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It’s so great! I love using it to scope out new birds when camping or traveling. I have a weird fascination with birds. I could just watch them do their thing for hours lol.
My girlfriend got into that. I could already identify a few. The usual suspects like mourning dove, Carolina wren, etc. Now, she rushes to get an audio clip of one she doesn't recognize, and I get to learn by proxy. I enjoy getting to learn from her though. It's fun.
I love this app! Noticed we had tons of birds in the woods behind our house and they always sound lovely. According to the app, we get tons of cardinals and bluejays around. I had no idea either of those were noisy birds.
HOLY CRAP.. that is the bird that sounds like its chirping "cheeburger cheeburger chee" I swear I never asked anyone cuz I thought I'd sound like a lunatic
Ugh same. I know it's coming. I turn 31 in a few weeks. The other day I was walking my dog and saw a fat little bird just yanking worms from the ground and chowing down. I watched him for 5 minutes.
When Covid hit and I started working from home 100% those bird feeders were quickly one of my favorite purchases. I had no idea what birds were had and now I can name almost every one.
I guess I’m old but it’s fun connecting to nature
Then you can plant lots of native plants and feed birds straight from the garden! It's more beneficial than just bird feeders because it also supports native insects
This is how I got into going native with my own landscaping
ME TOO! I installed a security camera on my porch, expecting weirdos, drama, and meth-heads, but to my surprise and delight, it’s been exclusively adorable bird activity.
I had no idea my tiny porch was someplace they even landed, so I have rearranged my entire porch to accommodate all the different types of birds that come. They have filtered water, little logs to climb on, 3 various types of seeds to choose from, and little nest offerings.
I adore them 🥹
Yes! On our morning walks to the bus stop I'd learn the different bird calls and sounds. Now, I nerdily point them out to my husband whenever I heard them and can identify the sounds 🤣
I didn't start bird watching per se, but I started watching birds! We moved to the eastern shore of Maryland and there's just a ton of action all around us, you can't ignore it. By 5:30 am our yard sounds like a jungle.
The other night we're walking on a nearby path, look up into an old tree and there's 3 to 4 large owls of some type quietly staring down at us as if we're on the menu. A few nights ago there was one bird song that was louder & longer than the other birds usual mantras. I'm looking around to see who it is and it's this tiny little guy not much bigger than a golf ball just wailing away with authority.
Some aren't even scared, there's a family of them that just walk right by my foot in the shaded areas to grab bugs. They'll stand there and look at me as if I'm in their way. Bold!
Then immediately after determining if the front yard needs work or not, I check to see if anyone was brave enough to park on the street in front of our house. Idk who the hell keeps authorizing vehicles to park there, but I’m going to keep staring out front until I get to the bottom of it.
I started a garden for the first time this year! It's a modest raised garden with only 3 different vegetables but I'm excited. Had some issues in the beginning but now they are growing great! From seeds too so I feel extra accomplished!
I like to go out on our terrace most mornings with my coffee and just look at our plants and how they're doing. We don't have a traditional yard but we've made our terrace as close to one as possible with a bunch of plants.
I'm single for the first time in almost a decade, and my ex was the gardener of the household. Decided to get my own garden going this spring because looking at a bare patio would have been depressing. It's been surprisingly cathartic. Can't wait to harvest some herbs and make some delicious meals with them. :)
My grandmother just passed. We sewed together a lot when I was in middle and high school and we found some unfinished quilts while going through her things.
I’m kind of tempted to ask my mom if she’d like to work together with me to finish those.
UPDATE: I asked. Mom has no interest in taking up quilting as a new hobby, but we’re going to look through the pile to see if there are any that look easy enough for a beginner to complete.
There’s one WIP in particular we’re going to search for with vegetable-themed cats (think “Mewcumber” and “Sweet Purrtato”). If we can find that, we’re going to do that one together because my grandma, Mom, and I are all cat lovers.
https://preview.redd.it/miomp0vttd7d1.jpeg?width=3115&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bef48f8529911435a22bff6d325ebd563c162fcc
(Here are some quilts my grandma made that we laid out for the funeral).
UPDATE 2: [WE FOUND THE PATTERN](https://storyquilts.com/collections/garden-patch-cats)!
