Middle aged life

tres

tres

tres

Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
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UK
I imagine there is a decent number of OCUKers who fall into this bracket.
I'm in my early 40s, about to tip into mid-40s. What sort of mid-life crisis did you have, and how did you deal with it?

I was once all about socialising, travelling, adventure. Now my favourite place is my shed, I'm considering buying a an enormous 'dooer-upper' house, I'm looking at shares in a private aeroplane, and I feel it is essential I start metal detecting. I think I'm giving my wife the ick.
 
The problem with turning 40 is you are no longer young.

Also, and of course this can vary and there are no guarantees etc, but you start heading towards a point in your life where the road ahead maybe shorter than the road behind, more so every year you age in your 40's, and it's quite daunting having previously always been young.

Also it's much harder to get fit, basically you cannot leave it and you must be doing regular exercise/some weights.

Hangovers take days, not hours.

It'll go only go downhill from here as well but hey, it's better than the alternative right.
 
I'm mid 40s never really had a mid-life crisis, mostly seems to happen to people who married and had a family young or have been totally consumed by progressing their career and then realising life is passing them by.

On a sort of related note found out last week two of my ex-colleagues passed away in the same week shortly after retirement, one of them sadly had a long term illness with a poor long term prognosis so it wasn't totally unexpected but the other had been nose to the grindstone their whole life with grand plans for retirement :(
 
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tres said:
I imagine there is a decent number of OCUKers who fall into this bracket.
I'm in my early 40s, about to tip into mid-40s. What sort of mid-life crisis did you have, and how did you deal with it?

I was once all about socialising, travelling, adventure. Now my favourite place is my shed, I'm considering buying a an enormous 'dooer-upper' house, I'm looking at shares in a private aeroplane, and I feel it is essential I start metal detecting. I think I'm giving my wife the ick.
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I admire your confidence in believing that you’ll have the time, energy or money to do anything else once you embark on Project Money Pit (aka large dooer-upper house).

I’m assuming you have a full VFR and IFR PPL. How big of a share of a plane syndicate are you looking to get into?
 
Rroff said:
I'm mid 40s never really had a mid-life crisis, mostly seems to happen to people who married and had a family young or have been totally consumed by progressing their career and then realising life is passing them by.

On a sort of related note found out last week two of my ex-colleagues passed away in the same week shortly after retirement, one of them sadly had a long term illness with a poor long term prognoses so it wasn't totally unexpected but the other had been nose to the grindstone their whole life with grand plans for retirement :(
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Yup I agree with that, other than thinking about it a bit more, I've not made any life changes or any of that sort of thing.

Actually I started exercising a bit more, don't drink as much, but nothing major.

No sports car etc.

I do feel generally sorry for people obsessed with careers and making money, absolutely missing the point in my opinion, but each to their own I guess.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I wasn't thinking it was a mid life crisis at the time but I dated a woman 13 years younger than me, got engaged but it fell apart last year.
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Not wishing to pick on you in particular, but that could well be genuine example. It's a bit tragic when a guy suddenly panics about getting old and leaves his wife for a younger woman, or if he's single tries to get a much younger woman to marry him. Mate of mine did exactly this and she said no. He moved onto another younger woman who said yes and they quickly had a kid, which seems to be the only reason they are still together as it's obvious that they are not a happy couple.

I'm less convinced that someone buying a motorbike, sports car or whatever is automatically having a crisis. It may just be that they can finally afford to buy (and insure!) the nice toy that they always wanted.
 
Mr Badger said:
Not wishing to pick on you in particular, but that could well be genuine example. It's a bit tragic when a guy suddenly panics about getting old and leaves his wife for a younger woman, or if he's single tries to get a much younger woman to marry him. Mate of mine did exactly this and she said no. He moved onto another younger woman who said yes and they quickly had a kid, which seems to be the only reason they are still together as it's obvious that they are not a happy couple.

I'm less convinced that someone buying a motorbike, sports car or whatever is automatically having a crisis. It may just be that they can finally afford to buy (and insure!) the nice toy that they always wanted.
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Last point is spot on. Often why you see guys bombing about in a 90s or 00s bit of metal. Its what they wanted and just couldn't afford at the time.
 
Mr Badger said:
I'm less convinced that someone buying a motorbike, sports car or whatever is automatically having a crisis. It may just be that they can finally afford to buy (and insure!) the nice toy that they always wanted.
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Yeah sometimes it is just factors coming together, when I bought a pickup I got a few accusations of mid-life crisis but I've never really been into trucks in that way it was just how my life panned out at the time.
 
Mr Badger said:
Not wishing to pick on you in particular, but that could well be genuine example. It's a bit tragic when a guy suddenly panics about getting old and leaves his wife for a younger woman, or if he's single tries to get a much younger woman to marry him. Mate of mine did exactly this and she said no. He moved onto another younger woman who said yes and they quickly had a kid, which seems to be the only reason they are still together as it's obvious that they are not a happy couple.

I'm less convinced that someone buying a motorbike, sports car or whatever is automatically having a crisis. It may just be that they can finally afford to buy (and insure!) the nice toy that they always wanted.
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On the flip side, at its peak I was really happy and it could have been really bad if it ended later .... and more expensive!
 
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