The other day my four year old son asked me how old I was. I thought for a moment and answered him. Then I thought a bit longer trying to get my head around it all.

It seems only yesterday that I was a little kid and in some ways I still feel the same way I always have. I don`t very often feel qualified to be 36 and it still blows my mind that I made people.

I always kind of subscribed to the motto 'I don`t wanna grow up". Obviously as a parent who works and puts food on the table I have grown up but again in some ways I am still a child. I am not sure where I am going but wondered how people feel about age.

You know sometimes when you are a particular age you have friends who seem older. People who are young but already act like proper grown ups. Then you see people that are old but don`t act very grown up and perhaps the world is just badly split up and age is not a factor just different mentalities. I dunno.

This topic was brought to you by a confused 36 year old mind at 4.17 am. maybe that is another thing to look at.

i-baster wrote:
Your as old as you think,and your as old as you feel,36 is a young man who has to face many years ahead of work and experiences,it goes fast,and before you know it your getting on up there.

You should feel proud you have a child,and enjoy these times the best you can,because you will reflect back on them,I am not a school educated person,and just a common person that has had many life experiences that have shaped my opinion of people in general.
But one thing I know you stay young at heart if you really want to,but it's easy to become hard hearted,and bottom line is it has a lot to do with how you feel physically.
Don't think to hard young man, just enjoy things the best you can,and love your family with all your heart

I saw it say senior border under your name but had no idea.

Seriously though. Yes I do love my family and try to enjoy every second. Thank you for your wise words.

i-baster wrote:
lol the senior title fits
Yes consider yourself blessed with any family, and especially a child,thank you for considering my words wise,I just try to express things the best I can with honesty,and from experience which has shown me things that formed my opinions mainly on people and how they are.

something that is weird as i get older is looking back at how the younger me felt about people of my age - i used to think they were a completely different species - that you hit a certain age and the insecurities, the fear and the confusion go away - i didnt know what i wanted to be at 13 when i was ment to be choosing my gcse options - i had no clue what i wanted to be when i was choosing my a levels - or what i wanted to be when i was choosing my degree and i still havent a clue.

relationships are still as confusing and i am still about as flighty and irresponsible in many ways as my 15 year old self. i still am not sure if i am ready for a child and yet am now on the downhill slope to it being too late - approaching my forties and still feeling like a teen.

some things have changed - hangovers occur at just a sniff of wine whereas even the cheapest white cider by the gallon and not even a twinge in my younger days - hemlines are longer and makeup has all but disappeared. sleeping around is less attractive an option and my days of clubbing followed by a full days work then more clubbing surviving on two hours sleep a couple of grams of speed and a vitamin pill are defo a no.

i still get id'd on occasion which is nice but i feel every second of my 35 years even if to some i dont look them.

knowing what i now know at 35 i have a new found respect for my parents who at my age had two teens a mortgage and all the responsibility that comes with it - who probably felt just as lost as i do but just got on with it.

thoreau wrote:
Well true,the fact your parents hung in there and showed a solid base,says much about their feeling a strong obligation to do right by you and your brothers or sisters,many parents don't and didn't, and just left or became hippies or hole hoppers,and responsibility wasn't there first priority,which caused many kids to really be screwed up.I think this has a lot to do with our society now being as it is

I definitely don't "feel" my age, and very probably don't quite act the way some others would expect a person of my age to, either.

I appear to actually be "feeling" much younger as I get older. I seem to recall feeling very much older than I do now, when I hit 18, for example.

For the most part, I don't give a shit anymore, which I think is the secret to my success.

Ab Origine wrote:
I like your attitude! It's very Big Lebowski(in drag? )...Fuck it...

I only feel old when I meet adults born in 1990.

If you have a kid or kids you'll get 'older' before you can afford to relax and become 'younger' again as the responsibility levels ease off.

I was scarily 'old' in my later 20's to late 40's.
A responsible job, which I had to handle sensibly and bite my lip regularly because my family depended on that income to flourish.
I wouldn't trade a second of it in hindsight.

When we were young we didn't have those considerations, someone else took care of those so that and we could indulge in adventurous whims.

S'all good though. Enjoy!

Each of us are still kids inside. Let them out to play once in a while.

feather wrote:
I wish you were my dad (not that you'd be old enough). Do your kids rent you out, at all?

I don't feel 36...in fact in many ways I'm more "youthful" now than I was at 18 or 19. I'm stronger than I ever was at that age, I feel I've fully grown into my body now. You're as young as you feel.

Sometimes though when I'm having a bit of a perv at lady tennis players and that I think shit, I'm almost old enough to be her dad would she look at me like I'm an old fart?

Ab Origine wrote: Lol, I suppose they kinda did.
The responsible job I spoke of was running a community arts centre. working with mostly kids and young people.

All those years and it boils down to my kids were pimping me out!

I remember excitedly lying down to sleep on the last night of my 17th year... because I was going to wake up "a woman" the next morning, lol.

Except nothing changed. I felt exactly the same as I always had. So I thought it must all "happen" at 21 - but, no! I felt exactly the same as I always had.

I'm 56 now and I still say that really, inside, I'm still 17 and looking for my next good pony.

What have changed are my capabilities, my ability to cope, to understand and to figure things out. S'all.