I’m no medical expert and don’t want to steer you wrong, but by way of comfort, I can say that for me, fifty has brought with it some unwanted, but benign changes. I’ve embraced the term “manscaping.”
I was raised in a pretty oppressive/repressed family where we didn't even talk about puberty.
Since then, my mom has had her own "becoming" and now is the true free spirit she was meant to be (correlation isn't causation but I will say it happened around menopause).
I now make her talk about growing older *all the time*. She's in her mid-60's. But the communal deprivation is REAL and I feel like as much as I love her knowledge, I'm missing the hive mind.
For my body, my soul, my parenting, my marriage, my life atlarge.
I have a thought about all of us not being prepared for this, and feeling betrayed/left in the dark: Once we stopped living in generational community, with mothers, aunties, sisters, daughters essentially telling stories and giving advice over the simmering stew, we lost all those goodies of life knowledge that had been natural to share from generation to generation. In modern times, when we all live in our own little isolated "castles" all about our own "our privacy" and "my space." We think this is all about progress, but I think we have lost out, big time. And, when we do spend time with our mothers, sisters, aunties, girlfriends, we have less time and spend it "catching up" on "achievements" and "events" more than having time to share stories, know-how, experience, etc.
This makes sense. I also felt similarly about pregnancy and breastfeeding. I remember when a brown line suddenly appeared down my swollen abdomen. Nobody had ever spoken of this. And the surprises kept on coming.
Never mind the chin hairs or the groaning like an old person when I get outta bed in the morning. I never know what my body is gonna do next, so every day is an adventure. The difference is that this time around, I'm looking forward to the adventure in a way I never did at 13.
I attribute that to my late husband calling me Peterina Pan; the boys pretty much agree that hasn't changed. I wear yoga pants and hoodies all the time, but I do clean up okay for special occasions. My snark remains intact, my eye-rolling still works really well. The guys don't trust me to go to demonstrations, and try to ignore my current event/socio-political blog, The Wifely Person Speaks even though I have readers across the globe. Both figure I'm gonna get arrested by the thought police eventually. But I'm okay with that.
So far, my pre-teen granddaughter thinks I'm pretty radical for a Savta (she said so) and I am my 7-year old grandson's BFF (he said so.) I just wanna be the artsy, unpredictable grandmother and everyone else can just bite me. So there.
I did NOT come here to offer anything even remotely close to medical advice, I am here to join in your lament: NO ONE PREPARED US FOR THIS TIME IN OUR LIVES. Seriously, it's the same phenomenon I experienced when pregnant, and the same weird feeling of betrayal. I want to yell at all the people I know who have passed through this transitional phase into their Happy Golden Years: "YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" But I guess if they had I would have just rolled my eyes and thought "I'll never complain like THEY do." This is why it keeps happening.
I’m going to guess he was given some prednisone. Pretty common. It’s a cure all for many things and speeds healing. Also, hair growth. By the time I was well enough to sit up in my hospital bed years ago I was MORTIFIED to find a beard had sprouted on my delicate girl chin! Luckily, getting off the steroids ended that. Check his meds.
My dermaplaner won’t take my white hairs off my neck. I pluck them with a 10x magnifying lighted mirror. The older I get I realize I’m fighting a losing battle. Eventually we have no fucks left to give. 🤷♀️
I’m no medical expert and don’t want to steer you wrong, but by way of comfort, I can say that for me, fifty has brought with it some unwanted, but benign changes. I’ve embraced the term “manscaping.”
I was raised in a pretty oppressive/repressed family where we didn't even talk about puberty.
Since then, my mom has had her own "becoming" and now is the true free spirit she was meant to be (correlation isn't causation but I will say it happened around menopause).
I now make her talk about growing older *all the time*. She's in her mid-60's. But the communal deprivation is REAL and I feel like as much as I love her knowledge, I'm missing the hive mind.
For my body, my soul, my parenting, my marriage, my life atlarge.
I have a thought about all of us not being prepared for this, and feeling betrayed/left in the dark: Once we stopped living in generational community, with mothers, aunties, sisters, daughters essentially telling stories and giving advice over the simmering stew, we lost all those goodies of life knowledge that had been natural to share from generation to generation. In modern times, when we all live in our own little isolated "castles" all about our own "our privacy" and "my space." We think this is all about progress, but I think we have lost out, big time. And, when we do spend time with our mothers, sisters, aunties, girlfriends, we have less time and spend it "catching up" on "achievements" and "events" more than having time to share stories, know-how, experience, etc.
This makes sense. I also felt similarly about pregnancy and breastfeeding. I remember when a brown line suddenly appeared down my swollen abdomen. Nobody had ever spoken of this. And the surprises kept on coming.
Never mind the chin hairs or the groaning like an old person when I get outta bed in the morning. I never know what my body is gonna do next, so every day is an adventure. The difference is that this time around, I'm looking forward to the adventure in a way I never did at 13.
I attribute that to my late husband calling me Peterina Pan; the boys pretty much agree that hasn't changed. I wear yoga pants and hoodies all the time, but I do clean up okay for special occasions. My snark remains intact, my eye-rolling still works really well. The guys don't trust me to go to demonstrations, and try to ignore my current event/socio-political blog, The Wifely Person Speaks even though I have readers across the globe. Both figure I'm gonna get arrested by the thought police eventually. But I'm okay with that.
So far, my pre-teen granddaughter thinks I'm pretty radical for a Savta (she said so) and I am my 7-year old grandson's BFF (he said so.) I just wanna be the artsy, unpredictable grandmother and everyone else can just bite me. So there.
Love it! I’m in my yoga pants every day too. Your grandkids are lucky. ❤️🥰😘
I did NOT come here to offer anything even remotely close to medical advice, I am here to join in your lament: NO ONE PREPARED US FOR THIS TIME IN OUR LIVES. Seriously, it's the same phenomenon I experienced when pregnant, and the same weird feeling of betrayal. I want to yell at all the people I know who have passed through this transitional phase into their Happy Golden Years: "YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" But I guess if they had I would have just rolled my eyes and thought "I'll never complain like THEY do." This is why it keeps happening.
Hahaha! Someone told me that a woman’s bladder can fall out of her vagina and I’m now hopping around with my legs crossed instead of walking…
I’m going to guess he was given some prednisone. Pretty common. It’s a cure all for many things and speeds healing. Also, hair growth. By the time I was well enough to sit up in my hospital bed years ago I was MORTIFIED to find a beard had sprouted on my delicate girl chin! Luckily, getting off the steroids ended that. Check his meds.
I don’t recall prednisone on his list, but there were so many meds at first…who can remember?!!
My dermaplaner won’t take my white hairs off my neck. I pluck them with a 10x magnifying lighted mirror. The older I get I realize I’m fighting a losing battle. Eventually we have no fucks left to give. 🤷♀️
Oy vey! He’s going to need some serious tweezers.
Get him the one with the built in light!!
YES!