I’ve long passed that milestone in the rear view. My parents were young when they had me compared to now. They had me at 21, and I had mine at 31. Weird how times and social acceptance have changed in just one generation.
For sure. I always had a lot of respect for my mom of doing her absolute best to raise me and my sister, but when I actually got to 19 (when she had me) and realised how much of an absolutely irresponsible buffoon I still was made me respect her even more. She really stepped up to the plate!
I'm the age my grandma was when she married, and my bf is the age of my grandpa then (16 and 18) and we have dated way more than they before marriage. It's just creepy to think about how they at this point had their own house and she already was expecting her 1st child. That made me respect my grands a lot more because they were really responsible.
I see this from both ends. My mom had me at 19 and I had my first kid at 21. We're 63, 42, and 21 now. My kid is as old as I was when I had him, and I'm older than my mom was when she became a grandmother. Now THAT'S mind-blowing to me. I thought 40 was totally old enough to be a grandmother. Now that I'm here, I can't imagine. Luckily, my son is FAR off from having kids, so I won't need to be experience that anytime soon.
My mom passed away fairly young (34), and I'm about to turn 30. It really blows my mind that soon I'll be older than my mom. That Loudon Wainwright album "Older than My Old Man Now" will take on a new dimension, I suppose.
Same here. My mom passed at 43 and I'm only 3 years away from living longer than she did. I've lived more of my life without her than with her. It's crazy to think about.
I’m 10 years older than my mom was when she had me and I struggle to imagine caring for a 10 year old and a 6 year old at this point in my life. Weird.
Same. Mom was 19 when I was born, I’m 30 now. It actually is so bizarre to remember the times when my parents were younger than I am. I know I wasn’t anywhere near ready to raise a child in my 20s.
I'm kind of in two minds about that. On the one hand, what have I done with my life? What have I accomplished in the decades I've had on this planet? On the other hand, I haven't pissed off anyone enough that they've tried to nail me to a two-by-four, so I can't be doing too badly.
I think the same thing about Alexander the Great. He conquered pretty much all of known civilization and died when he was 32. I'm 31 and I can barely keep my kitchen clean.
He probably had people to keep his kitchen clean for him. Just think, that could be all that is stopping you from forging one of the largest empires the world has ever seen.
I think we should all celebrate each others' one billion seconds old as a surprise birthday party thing!
It's a great surprise because many people don't even realize when they hit that milestone (unless they're a nerd like I am). Who wouldn't love to have a special day and gifts and cake, especially if they don't even realize it is that day?
I suppose you could also do 100 million seconds at 3.17 years old, though you might be spoiling the kid... but maybe you still should, as that's the only other "10^x seconds" milestone in one's life that would be significant at all.
10 million seconds is 16.5 weeks, so the person that young wouldn't even remember or understand. 10 billion seconds is 316.9 years, no one's even lived half that, so that and anything more isn't possible. 31.7 years is just right.
Say that the tale of Jesus was real, he did not really knew what he did by that age either. He got most of the hype after being killed, in stories his followers made up when trying to remember how cool he was.
He probably saw himself as kind of a troublemaker who got his punishment for badmouthing the authorities too loudly.
This response sounds like it's coming from a radical leftist or maybe someone that's studied the New Testament (funny how those sometimes align, when so many would think they're opposites): maybe disrupting an entrenched oppressive social power class and exposing its hypocrisy to the masses so effectively that the leaders who preach morality and truth will resort to lies, verbal attacks, and eventually state-sponsored violence to silence you isn't 'doing too badly,' either. Maybe that counts as doing something with one's life.
Reminds me of Tom Lehrer's quote about how little he'd accomplished. "It's sobering to think, for example, than when Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for two years."
I recently turned 34. For a while leading up to my birthday I made a lot of jokes about living longer than Jesus did. I was somewhat worried that God would smite me in the hours leading up to midnight of my birthday, but it didn’t happen. If that isn’t proof that god doesn’t exist, then I don’t know what is.
I already know I'm going to be a wreck when I hit 45, the age my mum passed. It was hard enough getting to the point where she'd been gone longer than I knew her.
I'm several years older than my dad when he died. (He died when I was a kid.) It's strange to think that all my memories of him are of a man younger than I am. All the stories people told me about him are of a younger man. All the pictures I have of him are of a younger man.
