Help! I Am Growing Old

I used to
complain about how nobody showed me respect due to my age. I would walk into a
room w...Read the full article.

[emj]

Hmmm........it shows, walahi u are ageing fast o

He has even argued that what is the purpose of living if he cannot indulge this one vice. The only one he admits to only because it so very obvious

I begy leave da man ojare, abi, one must indulge in something ke

I do not think twice about climbing on four inched heels to enhance slits up to the hips in my long black skirt. The things I wear, the dress code police would pick me up in an instant, which is the real reason I am so much against that dress code bill, otherwise it really is none of my business.

Hmmm...dress code Police...gotta remember dat....hmmm.

Letting my matronly figure develop to full bloom by eating human meals and continuing my usual productive physical activity of cleaning house and running my own errands is my symbol that I have accepted to age gracefully, because grow old I must unless I die. I do not want to die trying so hard to stay looking young

Yep, yep, not die trying hard to stay young. Good one there Mutti. Trying to shed the middle-age spread is not easy, but then one can fall into a routine that is doable. Myself and some of my friends had made so many plans including gym workouts, power-walks(doable), counting calories, all to no avail...at the end of the day, each one had to just take things in their stride and do that which is possible and take it from there. I remember like yesterday the craze about Atkin's Diet....chei

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/

http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/

[Dimaanu]

I used to complain about how nobody showed me respect due to my age..........

All that changed in the past year though, everywhere I get to now, people barely younger than me – by my own estimation – fall all over themselves to acknowledge my superior age. It is ma this and ma that and can I carry your bag ma, they almost offer to hold my hand to help me up the stairs! All this transformation happened in the space of one year. Do I welcome it? Of course not, I had taken perverse pleasure in being thought to be younger than my years, and although I bristled openly, I often gloated about my youthful looks to my husband. It now appears however, that youth is finally deserting me. Moi, proudly ageless moi!

Be careful what you wish for.

Another great piece, Mutti!

Each year, as I mark my children's birthday, I always catch myself thinking: Wow! they are growing so fast.
That's where it ends, I barely acknowledge the fact that as they grow older , so do I.
I do not feel any different...I can still remember when I turned 16.

I got a shocker recently when my children's school sent a letter home for a Parents' Talent Contest. I told my children that I am planning to enter the contest. My 10yr old son's fingers momentarily froze on his Nintendo DS.
"As what?", he queried.
"A dancer", I fired back.
The Nintendo landed on the sofa, he knelt down, grabbed my legs and begged: "Whatever you do, Mom, do not dance at my school...That would be the worst embarrassment, ever!"
I did some steps to show him that I am still cool like that. Wrong move!...He passed the verdict...No dancing in public!

Anyway, I am not deterred!....What does he know? At 10 years of age, I also thought that my mom was old.
Well, since my #1 fan will not be cheering for me, I may end up singing one of my favorite songs: "I believe the children are our future".

[Mutti]

Hey Dimaanu, couldn't stop laughing! To think one was being tosted only a few years ago for those very talents we are now being begged to hide!

[Oru-Ama]

Age some say is a number. Is it really true? Sometimes you cant help feeling so old. I started feeling old when I turned 37 and more than 35% of my hair had already greyed by that time. I'll soon be 41 and you can actually count the number of black hairs on my head. A colleague of mine has taken it upon himself persuading me to colour my hair as I look older then my real age. My husband consoles himself by lamenting that it was the stress of banking work in Nigeria that turned my hairs white within a very short space of time.

Aging is a reality we'll all face at one point or another. Rejoice. Nothing spoil.

[ronkemac]

Nice one, Mutti.
I myself am at that age when some people are not sure whether to call you "Aunty" or "Madam". One foolhardy soul (a fully grown adult male) actually called me "Mummy". Quelle horreur!

[The Saint]

Hmmmmm!!!!!!! How time flies. Sorry for those who starve all for the sake of looking younger. Whether you die of tuberculosis or of common cold It is after all of the same buerial. I wonder how many of us think about Death because we surely must die no matter what we look like. Reminds me of a joke that says enjoy life and die young or suffer and live long I think living each day as if it where your last will help you become more human less 'Nacissist'(pardon my spelling, I have never been good with big words) in other words if you think of what you dish out you will realise that happiness from within is the key to always looking younger. When the selpulcher is painted white it does not change the fact that what is inside is dead and decaying.

[datuouwadaberechi]

my dear mutti,
ur article really speaks to me!!! i went from two years ago people not believing i'd had ever had a baby (much less 3) and people often mistaking me for an aunt at kids schools, to suddenly being addressed (just like u noticed) as ma, madam, etc.
any minute from now it'll be d big 40.

well, just like u, i try to make the transition as gracefully as possible. what else can we do?? if there are ways to mitigate the damage without acting silly, lets go for it. thereafter, just take it in stride.

just hope that we get to fulfil our purpose of being on earth be4 d time runs out!!!!

yours in graceful aging,
me