[Tracy Davis-Zeleny]

Why “Middle Age” isn’t an “Age.”

Ok, imagine sitting in your doctor’s office and waiting for the results of your yearly routine testing. Your doctor finally walks in, sits down and looks through the chart, and without even looking at you, states: “You’re perfectly healthy for your age.”

Well, that’s what he said to me, anyway. My tests are all in the normal range. I have signs of “fatty liver” because I’m a bit over my ideal weight. But what really caught my attention is when he said that everything is perfectly normal for someone of “middle age.”

Ok, I have to admit I was offended to be called middle aged. I hadn’t even thought of myself in that respect before. Then it hit me. I’m over 55, so I can get discounted meals at most restaurants, I have a grandchild, and two grown children, and my health insurance no longer requires me to have an OB/GYN. DAMN! I’m middle aged!

Perhaps it is the fact that I still have a teenager at home, or the lack of any kind of retirement plan. Maybe it’s the remaining student loans that are still not paid off due to the fact that my job is in retail. Whatever happened to my brain, it simply did not acknowledge the fact that I had hit the point of no return for being considered part of the middle ages.

I used to think of the Middle Ages as some part of history where science and religion were at war. Before the invention of indoor plumbing and daily hygiene. Of course I do live with a 14 year old boy, so daily hygiene is still an issue, but I digress.

Now the kids are saying things like, “okay Boomer,” like it’s an insult. These kids and some 30 year olds don’t even understand what Boomer actually is referring to, that it is a time period and not an age. The same people who can’t spell without spell check, or use a map, or find anything in a library by code. The fact that they think we are clueless is something I find rather amusing because they, in fact, are the clueless ones.

They can’t entertain themselves without electronics, they never had to walk to school – or even a bus stop, because the busses now stop at every corner. We have so many child protection laws that our children are unable to function at a level we could at their age.

At the age of 9, I was responsible for the siblings younger than myself. A job I frequently pawned off on my 7 year old sister, because she was actually better at it than I was. At 9 years old, I learned how to “delegate.” Most young people today don’t even know what the word means. By the age of 13, I had read almost every book in our town library because my mother was not a fan of television, which meant I was reading at what would now be called college level.

Today kids are no longer able to “lose” at sporting events, not graded on penmanship (pretty sure they don’t even know what it means), and have no idea what it’s like to be responsible for your own actions, because your parents are the ones who get in trouble if you are a minor.

So, I guess I’m proud to be a middle aged boomer, because that means I can take care of myself. I’m responsible for my own actions. I work hard, because I don’t expect someone else to take the blame for my mistakes. I raised my children to do the same. The only one that lives with me is the 14 year old, and we all know how much fun 14 is. I’d rather be my middle aged self.

[Monica]

This is such an awesome post, Tracy! Wow, amusing and compelling, you did an amazing job 🙂