What do you think are the stages of life

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-27-1999
What do you think are the stages of life
11
Mon, 04-28-2008 - 10:50pm

Hi there!


 


My name is Bridgette,.  I’ve been a regular poster on the 30-42 health board for years, and am a former CL of an iVillage board as well.  I’ve been thinking lately that perhaps the age ranges of our Health and Well-Being boards aren’t divided up possibly as well as they could be.  Would you be open to considering new age ranges for our Health and Well-Being boards?  I got to thinking about how *most women’s* lives are structured (of course, there will always be exceptions) and this is what I came up with:


 


18-25:  Just finished high school, going through college, or just starting in the working world, still very much trying to find yourself.  Some people in this age group just haven’t quite figured out what it’s all about yet or where they’re going in their lives, but they’re working on it.  Or maybe you know exactly what you want to be "when you grow up" and you’re hard at work towards achieving that goal. A few of you may even already be starting families of your own. Your body’s in great shape, not too many serious health complaints.


 


26-35:  Now you’re on your way.  You’ve started down your career path (whether that’s a professional career or a SAHM career), you’re starting to figure things out, starting to become more comfortable with yourself, you’re settling down and probably getting married, having kids, buying your first home, or at least working towards it.  And on the health side, your body is starting to do some odd, weird little things it never did before, and you’re wondering what the heck’s going on in that department.  Is it just you, or do other women experience these same strange things?.  Perhaps you used to be able to pull all-nighters and bounce right back the next day, but if you do that now, it takes you 3 days to recover, and you’re thinking “when did *this* happen?”


 


36 – 49:  You’re settled.  You’re probably married (maybe even more than once), your kids are getting older and your parents are becoming senior citizens.  You’ve built up experience in your professional career, if you have one, and in your life.  Whatever issues you used to have with your parents are ancient history as you watch them delight in the joys of grandparenthood.  As a woman, your body is starting to prepare itself for “the big change,” and it ain’t pretty.  But strangely enough, you feel pretty darn comfortable in your own skin.


 


50-62:  You’re starting to think long and hard about retirement.  If you bought your house a little late in life, you’re starting to wonder how you’re going to keep up that mortgage payment after you retire.  But darn, who cares about the mortgage when those grandkids are just so darn cute?  And in the health department, those ole aches and pains are starting to creep up on you more and more.  You’re starting to really worry now about what serious health issues may suddenly show up out of nowhere and how badly those things could diminish your quality of life.  You make an extra effort to make healthier food and lifestyle choices, hoping you can make up for lost time.  Or maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who made a lot of good investments over the years and you can retire ahead of schedule, and have enough money on hand to really get the most out of those golden years..


 


63+:  You officially retired from that great job you had all those years, but now what do you do with all this free time?  Should you volunteer?  Join a health club?  Travel?  Can you even afford not to be working anymore?  Well beyond menopause now, with tons of free time on your hands, this is when life really begins.  You’ve been waiting all your life for those wonderful leisure years where you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn every day anymore to go to that job, so you can *finally* sleep in, but darn it to heck, you’ll be darned if you can sleep past 5am anymore!


 


So what do you think?  Do these age ranges make sense to you?  Or have I missed the mark? Would you be willing to join me in encouraging iVillage to re-vamp our health and well-being message boards to reflect these age ranges and stages of life?  Do you agree with the age ranges and life stages I’ve outlined? 


 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.  Lurkers too!

--Bridgette


You can also check out my photo albums here:
http://community.webshots.com/user/photofloozy
New photos added frequently

--Bridgette

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-1999
Sun, 05-04-2008 - 11:43am

Hello....Ruth here....I am now 60 and have been here for 7 years or so.....I do visit the 60+ board but don't feel I really fit in over there...so I post there sometimes and here more!


 


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