This was actually her mom who passed and mine has a Home Economics degree she never got to use because schools started doing away with home ec.
I somewhat know how to sew (I’ve made a few homemade Pokémon plushies. The Banette was the most complicated one), but quilting is totally new to me. The funeral was literally yesterday but I’ll ask her later if she’d be up for finishing at least one of the quilts together before we let my grandmother’s quilt guild friends go through her massive hoard of fabric.
That's lovely. You should definitely do that. As someone who has lost both her grandma and mom, you will appreciate not only the memories attached to making the quilt but having it for the rest of your life.
Do it. Even if you aren't 100% sure what you're doing, there are YouTube videos galore to help you out. Join a quilting Facebook group or sub. What an awesome way to cherish her memory. Do it do it do it.
Took me over a decade to finally get a Costco membership, and I feel like such a fool for not doing so sooner. When I compare prices to regularly grocery stores, I realized how much I’ve been getting ripped off this entire time.
Yeah, it's sad that this is considered an "old person" hobby. I really wish I would have gotten into thinking about retirement and investing a decade earlier!
My parents are terrible with money but my grandpa got me into investing when I was young which I am very thankful for. It’s a crime that it isn’t taught more in schools because investing early is soooo important.
They do. It's just for most kids it's in one ear out the other. I vaguely remember being taught interest and compound interest but I didn't care about it.
A High-school class explaining compounding interest and how to just invest in some index funds and how doing that early would benefit us would have been fantastic!
My high school did have a class like this. Tbh, i dont think it helped . Many of us didn't take it seriously enough. Hopefully, someone benefited from it.
Same. We covered investing and compound interest in a couple math classes and yeah, I'm not sure anyone took it seriously beyond trying to memorize the equation for a test.
Same situation for me. People definitely need more than just 1 high school class. Most high schoolers, understandably, aren't planning or thinking long term. They barely know who they are yet. They need parents to emphasize the value and importance of investing multiple times over the course of years.
I did, I found it very interesting. I can see how it would be boring to others, especially when you're young and don't really care about those things
I also ended up working in the Finance department where I'm at though lol 🤣
It’s amazing how often I talk to people in their early 20s who think “I don’t think I’m ready to think about retirement” the metrics are insane when you start saving in your 20s vs 30s.
Investing/saving/retirement discussion legitimately just being a thing people casually bring up in Discord conversations is the ultimate "How old are we again????????" thing for me
“keeps me up at night”… ah so im not the only one!
retirement planning makes me want to throw up, honestly! but better to get started and get educated - best time was yesterday, next best is now..
There are a lot of retirement plan options for business owners.
https://www.schwab.com/small-business-retirement-plans
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-for-self-employed-people
I'm a 37M, and it wasn't till last year that I realized, "Hey, I don't have to turn the bathroom light on in the middle of the night to pee if I just sit down in the dark." Game changer. Try it, fellas.
I already do! I feel my way thru the bathroom, but instead of using my sonar senses to try not to miss the toilet standing up, I just pee like a pretty princess. I never miss now.
Yeah, I don't miss the good ole sonar days of "Floor, wall, ceiling, lid, ooops ::let's just lift that up:: seat, water......therrrrrre's the water. Now we're in business."
My ten year old niece stayed at my place over a weekend last summer. One of the mornings she said I was making Dad Noises. Apparently my brother and I have the same pitch and tone in our grunts. Turns out it’s genetics (or that’s my excuse).
Me too! And knitting! I can’t even express how much I enjoy it. I was knitting at a family reunion over the weekend and my cousins teased me about being an old lady. I took the wind right out of their sails by confirming that I am an old lady at heart and I love it lol.
I love knitting and crochet, which I know are traditionally old lady hobbies but I started both when I was 7 so I don’t really associate it with being elderly
Yeah, same. I loved reading, but now it's hard to find the time to just sit and read. I also blame college for ruining the job a little. Now, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts because I can multi-task while I am doing other things. I still hope to sit around and read my book collection someday if the eyesight holds up.
I feel offended that this person thinks reading is an old person's hobby. Lol. The only time in my life that reading took a backseat was during college. I've always been a voracious reader.