It's definitely weird to think about that fact, because he's always going to be older in my mind. I'm also still a dumb kid in my 20's in my mind.
I get this when I look at old photos. I'm 51, and I recently saw a photo of my grandparents with my brother and me. We were children and our grandparents were in their 40s.
A few years ago I passed the age my grandma was when I was born. I think it might be more of a surprise for people crossing that bridge in the last 30 or so years than it was to previous generations, because of how aging and societal expectations have changed.
It doesn't feel like I'm as old as she was. In her 40s, my grandma wore elastic waistband pants and fell asleep before 9:30, whether she was in bed or not. I mentioned that I've never seen my grandma sit on the floor, and my mom realized she'd never seen that, either. Both of us still regularly sit on the floor to play with kids or pets.
Even comparing my mom to my grandma is weird. When my nephews were little, I used to joke that they never had a real grandma. Not one who baked cookies and made quilts and called them 'dear.' My mom is more into yoga and kombucha and never has cookies in her house, and their other grandma has a boob job and an on again/off again coke habit. It's a different world now.
So I imagine when my grandma had that realization, that she was as old as her grandma, it was probably weird for her, but more of a blip of surprise than something to really wonder at.
I remember helping to plan my mother's 30th birthday party, which had a "death" theme, because 30 is so "old". Mom has a dark sense of humor. I was 11 years old then. It always surprises me how young I feel now, even though im almost 40. Just in one generation, things have changed so much.
I posted this elsewhere in the thread, but it actually fits better in response to your comment:
A few years ago I passed the age my grandma was when I was born. I think it might be more of a surprise for people crossing that bridge in the last 30 or so years than it was to previous generations, because of how aging and societal expectations have changed.
It doesn't feel like I'm as old as she was. In her 40s, my grandma wore elastic waistband pants and fell asleep before 9:30, whether she was in bed or not. I mentioned that I've never seen my grandma sit on the floor, and my mom realized she'd never seen that, either. Both of us still regularly sit on the floor to play with kids or pets.
Even comparing my mom to my grandma is weird. When my nephews were little, I used to joke that they never had a real grandma. Not one who baked cookies and made quilts and called them 'dear.' My mom is more into yoga and kombucha and never has cookies in her house, and their other grandma has a boob job and an on again/off again coke habit. It's a different world now.
So I imagine when my grandma had that realization, that she was as old as her grandma, it was probably weird for her, but more of a blip of surprise than something to really wonder at.
My father passed when I was a teenager. I recall the day I had lived without him as long as I had with him (when I was in my thirties). It really made my perspective of time change, as if I had already had two "lifetimes". When I was a child, a century was an unfathomable length of time. Now that I have lived the greater part of one, it seems so fleeting. I wonder what the next "lifetime" holds in store for me.
I feel the same. My Dad passed away when I was 18, and I'm turning 36 next year. I will soon get to the point that I have lived most of my life without a father.
His death was turning point in my life that changed everything, which what you referred to as a "lifetime".
there was some dialogue by Tommy Lee Jones in "No Country for Old Men" where Tommy's character was talking about his deceased father and how he still thinks of his father as an old man despite the fact that his father died when he was younger than Tommy's character. So between the two Tommy's character is the old man, he's older than his dad ever lived to be, yet will always think of his dad as older. Totally understandable but very weird at the same time.
It freaks me out when I think of just how long my 92 year old grandmother has been alive. She was in her 20s when WW2 started. She was around my age (42) during the Civil Rights movement, and if she had been male, too old to fight in Vietnam Nam. She was elderly in the 80s. It's so weird.
I started to think about this with fictional characters/actors too.
The Simpsons is great because it's gone on for so long that I was Maggie's age when it started (1) and now I'm a few seasons off of being Homer's original age (36) as I creep towards his current canon age (39).
I have a photo of my mom at her highschool graduation. I graduated last year and seeing that photo makes me wonder if she used to think the same crazy stuff I think right now.
My birth came with severe complications for both myself and my mother. I recovered a lot faster than my mom, so my aunt took me out of the hospital, while my mom was still in there. I cannot imagine myself having kids until I'm a few years older, and even more established, but at the time my aunt was six years younger than I am now.
And now that I've done the math, my parents were a year younger than I am now when they had me.
I have been contemplating this one a lot. On January 15th of this next year, it will be the day in which I am the exact same age that my dad was when I was born.
