I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less grey hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend. I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so avant garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
This is from a company that contacted us. We do not take a commission on these links but thought you might like to see it:
Over 50 and looking for work? Don’t despair!
In their search for good staff, enlightened employers have come to recognise the value older people can add to their business - bringing with them a wealth of experience, know how and skills. It clearly makes good business sense for employers to recruit people with these attributes, because as well as getting conscientious and flexible workers, mature people are usually happy to pass on their knowledge and know-how or to act as mentors to younger members of staff.
After a year of worrying what retirement would be like, here is a first chance to look back and see whether those anxieties were well founded or not.
Is the moment of departure from corporate life a liberating experience or just a point in time when you change one boss for another?
The key image that crystallised my concern was that of the number 7 bus, which leaves on that first Monday morning without you; you at home without a clue what to do for the next eight hours.
In fact the issue is much deeper than that. Not only do you lose your work-based social structures when you retire, you change many of the givens of life
‘Débarrassez votre grenier, le printemps est arrivé!’ So shouted the poster at a flea market in
Avignon
in April. Well, the spring has arrived back home, and certainly we can be sure that many chums are using their boomer springtime to de-clutter their attics and cellars.
So I have been thinking about all the stuff I have accumulated over the years, and why de-cluttering can be both very difficult but, when done well, somehow, very freeing!
I often hear people describe someone they are dealing with as ‘far too assertive’, and hence, it is declared, difficult to deal with. But consider the opposite….
I was reminded of this the other day when I was giving my Mum a lift home, after a weekend staying with us. About a third of the way into the journey she became very quiet and when we arrived at our destination she told me, in tragic tones, she’d left her keys behind at our house. So of course, I am cross.
How do you manage the tricky process of getting rid of your old stuff and replacing it with new? Several of my friends have recently been in the process of considering, planning and actually commissioning a new kitchen. Some find it easy to do, almost relishing the hassle and the opportunity to achieve exactly what one wants to an exacting standard. Some dither and dither about the planning, searching for a moral justification for a new kitchen, before compromising heavily in order to assuage guilt. Some just decide their old kitchen will have to do.
If we could choose what help we get in old age, to assure we sustain our independence and well being, would today’s baby boomers turn to the typical social care services provided by local councils? For many ‘mychumsclub’ members, the professional and managerial baby boomers, the answer is ‘probably not’. Although, to be fair, there are some myths undermining confidence in such services (private = good, state = bad) when in practice service users are often very satisfied with the quality of these services, as evidenced by inspection reports
If you type ‘bad memory’ in to your internet search engine, most likely you will find yourself reading about your PC’s RAM and how to solve overload problems. If, like me, it takes you a minute or two to realise you are reading about machine memory rather than the human variety, you will also have gathered that the advice is quite useful, especially the advice not to overload your processing system until it crashes!
Loss of memory is a common experience reported by people as they get older. In fact the term covers a multitude of issues, which manifest very differently, and can happen at any time in life, not just when ageing.
We all like to think we have a fairly strong sense of who we are. By the time we’re in middle age, most of us feel we’ve become well acquainted with ourselves. We know our own strengths and weaknesses, our routines, how to be at our best, how to behave in various situations, and maybe we recognise some of our less conscious mannerisms
Transition to retirement for the baby boomer generation….
In this article we describe some of the emotional, practical and social issues for us all, as we approach and move into retirement. We provide links to additional information and other sources of support with these issues
