You know you're middle aged when

[The French Tandem]

You rent a white van to install your daughter in a student flat!

That's exactly when the fun begins. When your children are small, they have smaller problems. When they grow up, they have bigger problems 

[mrcharly-YHT]

You rent a white van to install your daughter in a student flat!

That's exactly when the fun begins. When your children are small, you they have smaller problems. When they grow up, youthey have bigger problems 

FTFY

[Peter]

You can never know when you are middle-aged.  Only your survivors can work that out.

[TheLurker]

Pshaw!  Middle-aged is a state of mind.  I've been middle-aged since I was a toddler and I shall still be middle-aged the day I die. 

[ElyDave]

You rent a white van to install your daughter in a student flat!

That's exactly when the fun begins. When your children are small, they have smaller problems. When they grow up, they have bigger problems 

Week after next, hopefully my X-Trail will suffice

[hellymedic]

"Any allergies?  You're not on blood thinners?"  *Glances at DOB on screen* "Any chance you could be pregnant?"

I booked a Covid booster online today after receiving an invitation from the NHS.

After entering my 1958 year of birth, the website STILL asked if I could be pregnant...

[orraloon]

A month's rent on your son's student flat is more or less equal to a year's student loan back in your day.

Student loan?  Did you mean student grant?

[MattH]

Week after next, hopefully my X-Trail will suffice

Moved my youngest from his post-grad student house to his first "real" house this weekend. Took two loads of our VW T5.
When my eldest came home from Uni after three years, his girlfriend's ovlov estate was full of his stuff - just room for her in it - and the crew cab pickup I was using at the time was similarly full, both inside the cab and the bed loaded high.

Good luck.

[ElyDave]

First year, and we're only going from ely to Cambridge

[Cudzoziemiec]

A month's rent on your son's student flat is more or less equal to a year's student loan back in your day.

Student loan?  Did you mean student grant?

I did, of course, sorry.

[ian]

How things change, I remember rocking up at Nottingham train station with an acoustic guitar, one boombox, and a holdall full of everything else (mostly cassettes and hopefully a couple of pairs of clean pants, then again, male student, so who knows). Having got the bus that far.

I don't think I came back any more stuff, probably less, as it was the age before laptops and the like, and there wasn't much point in keeping anything of value in early 90s Liverpool, unless you fancied buying it back from the local market periodically.

[Andy W]

I took my eldest daughter to University exactly 20 years old. She was excited, I returned home utterly bereft.
Im only 61 and I run a bit , cycle some, hopefully my self maintenance will sustain middle aged status for an extended time.
Looking at photos of my grandparents when they were 60 ish they looked properly old.

[T42]

A month's rent on your son's student flat is more or less equal to a year's student loan back in your day.

Student loan?  Did you mean student grant?

I did, of course, sorry.

I remember someone back then observing that our £300 annual grant was the minimum income that one would require to live as a gentleman in London, in 1895.

Meanwhile I, needing to cook some chicken before it became carrion, just spent a bootless 5 minutes looking up how long it would take in the microwave before realizing that I was looking at the instructions for the air fryer.

[ian]

In the (19)90s, I got an offer of a PhD at Imperial and from a look at the stipend, hmm, eating would have been a luxury after rent, plus my prospective supervisor was the sort that viewed PhD students as gloried lab technicians. Got a more generous stipend in Scotlandshire with a supervisor more aligned with 'welcome to my lab, let's talk again in three years' time.' Even then I left with a weighty overdraft.

I did get a lift up there though, having accumulated heady accoutrements of 90s life, such as a CD player.

[orraloon]

...having accumulated heady accoutrements of 90s life, such as a CD player.

Having moved a few months ago, I have a crate of CDs, along with 2 of vinyls.  Some CDs still have the price sticker. £13.99 (or more) in 80s/90s money... 😳  Vs just put on free Spotify.  And via FireStick I get no annoying ads.

[ian]

I also had a box of vinyl (still in the loft, decades later) and the CD was a proper separate, alone with amp and deck, courtesy of a post-degree splurge in Richer Sounds (or whatever the 90s equivalent was, probably Richer Sounds). Back in the era when every CD player came with a free Brothers in Arms or Automatic for the People disk. No other CDs were available, one or the other. Make your choice. Thus were dividing lines drawn.

I had, fortunately, got rid of the acoustic guitar, on the grounds that the only women attracted by my toneless strumming were the ones I should be running away from. A lesson that took me three years to learn. It might have been quicker to learn to play the guitar better.

[Lightning Phil]

You rent a white van to install your daughter in a student flat!

How things change. I went to Uni on a train with my bike, a rucksack, and some panniers.

[Kim]

I think I went to uni with a car boot of clothes, CD, books, computer, a small box of electronics tools and - because mothers - too many saucepans and assorted non-perishable comestibles.  I came home a year later with two computers, toolbox, slightly more books, papers and CDs, and no comestibles (there may have been some saucepan attrition).  I think it all fitted.

Of course, I was persona non grata soon afterwards, and left with what I could carry in a random holdall.

I think the lesson here is that parents (and indeed students) have more access to motor vehicles then they did in 1973, data (be it your music collection or academic work) is a hell of a lot easier to lug about than it used to be, everyone should have access to a bicycle and that you should always know where your passport/birth certificate/bank documents/etc are in case you have to leave in a hurry.

[Hot Flatus]

You start cycling down towpaths listening to podcasts

[hellymedic]

You are old enough to be the Prime Minister's PARENT.

Maybe that is OLD!

[De Sisti]

When you don't identify with podcasts (they're just recorded radio programs).

[Jaded]

... with added self indulgent drivel and shitverts.

[Hot Flatus]

... with added self indulgent drivel and shitverts.

When you say things like this.

 

[rafletcher]

When younger members of staff wearing wooly hats in the office really annoy you.

[T42]

When your son complains about his arthritis. Poor lad's only 49, too.