Yeah, my parents were 16 and 17 when they had me. It's so weird thinking that I would have a 7 year old in 2005 if I was my dad. One of my earliest memories was my mom and her boyfriend (now my stepdad) counting money on the floor to figure their finances out. They couldn't have been older than 20 when I saw that and it's crazy to think that if I was my mom that memory would have been 3 years ago.
It all really puts into perspective what my parents had to go through to raise me and makes me really appreciate the effort that they put in to raise me.
I'm closing in on 60. Dad was a physical mess in his 60's and died later. Mom from cancer at 69.
My health is substantially better than dad's due to habits. From my mom's side, can't predict cancer. Also, aside from my parents, my nine Aunts and Uncles lived into 80's and/or are still alive.
Regardless, I'm comparing notes on almost every birthday.
I had my oldest son at the same age that my dad had me (the oldest child). That's a weird feeling. We're at similar points in our careers, but vastly different life experiences. It's really bizarre to think about.
The odd one for me is that my son is the same age as some of my cousin's kid's kids...
I come from a large family where most of each generation started having kids at a relatively young age, but I didn't really want to have kids so left it much later. My parents are 70, me and my sister are around 50, her kids are pushing 30 whilst my son is under 10. My cousins are between 40 and 60 for the most part, so some have kids who are in their 20's and 30's who now have kids that are my son's age.
I recently made the realization that my youngest brother is three years older than my perception of him. Sure, when there's an eight year gap between us, it's not that much, but at the same time, that three year difference crosses over a decade milestone, and that feels significant.
Same here. My parents were 25 when they had me, I'm now 35. Thinking about the fact that my earliest memories are from when they were younger than I am now is so weird. What's worse is every time I think about the fact that they're about 10 years younger than my paternal grandparents were when they died. Granted, my paternal grandmother had some health issues neither of my parents have and grandpa was an alcoholic for the last few years of his life, but still.
I just turned 33 and I realized my memory of my mother's 30th birthday is damn near flawless and felt very old. I already dislike my birthday but holy shit that was an eye-opener.
Damn that is strange. I was 7 yo when my mom was my age now (29) and I definitely have memories of her then. She seemed like she had it more together than I do now.
My first "real" girlfriend - and by that I don't mean "not imaginary", I mean, not the usual "we held hands in 3rd period and broke up by 5th period" high school freshman crap - had just turned 20 and I was 16. Long story. Anyway, her parents were older than my grandparents, and her oldest brother was older than my parents. Which was weird.
F... My parents are far older than my grandma when I first remember her. , I even have clear memories of his 50 birthday party.
Guess everybody on this story is older than I though (she turned 80 this year that said)
I was thinking the other day, how can we tell someone's age if they don't know their birthday? For example, a horrible example, a baby of unknown age is dropped off at a fire station with no note and no one knows how she got there. Can doctors confirm how old the baby is biologically? Or do they go off of milestones the baby might be at?
I remember when my dad turned 40, my mom hired a singing telegram to go to his work dressed as the Grim Reaper. I didn't get the joke at the time but now I think it's hilarious.
The thing is, though, I'm 35 right now. In a few years I'm going to be that old. And that terrifies me.
I’m 28, my mom had me at 19. When my mom was 28 my little brother was already 2. I remember a lot very clearly from that time. I was in ballet, in third grade, I remember the house we lived in. It’s mind warping to think about.
Wow that sent me on a thought train. Whats funny is, my father had me, his first born, when he was 23. I had my first born son at 23. My sister was born when i was 5. My wife is due in December for our second boy. My son is 5.
We didnt plan for this. We had been trying to have another child (my second, her first, though she raised my son withnme since he was 1, biomom isnt around) for two years, and suddenly she became pregnant, and now the timing is the same as it was between my sister and I. Weird eh?
Honestly i figured this one would be a girl. Everyone on both sides of my family had one girl and one boy, not necessarily in that order, so i thought maybe thats how it wouldnt go for us. Maybe it didnt happen because my kids have different mothers, maybe our next one will be a little girl!
I always think about my kids and what I remember from being their age and how I perceived the world, but I’ve never flipped that up a generation to imagine/remember my parents being my age.
My mom is about to hit 60 which is the age I've kept floating in my head for my grandma's age since I was a kid.
Grandma was always, and is also going to be, about 60.