It's the opposite for me. Books were my original all-nighter vice as a kid. I read so much I undid my farsightedness. Now, I try to listen to audiobooks instead to spare my eyes.
I like to go on quiet walks in a botanical garden near me. There are very few other twenty- or thirtysomethings there, and the majority of people there are older than me
Taking 5+ medications plus vitamins.
Gardening/houseplants.
Hiking.
Reading for pleasure.
Bringing casseroles to neighbors/friends.
Watching the history channel.
Water aerobic classes.
Painting but I’m not sure that’s considered an old person habit.
1992 birth year btw 🙃
Same. I wfh and sometimes I just walk out into my backyard and look up at our very large pine trees. I have also gotten my son into watching the birds with me.
Walking! i thought walking was for old ladies, but ive lost 15 lbs just adding a mile walk a day. Im a normal weight too, which made losing vanity weight difficult so i used to do a lot more HIIT or running. But walking is so easy and readily available...it's so efficient and effective! imma stroll right into old age all fit and happy.
Woodworking/furniture building
In all fairness, I started getting into that when I was still in my mid 20’s. Instead of buying the quintessential sports car for my midlife crisis toy, I’ve been daydreaming about filling a 3 car garage with $80,000-$100,000 worth of fancy woodworking tools and turning it into workshop.
I'm a bird watcher now. Got a feeder during Covid and have a pair of Blue Jays (now a third - their kid?) and a pair of cardinals who visit my little NYC fire escape for peanuts so I think that's pretty cool.
Also scrapbooking - or junk journaling as TikTok calls it. Started out as bullet journaling, but now I have several journals for reading, junk journaling, tarot, traveling, brewing/tasting notes... one journal is dedicated to me and my partner, like a scrapbook of our relationship for the last 3 years. I have another one where I paste in ephemera from really good days so that on the bad ones I can look back at some of my favorite moments - like a visual gratitude journal.
Yeah, my old people hobbies are my younger hobbies that i can afford now.
I am lucky to have avoided 40k minis so far! That may change if I ever read that book or play that switch game sitting on the shelf. I did get back into MTG and Lego now that I can (sort of) afford to buy more.
It’s funny, I don’t play 40k proper but I do buy some of the models for other games. I’m terrified of even stepping a toe into MtG…at least with minis they’re crazy expensive but take up space so they limit how much I can buy/store. With MtG I could easily have several thousand dollars worth of cards stored in a shoebox.
Bonsai and miniature painting (the later is more like a very boring midlife crisis, where I buy and paint all the Warhammer toys I just couldn't afford as a kid lolz). Bonsai is definitely my old man hobby.
Birding!
Never though I would be a birder, or really knew anything about birds at all, now I am obsessed.
Birding has become kind of “cool” recently though. I have been talking to people even younger than me that are interested in learning.
Complaining
*now, what bothers me is…*
I love it. It’s so much fun and it makes me a better person. My grandmother loved complaining and she made it well into her 80s with minimal exercise and an awful diet
As a dad/husband, my wife says I've bypassed my 40s-50s and have gone straight into my older years, by way of always wearing a tucked in plain white T-shirt to bed, being more anal about the thermostat and my resentment of most things about pop culture (which she mostly agrees with me about) and music.
Oh, I also will fairly regularly wake up with sun-rise, and be up and at 'em, showered and ready to start the day by 7am. I am fully embracing my 60s while still being in my early 40s.
Gardening, fermenting, and collecting Christmas/Halloween village pieces. Basically I have become my parents but without children to support, so I can buy more village accessories.
Birdwatching. It's starts with a small birdfeeder.. then a better one, then a bath or two, and now we enjoy just sitting, watching, and listening. We can now hear the difference and identify some of the songs and chirping of a few unique ones like scissortail and cow birds without seeing them.
I'm being roped into learning how to crochet if that counts.
Otherwise I'd rather just draw still. Just give me peace and quiet with loud music and a pencil and paper and I'm good.
I find myself watching birds a lot more. Growing up and even now my mom and grandma always talked about the birds that come to their house “I’ve had a lot of hummingbirds this summer” “we have a family of blue jays that come up in the mornings” etc and I always rolled my eyes and called them old. Now I bought a bird feeder and have it right outside my living room window for the cats to watch and find myself standing there watching the birds myself.
