18 great reasons for you to enjoy being middle-aged

Gone are the days of feeling past it when you hit 45 — just look at the long list of celebs revelling in their new-found youth, says Dave Kenny.

WEBSTER’S dictionary defines middle-age as being between 45ish and 65ish. I’m 49, so I’m over that threshold.

I don’t feel middle-aged, old or tired.

I’ll be very happy to live another 50 years, even if it’s just to annoy everyone around me.

I am part of the Pope’s Children generation.

We were the crowd that emigrated, came back, cheered on Jack Charlton’s men, shook off our National Inferiority Complex (remember that?) and started the Celtic Tiger.

Many of us are now redundant or struggling to find our feet again as self-employed people.

Having to start out again is, in many ways, keeping us mentally young, dynamic and hungry — unlike our parent’s generation, who were well settled at this point.

Middle-age doesn’t have to be about struggling or settling for what you have.

It has plenty of benefits.

Here are 18 reasons to enjoy being stuck in the middle.

1. You are brainier than your kids

Yes, it’s true that we tend to forget, er, what was I saying there? Oh yes, we forget things as you get older.

However, science has finally proved that middle-agers are smarter than youngsters.

The brain is divided into two hemispheres, with each side specialising in different operations.

Richard Gere, still rocking the denim look at 66

According to the University of Southern California, young folk use only one side for a specific task, while middleaged adults are more likely to activate both hemispheres at once.

This means we use the full might of our brains to solve problems.

In short, kids are halfwits, we’re fullwits.

2. You never lost it…

Age is not a factor in being sexy.

You can be drop-dead hot in your middle years … or just look as if you are about to drop dead.

The choice is yours.

You can either take care of your looks or go to pot.

The March edition of Marie Claire ran a chart of its sexiest men alive.

Guess what? It was full of 40-somethings and a few 50-somethings.

At age 52, actor Brad Pitt shows there is plenty of sex appeal in people regarded as middle-aged.

David Beckham is 40, Bradley Cooper is 41, Idris Elba is 43, Matt Damon is 45, Gerard Butler is 46, Brad Pitt is 52, George Clooney is 54.

Need I mention Jack Nicholson? He’s 79 and still has it.

3. It’s never too late to lose it …

Advancing years bring advancing waistlines and — most horribly of all — moobs (man boobs).

The good news for moobsters is that it’s never too late to work on getting fit.

A recent study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found men who keep fit were seven times more likely to have a healthy old age, even if they only took up exercise when they retired.

One study shows men aged between their mid-20s and mid-50s will lose only 5% of their fitness if they exercise moderately and consistently every week.

So throw away your man bras, and get exercising.

4. The older the fiddle…

Music and performance keep you young — especially in terms of grey matter.

Think Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler and you get the picture.

Researchers at Northwestern University in the US has found that musicians aged 45 to 65 excel in memory and hearing speech in noise compared to non-musicians.

Actor Bradley Cooper

That means guitar-strumming oldies are better than youngsters at hearing conversations down the pub - and remembering them.

Maybe that’s not a blessing.

5. Silver fox

The appearance of grey hairs can be traumatic for some men.

I will happily admit to being depressed as hell when I started to go grey in my late 20s.

I began dyeing my locks and only let my natural lack of colour come through when I was fully grey in my late 30s.

The only benefit of going grey young is that you appear to age less slowly than your dark-haired peers.

I’ve been white for years and my mates are only catching up on me now. The ageing process is more obvious with them. I’ve always looked old.

George Clooney

Grey hair on a man is (apparently) attractive.

Think of George Clooney, John Slattery, Jose Mourinho, Richard Gere.

And on women too: Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lagarde.

Silver has become so fashionable among the young that women like Kelly Osborne and Lady Gaga are actually dying their hair grey.

6. Hair management

One of nature’s cruellest jokes is that as men get older, the hair loss on our heads is in direct proportion to the hair gain in our noses and ears.

There is nothing good about hair loss.

Sure, people will cite Jason Statham, Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel as baldy role models, but they’re all muscly action men.

Bruce Willis

Most men look terrible without hair, but there are some solutions.

Regaine (Minoxidil) does work for 80% of men. At very least, it makes your hair look thicker.

Then there’s Finasteride, if you can get it.

Hair transplants are not so expensive any more.

Gone are the days of the ‘Frank Sinatra plug’, where the recipient’s head looked like a cornfield after being devastated by locusts.

Look at Louis Walsh. He had a hair procedure and looks great. Fair play to him.

7. You’re NOT a technophobe

Are you sick of younger people smugly implying that they are better at technology than you? I am.

