How did you approach turning 50? Did you dread it or embrace it?
Fabafterfifty: turning 50
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Article by Ceri Wheeldon Did you dread turning 50? Did you fight turning 50? Did you deny turning 50 and pretend you were still 49? Or did you embrace turning 50 and see the coming decade as one of opportunity? So often I receive messages and emails from people who are petrified at the prospect of their 50th birthday- yet many of the women over 50 I meet and who have contributed to the FabAfterFifty website say they have never felt happier, and are quite literally having the time of their lives. More to life than youth So how can we remove the stigma of ageing? How do we show that there is more to life than youth, and that experience which comes with age creates opportunities rather than destroys them? Is it our own perception of ageing or how we feel we will be perceived by others which creates...
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Happy 50th birthday Tom Cruise – will his birthday help change perceptions of age?
Article by Fabafterfifty. Whether or not his 50th birthday is a happy day for Tom Cruise in light of his wife filing for divorce less than a week of his landmark birthday, only he will know. Landmark birthdays marking the end of one decade and the start of a new are often occasions when we reflect on achievements and challenges of the past, and look towards our life and hopes for the next 10 years. For Tom, no doubt his thinking on both fronts will be going into overdrive! Putting his marital difficulties aside, does Tom Cruise turning 50 help change the perceptions of age. He still plays the romantic lead, still plays the action hero and the still draws in the box office crowds Nobody seems to suggest that he should be swapping the silver screen for his pipe and slippers just yet! 50 is far from old Will...
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3 lovely ladies Shirley-Anne Field, Anita Harris and Anne Charleston, all actresses and all enjoying life and their careers after 50
Article by Ceri Wheeldon Shirley-Anne Field, Anita Harris and Anne Charleston have been familiar faces on our TV screens and are now touring together as they appear on stage in The Cemetery Club. I caught up with all three ladies to ask them about how they have embraced the second half of their lives. All three have incredibly positive, but very different outlooks regarding life after 50. They talk about how their lives have been transformed since turning 50, from relocating half-way round the world , embracing the freedom of emptynesting and taking to the stage as an actress, three lovely, inspirational ladies share their thoughts and philosophy on life after 50. Shirley-Anne Field talks about her life after 50 How has life changed for you since turning 50? I found turning 50 quite liberating. As a mother, and breadwinner I had an overwhelming responsibility to manage my acting career while ensuring...
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Book Review and author interview :Women of a Dangerous Age by Fanny Blake
Article by Ceri Wheeldon When two women making significant changes midlife, meet on holiday in India , they form a friendship which takes them into situations neither could have imagined. Lou leaves a long term marriage to pursue an independent life and career, while Ali looks to walk away from life as a serial mistress and commit to a long term relationship. Women of a Dangerous Age is a refreshing read with realistic portrayals of both main characters – midlife women are interested in romance, career, style and new beginnings, and it was good to read a book that recognised that. I caught up with author Fanny Blake to ask her how the book, and characters came about: Changes as big birthdays approach “I wanted to write a book which captured women’s thoughts on life as ‘big birthdays’ approached. People often think ‘this is it’ and I wanted to show...
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Turning 50, the Great Divide
Article by Diane Priestley Journalist and Counsellor Diane Priestley explores the challenges of crossing the Great Divide My daughter’s boyfriend’s Dad just turned 50, celebrating with not one but two spectacular parties with hundreds of guests. He even jumped out of a plane, thanks to the surprise skydiving present from his kids! Turning 50 is a big deal, a major milestone. Of course all birthdays with a zero on the end are significant as they mark entry into a new decade of your life but somehow 50 represents the Great Divide, a sharp line between young and old has definitely been crossed. Fifty means you have lived for half a century on the planet, witnessing half a century of world history. Now that is something! You have definitely seen some sights, experienced euphoric highs and anguished lows, learned some stuff and clocked some serious miles on the Journey of Life....
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Mid Century Magic! It’s never too late to be great!
Article by TomButler-Bowden Many oak trees wait 50 years before, in a burst of creative power, they produce their first crop of hundreds of acorns. It’s the same for many people: nothing major happens for several decades, and then it all happens. We use the phrases ‘late starters’ and ‘late bloomers’ as if there was some problem or delay in a person’s flourishing, but surely this is a tautology. The point of ripening is that it happens when it does, and not before. Our fifties see us running on full speed! To use another analogy, if the forties are the decade in which people gather steam, the fifties see them on their full speed run. In this decade many find they are at the height of their powers, combining good health with heightened skills and wisdom. A career can be crowned, or equally something new started. Age itself, we come...
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Who has inspired you on your midlife journey?
Article by Ceri Wheeldon As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I would love to know which women have inspired you after turning 50. We can take inspiration from so many different people at different stages of our lives- family members, friends, teachers, women in history, women over 50 in the media. But who has inspired you in this second half of your life? And who have you inspired in return? The way we shape our own lives today can have a tremendous impact on how younger women live their lives tomorrow. We are a generation of boomer women who have spearheaded tremendous change in terms of gender equality, having careers, independence and choices and opportunities not even considered by most of our mothers and grandmothers. Now, we have the opportunity to redefine how ageing is perceived for a generation of women living healthier and longer lives than those before us....
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How expensive is it to live in your 50s? £1560 a month needed according to new study.
Article by Fabafterfifty We may think that once we turn 50 our costs will decrease, but it would appear that this not necessarily the case. Turning 50 marks the most expensive period in our lives, a new study has revealed. Especially with children flying the nest later than anticipated, increased costs of education, and adult children returning home to live! Experts calculated that those in their 50s can still expect to be lumbered with hefty mortgage payments while also trying to support teenage children. Increased costs of holidaying as four adults, rather than a family with two children, coupled with helping the kids with motoring costs as well as a house deposit costs means a deep financial pot is needed. The study, by leading UK health and wellbeing mutual organisation Benenden Healthcare Society, also went as far as to calculate how much the average 50-something will need a month to...
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Is it good news that that BBC admit they got it wrong with ‘older’ women?
Article by Ceri Wheeldon BBC Director General today admitted in an interview with the Daily Mail that the public were right to criticise the way it treats older women on tv. This folows on from the public outcry when Arlene Phillips was dropped from Strictly Come Dancing and Miriam O’Reilly took the BBC to court. To be fair, it is not only the BBC at fault, but other channels have not come forward with their ‘hands up’ in the same way. Perhaps Sky has no need to make no apology as they are happy to have mature presenters front their flagship news programmes (Anna Botting, Kay Burley). Miriam O’Reilly case a ‘wake-up’ call Admitting that the high profile Miriam O’Reilly case was a ‘wake-up’ call, the BBC it seems have reviewed the way it treats older women on screen – although I still cringe at the thought of the BBC...
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What do wing walking and knees have in common? (or should women over 50 keep their knees covered?)
Article by Ceri Wheeldon Women over 50 are riding a wave of reinvention and transformation. I’m a firm believer that the second half of life should be celebrated- with the benefit of experience and wisdom paving the way to ensure that the best is yet to come. When I was approached by the Daily Mail to add my thoughts to an article on life after 50 and reinvention I was more than happy to participate. The article profiled three women who had embraced turning 50 as an opportunity for transformation, and who had changed their lives by doing something different. It was a positive article about life after 50 ( you can read it here) featuring Kate, who had thrown caution to the wind and become a model, Ceri (not me!) who had taken part in the gruelling Plymouth to Dakar rally, and Gill who had taken up wing walking....
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