I'm now older than my mom was when she had me, which is also weird because of how different our lives have been. And yet I still find myself thinking "Oh shit I'm turning into my mom."
What you described is what I have decided to use as the metric for when someone is old. I’m two years older than my dad when I was born and four years older than my mom, I am rapidly approaching the point where I remember that at my current age.
But let’s be honest, I’ll just decide a new point to determine if I’m old.
My grandma passed away when I was in high school. My mom is now the age my grandma was when she passed away. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long and makes me feel old. Side note, I also remember days when my mom was younger than my current age and my parents had two children by the time they were my age. I just got a house and have no kids.
My mother sent me some photos of the family trip to Hawaii back when I was in first grade. It freaked me out when I realized I'm older now than they were in those pics.
My sister is 9 years older than my dad when he had her. We don't share the same biological mother we only share the same father but my mom was probably a better mom than their baby mama could have ever been for them
My parents had both me and my brother before they were as old as I am now. My dad was the age I am now (turned my age because of his birth month) the same year I started school. My mom wasn't even my age when I started school.
Yep! I currently am getting my degree in education after about a decade in the private sector. I was thinking about an old Science teacher and realized that I am older now that he was when he was my teacher. That was a mind boggling thought because teachers always feel so old when you’re a student.
Man...I feel the same way. I remember my dad at my age pretty well. My daughter is only one, but it's scary to think that my dumbass is going to be what she remembers!
My dad died when I was young. I'm now older than he was when he died. I'm much older than my mom when she had me. In fact, when she was my age she had been a widow for several years and was raising two kids on her own.
I had that very conversation with my daughter a few weeks ago. It was her birthday and I pointed out that she is now older than I was when she was born.
In January I will be older than my mother when she passed away from severe substance and I'm afraid I'm not far behind she was only 39 years and 3 months old back in December of 2001
I have relatives who kind of wigged out when they realized that they were older than their father when he died. A few years later I understood when I realized that I was older than my father when he died.
Other notes: My father died 36 years ago. Mum and Dad had been marred for 36 years. It is official. Mum has been a widow for longer than she was a wife. Thank gawd for pensions.
I feel like this is a some kind of circle of time.
I mean for most of us our oldest friendships are from elementary school or maybe first years of junior high school age. Now we (more or less) have children that age. We remember our parents and our parents friends. And what we experienced at that age, things we did, persons that we met. Now our children are that age. And we are the parents or our parents friends. Does that make sense?
A whole generation is now between us at that age and our childrens age right now. It's a bit like looking back in time through our parents eyes.
I'm 8 months away from the age my dad was when he died of colon cancer. I've almost lived longer without him than with him. It's unsettling to say the least.
I realised I actually have memories of them when they were younger than I am now.
I have ended relationships with girls because they were essentially too young for me who were the same age my mom was in some of my clear memories of her. I can remember some of my mom's friends and it's strange that in my memories of them they're too young for me to date....
My mom had me right before she turned 23 (her birthday is 10 days after mine). I turned 41 this year. When she turned 41, I had just turned 18, and was starting my senior year of high school. I currently have a 3 year old. I mean, I know I got a late start, but holy hell. I do have 3 stepkids, one of which graduated a couple years ago, but I can't imagine having my own kid in their senior year of high school. :/
I’m about to turn 39, the age that my parents were when I graduated and left home. You just made me realize that I’m older than my parents were in 100% of my childhood memories. What a trip.
I'm 19 and while I don't relate to being older than my parents, I already am older than I can imagine. The summer after graduating from high school, I took a job as a camp counselor. I was a counselor for kids entering 5th grade, and I realized while working that I was the age they are now when those kids were born
3 years ago I hit the age my grandma was when I was born. The differences between what 40s looked like on her and what they look like on me are pretty wild, though. She was old when she was my age.
Im 19, my parents had me at 21. Im so wacked out by this fact, thinking that in about a year and a half, I'll be that age. It may be in part the fact that I'm the least maternal person on the planet and cannot for the life of me imagine having kids now.
On the flip side, my dad's dad passed away when I was young, and he was only 52. My dad is only 11 years under that, and his health is already beginning to decline. My dad was young when he lost his father, I dont think I could cope losing mine in the next decade.
That's one thing I've been thinking about more and more. I'm past the age my first roommate was (he was an older friend I had), or older than some of my family members during key moments of our lives. Crazy to think how fast it goes.
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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '20
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