What do you think of the word "elderly"?

Question

To me I think of someone sick and frail, which does NOT describe most 60+ year olds I know.

It's more fitting to my fellow college students, who can't afford to eat and walk around campus pale with bulging tonsils and no time to make an appoitment with Student Health.

I try to use "Senior Citizen" instead. Anyway, what are your thoughts? How do you prefer to be categorized, when it's necessary of course. I know we are all individuals with names!

Answer 1

OLD FRIENDS

>> Two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades. Over the
>>years, they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures. Lately,
>>their activities had been limited to meeting a few times a week to play
>>cards. One day, they were playing cards when one looked at the other and
>>said, "Now don't get mad at me. I know we've been friends for a long time
>>...but I just can't think of your name! I've thought and thought, but I
>>can't remember it ... Please tell me what your name is." Her friend glared
>>at her. For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her.
>>Finally she said, "How soon do you need to know?"
>>

Honestly, the people that I know and the ones I have met here really enjoy Humor. We enjoy life and our families and friends and many are still working or volunteering. It's hard to understand, until you get here. You don't "feel" any different than you did when you were younger, other than the aches and pains.
The thing the young people don't really understand, is that we have already been where they are.

Answer 2

I think of elderly as the people at least 20 years older than I am. Mom gave me a sign once that said old age is anyone 20 years older than me.
Senior is over 50 or over 55 or more to get discounts and is often working people that are really middle aged not old. I have been a member of AARP almost 10 years but have several left before retirement so really more middle aged than old.
Mom is starting to get elderly at 81 some of her friends are in assisted living and she has been using a cane for a year. We went to a charity dinner this week and she had to sit down half way to our table to rest arthritis is kicked up really bad this week. She should give up driving soon she already has handicapped parking. Elderly isn't a bad term it just doesn't fit until you can't do half what you could do 5 years earlier. Grandma was 98 last year and until 89 was in good health could walk uptown without a problem dance all night and fish all day. Then she got the flu and pneumonia and was sick for months she could still walk up town everyday but no longer dance all night and getting down to the creek was a problem, she become elderly in her 90s and when she broke her leg at 96 she wasn't able to fully recover and never walked again. When 97-98 and in assisted living elderly would have described her more than senior citizen.

Answer 3

It seems like I might be too young to 'get', to understand, the fuss. I'm middle-aged and darn happy to have gotten this far, there were times when I didn't think I'd live this long....so every day is a treat. If I make it to elderly I'd be delighted.

It's interesting to see how words can evoke such varied reactions. "Elderly" was considered a polite term. Just an adjective to describe a person who had passed through middle age. When the heck did living past middle age become so horrid?

Maybe I've been brainwashed about respecting elders...but i doubt it....to me elder and elderly are words related to age and worthy of respect.

I suspect that it isn't so much the term that is used to describe a person that is objectionable; I believe that it is the emotions behind a statement, the intent, the lack of respect that might be objectionable.

So, go ahead and call me elderly, or old, or Senior Citizen.....but remember I'm still a person.

Answer 4

Well I think of myself as an 'older citizen'. I think of the elderly
as someone over the 75 mark, now that many people are
aging more gracefully and are taking better care of themselves. Some are energetic and are even active in tennis and golf in their early 80s'. When health factors bring
you down, you do feel older than your years. So for some
over 60 people they may feel older than their 80 yr old
counterparts. Even those in their 50's can feel as old as a
75 year old, for that matter. It's all in how good our health is.
And how long we can retain it.
I've never been referred to as a Senior Citizen. But I have
been referred to as a Senior, when it comes to discounts in
restaurants or stores that offer them. I've been a senior since
the age of 55, and didn't look it. But when I spoke up asking
for the discount, sometimes they would tell me I didn't look
65. And I'd tell them I wasn't of course, but that 55 was consid-
ered legal age for the beginning senior years. Or maybe I
should have said, "Senior Discount Years"? Now we always
ask if a restaurant, or fast food or other stores, offer a senior
discount, for it never hurts to ask. Many of the drive thru fast
foods, at least give you a free drink of some kind. While
restaurants offer a 10% discount which helps a bit. So I really
don't mind even being called 'elderly' as long as the person
saying it, does so with respect and not a sneer or scowl, but
with a smile. For they may not think about it, but they too will
make that grade sooner or later. And only if they're 'lucky'.

Answer 5

I have never liked the idea of labelling people. If you're going to label people, then I think senior citizen is at least
appropriate. Elderly defines someone in their late 70s, 80's, or even 90s. I can't stand the term baby boomer, especially boomer. I know it's used for statistical and demographic purposes, but that doesn't make it any better. Each of us is an individual, and to bracket anyone of a certain age, and categorize them with certain so-called characteristics, is disrespectful to that individual and to the group as a whole. Each of us is unique.

Answer 6

When I had grandparents & knew older folks back then, they were often called elderly and no one seemed to mind. When I told my mom (69 at the time) that the teacher in my pharmacy tech class said 70 was elderly, she didn't like it at all.
I'm 51, called a boomer, but I don't really care what catagory I'm put in or whether I look my age or not, I've still been here 51 yrs.

What does matter to me is what a caring person you are to be considerate enough to ask this question and to care how 'seniors' feel about what we are being called. Thank you.

Answer 7

I used to think of "elderly" as appropriate to people 70+.
However, now that I'm 60+ I don't know what to think!
I look and act younger than my actual age, so the only times I admit to being a "senior citizen" are when I go to the movies (discount) and when I go to the grocery store on the day that seniors get 5% off their bill.

Answer 8

Here in the West clerks etc. will say today is senior day, or you get a discount but I don't think I have had anyone ever call me a senior citizen. I have noticed lately that many store clerks are very nice. Many of the driveins give a senior discount also and they never say anything but oh I need to give you your discount. Others when talking I have heard them refer to seniors as elderly. guess I'm fine with either, after all I resemble 'em. ;0)

Answer 9

I simply don't like labels at all. Senior citizen is the least obnoxious, I guess, and is widely used in government and commerce but I still don't like it.

Elderly is just insulting....

I am older than many, younger than some.

I try to look at people that way....as in "he's a bit older than me" or, she's a bit younger than I am.

If you look at me, my gray hair, the wrinkles, the sags and bags here and there, you know I'm not a spring chicken....there is no need to slap a label across my spreading rearend....

We don't label any other group of people except ourselves.

Youth is simply youth.
Adolescent is simply adolescent
Adult is simply adult.
Older adults are simply older adults.

If they were going to tag on a label, the least offensive to me would be "oldster" - like "youngster" only at the other end of the scale.

Answer 10

The term is always a relative one. It really just means "older than the average", which of course, NEVER applies to us ....always to someone else who is older than us !
In midwifery, the medical term "elderly primigravida" applies to a woman who is having her first baby when she is over the age of 35 - I've known many a woman to be horrified at being described that way !
And in the newspaper - you'll see "an elderly man of 58 was in a car accident"...this probably reflects the age of the reporter more than the age of the victim !
For me personally? "Young chicky babe" is a term I lean towards....... but I guess that these days I have to settle for "mature-aged person". At least it doesn't sound too ancient !