I’ve even been taking some pics of them or calling mom telling her what birds I’ve been getting lately and we always have to make sure we have a bag of birdseed on hand.
Bird watching, sewing, canning.
I have a lovely bird book and a set of binoculars I like to use on nice days, and sewing and canning are handy skills to have even though I'm not the best at either of them.
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Bird watching.
Many friends started this. Have you used the Merlin app to identify song birds??
the merlin app is amazing/amazingly helpful.
It’s so great! I love using it to scope out new birds when camping or traveling. I have a weird fascination with birds. I could just watch them do their thing for hours lol.
they have their own little lives and dramas that don’t involve humans whatsoever
same. many fond memories of just...sitting and watching birds.
Name this bird.... "Cheeseburger" ...... "Cheeseburger "
Pokemon for adults. I GOTTA catch em all
My girlfriend got into that. I could already identify a few. The usual suspects like mourning dove, Carolina wren, etc. Now, she rushes to get an audio clip of one she doesn't recognize, and I get to learn by proxy. I enjoy getting to learn from her though. It's fun.
I love this app! Noticed we had tons of birds in the woods behind our house and they always sound lovely. According to the app, we get tons of cardinals and bluejays around. I had no idea either of those were noisy birds.
The fucking blue jays wake me up constantly. They sound like hawks sometimes
Pew! Pew Pew Pew Pew! I love cardinals they sound like old timey lazer guns. My favorite is the Canadian sparrow though- it's the Cheeseburger bird.
HOLY CRAP.. that is the bird that sounds like its chirping "cheeburger cheeburger chee" I swear I never asked anyone cuz I thought I'd sound like a lunatic
I was recommended this a while back, I need to look into it
Just don’t play the songs back in an attempt to see them or draw birds out of hiding. It stresses them out and wastes their energy!
I can feel in my bones that I'm about to become a birder
Ugh same. I know it's coming. I turn 31 in a few weeks. The other day I was walking my dog and saw a fat little bird just yanking worms from the ground and chowing down. I watched him for 5 minutes.
You’re not alone.
When Covid hit and I started working from home 100% those bird feeders were quickly one of my favorite purchases. I had no idea what birds were had and now I can name almost every one. I guess I’m old but it’s fun connecting to nature
Then you can plant lots of native plants and feed birds straight from the garden! It's more beneficial than just bird feeders because it also supports native insects This is how I got into going native with my own landscaping
Sam's Club has a bird feeder with a camera that identifies the bird. I had to talk myself out of it
I have one of those and I would absolutely recommend it
ME TOO! I installed a security camera on my porch, expecting weirdos, drama, and meth-heads, but to my surprise and delight, it’s been exclusively adorable bird activity. I had no idea my tiny porch was someplace they even landed, so I have rearranged my entire porch to accommodate all the different types of birds that come. They have filtered water, little logs to climb on, 3 various types of seeds to choose from, and little nest offerings. I adore them 🥹
[удалено]
I'm honestly considering buying a 100-400 lens for taking pictures of birds.
I have dove head first into birds, I’m obsessed
Just don't pigeon-hole yourself into fitting the stereotype.
Yes! On our morning walks to the bus stop I'd learn the different bird calls and sounds. Now, I nerdily point them out to my husband whenever I heard them and can identify the sounds 🤣
I didn't start bird watching per se, but I started watching birds! We moved to the eastern shore of Maryland and there's just a ton of action all around us, you can't ignore it. By 5:30 am our yard sounds like a jungle. The other night we're walking on a nearby path, look up into an old tree and there's 3 to 4 large owls of some type quietly staring down at us as if we're on the menu. A few nights ago there was one bird song that was louder & longer than the other birds usual mantras. I'm looking around to see who it is and it's this tiny little guy not much bigger than a golf ball just wailing away with authority. Some aren't even scared, there's a family of them that just walk right by my foot in the shaded areas to grab bugs. They'll stand there and look at me as if I'm in their way. Bold!
Staring out the window impressed by landscaping
Good landscaping is expensive af these people just don’t know
For real I just got a quote for my new build a few days ago 😭 Pro tip: never do that and an orthodontic consultation in the same week
Cut out the middleman and just go to a proctologist.