The phone addicted tweeters and Facebookers seem to think that technology passed us by when, in fact, we are the generation that invented smartphones and Twitter.

Two of the founders of the micro-blogging site are in their 40s (Evan Williams, Biz Stone).

The founder of eBay, Pierre Morad Omidyar, is 48.

Steve Jobs was 52 when he launched the iPhone.

8. You don’t need to worry about peer pressure

Buck the trend and start wearing way-out clothes: yellow paisley, crushed purple velvet, patterned flares. Go mad.

Why? Because middle-aged people have one word at their disposal that youngsters don’t: ‘eccentric’.

It’s a great catch-all for ‘it’s-my-life’ behaviour — dressing included.

You’re now old enough to be eccentric. Embrace it.

9. Enjoy life in the slow lane

Two words: ‘better insurance’.

You’ve earned it.

10. You don’t have to live with your parents

As you are middle-aged, you probably own a house, and are not on a waiting list for a one-bed box in a back field in Mullingar.

11. Dancing is a weapon

Most of my youth was spent propped against a wall in Peekers nightclub in Dun Laoghaire.

I was a hopeless dancer. Sometimes I would get very drunk and attempt to moonwalk, or do the robot dance beloved of Kraftwerk fans.

In the main though, I knew I had a better chance of scoring if I stayed stationary.

Now, as I am married and just don’t give a toss, I dance whenever I feel like it (except on the bus, or in A&E waiting rooms).

I even moonwalk with abandon, even though I know I look less like Jackson and more like Jack(Nichol)son.

Here’s the best bit: Dad dancing is great to embarrass your kids.

So use it as a weapon to mortify them.

12. You can be rude to young folk and get away with it

Old people often conflate rudeness with ‘directness’.

At a social event recently, my 70-umph mother poked a young journo colleague in the tum with her walking stick.

“You’ve put on weight,” she said.

Perhaps she thought her ‘honesty’ might spur him to lose a few kilo.

Whether it did or not is moot. I just enjoyed his discomfort.

I later heard someone consoling him with the words “she’s getting on and doesn’t really mean it”.

I’m now thinking of getting a walking stick.

13. Specs appeal

You know the advert where Celia Holman Lee squints at the camera and tells us how she has undergone corrective laser eye treatment?

Have you thought about getting it? Are you sick of your glasses?

Don’t be. They are de rigueur among young hipster types.

In fact, there are many shopping outlets which now sell glasses that have no therapeutic value because specs are sexy.

Embrace the short-sighted nerdy look. You’re finally in fashion.

In fact...

14. You’re so out of fashion… you’re back in fashion

Fashion repeats itself in 20-year cycles.

In the late 1970s, the 1950s were cool.

In the 1980s, we harked back to the 1960s.

In the 1990s it was the 1970s … and now the 1990s are on the way back.

All the old clothes lurking at the back of your wardrobe are now vintage.

Just lose that gut and you’ll be way ahead of the fashion police.

15. You can wash your hair less often

Who the hell would want to be a teen? Raging hormones, spots and greasy hair.

You may be old, chum, but at least you don’t have acne, or oily hair.

The older we get the less time we need to spend shampooing.

This is because glands below the skin on your bonce become less active during middleage and the scalp accumulates less oil and sweat.

The result: older folk can wash their hair less often.

Most women won’t admit to this though, as it means less time in the bathroom.

16. Wild sex

Here’s the good news: sex in your 50s can be something to look forward to because, for the first time in your life, you have the time and energy to enjoy it.

(The days of sleepless, baby-filled nights, and juggling parenthood and work are well gone).

Also, being middle-aged means your partner has less chance of getting pregnant.

You both can enjoy uninhibited romping without the side effects of the pill (high blood pressure).

Here’s the bad news: the menopause can sap your partner’s libido. But help is at hand.

Where men have the little blue pill, there is now a ‘pink pill’ — Addyi (Flibanserin) is the first FDA-approved treatment for female sexual dysfunction.

Woohoo.

17. It’s all ahead of you

One of the benefits of middleage is that you’re now officially worldly wise. You’ve seen it all before.

The knockbacks you get will have been softened by years of … er, knockbacks.

According to Harvard University, optimism is good for the heart and general wellbeing. So is a good sense of worldly-wise humour.

Also, researchers in Tennessee have found voiced laughter boosts energy consumption and heart rate by 10% to 20% (that’s anywhere from 10 to 40 calories).

18. You can always have the final word

Dad-dancing may be a great way to embarrass your kids, but we middlers have an even more devastating weapon when they’re giving us grief.

It’s the following statement: “It’s all ahead of you’.