 50 years of age. Go for it, you have at least 25 extra good years to find what you want to do when you grow up.
Related articles on second middle age and baby boomers
- Trends shaping 2010: Dang it, we’re getting old! (myventurepad.com)
- How You Think About Your Age May Affect How You Age (usnews.com)
- Tom Brokaw Looks at Baby Boomers (boomercafe.com)
- The Aging of Aquarius (boomercafe.com)
- Canadians living longer: Study (canada.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=649e61d9-bff9-4aa8-b76f-d6454ab45b6c)
Tags: Ageing, Aging, Baby Boom Generation, baby boomer, Generations and Age Groups, Health, People, Year
Subscribe RSS Feed
How’s this for starting a new life after age 50??
Check out the story at:
http://www.boomercafe.com/2010/01/22/boomer-generation-defies-labels/
What a wonderful story and double the blessing!
I am looking forward to hearing more about your “new life” and all the new memory-making minutes you can share with us.
Linda
I love this! This is the first time I’ve heard it put in a way that makes sense. I’d be curious to know if they’ve done any actual studies on physical aging now relative to the past. I find myself constantly looking at older people trying to figure out how old they really are! Thanks for this post.
I love this article. It makes a lot of sense and it does seem like the new middle age is 50 – 75. I am 56 and have been remarried now for almost 10 years to my wonderful husband whom I met on the internet. My focus in my book that tells our story ‘Some Day My Prince Will .com’ http://www.somedaymyprincewill.com is to help other baby boomer women to open their hearts and find love again after divorce. It isn’t just about finding a man it is about my entire personal growth and learning how to love myself process. Anyway, I have subscribed to your blog and look forward to getting to know you.