Cut out the middleman, go to the bottomman
It’s like you know you me. Hemorrhoids are now a dinner table conversation.
Right. And a clean cut yard with no weeds is a ton of work.
Then immediately after determining if the front yard needs work or not, I check to see if anyone was brave enough to park on the street in front of our house. Idk who the hell keeps authorizing vehicles to park there, but I’m going to keep staring out front until I get to the bottom of it.
I have a giant garden now and I love it so much.
Same! My garden brings me so much joy. Now I spend my time watching YouTube videos on how to preserve and can food too.
My YouTube feed has soo many videos on soil health and composting now it used to be all exercise videos and fashion 😂
Tine to change your username to Happy-Zucchini4711
I started a garden for the first time this year! It's a modest raised garden with only 3 different vegetables but I'm excited. Had some issues in the beginning but now they are growing great! From seeds too so I feel extra accomplished!
I like to go out on our terrace most mornings with my coffee and just look at our plants and how they're doing. We don't have a traditional yard but we've made our terrace as close to one as possible with a bunch of plants.
The morning coffee and plant check-in is a true delight.
Gardening is legit. I’m learning. I’m outdoors. I get peppers. It’s the best.
I'm single for the first time in almost a decade, and my ex was the gardener of the household. Decided to get my own garden going this spring because looking at a bare patio would have been depressing. It's been surprisingly cathartic. Can't wait to harvest some herbs and make some delicious meals with them. :)
I hope you find happiness right where you plant it. 💚
Not a garden (yet), but my flowerbeds and houseplants make me so happy :)
I love gardening too, but I only have fruit trees. They are so much easier to work with lol
Too bad your zucchini doesn’t share the love.
My grandmother just passed. We sewed together a lot when I was in middle and high school and we found some unfinished quilts while going through her things. I’m kind of tempted to ask my mom if she’d like to work together with me to finish those. UPDATE: I asked. Mom has no interest in taking up quilting as a new hobby, but we’re going to look through the pile to see if there are any that look easy enough for a beginner to complete. There’s one WIP in particular we’re going to search for with vegetable-themed cats (think “Mewcumber” and “Sweet Purrtato”). If we can find that, we’re going to do that one together because my grandma, Mom, and I are all cat lovers. https://preview.redd.it/miomp0vttd7d1.jpeg?width=3115&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bef48f8529911435a22bff6d325ebd563c162fcc (Here are some quilts my grandma made that we laid out for the funeral). UPDATE 2: [WE FOUND THE PATTERN](https://storyquilts.com/collections/garden-patch-cats)!
Do it. Your mum will love being asked and doing it with u
This was actually her mom who passed and mine has a Home Economics degree she never got to use because schools started doing away with home ec. I somewhat know how to sew (I’ve made a few homemade Pokémon plushies. The Banette was the most complicated one), but quilting is totally new to me. The funeral was literally yesterday but I’ll ask her later if she’d be up for finishing at least one of the quilts together before we let my grandmother’s quilt guild friends go through her massive hoard of fabric.
Sorry for your loss and this is a beautiful idea.
That's a really sweet idea
That's lovely. You should definitely do that. As someone who has lost both her grandma and mom, you will appreciate not only the memories attached to making the quilt but having it for the rest of your life.
Do it. Even if you aren't 100% sure what you're doing, there are YouTube videos galore to help you out. Join a quilting Facebook group or sub. What an awesome way to cherish her memory. Do it do it do it.
Buying things from Costco, then telling anyone who will listen what a great deal I got on it from Costco.
Are you a Midwestern dad?
My dad is a Midwestern dad and exclusively does all of his clothes shopping at Costco
Took me over a decade to finally get a Costco membership, and I feel like such a fool for not doing so sooner. When I compare prices to regularly grocery stores, I realized how much I’ve been getting ripped off this entire time.
If you have an Aldi in your area, go there. Hi quality stuff at half the price of a Publix/Hy-Vee
Fuck I feel attacked now.
Hey that’s me
Did that with our honeymoon. "Oh yeah, the island was incredible, but let me tell you about the deal we got from Costco Travel!"
I started worrying about retirement.
Yeah, it's sad that this is considered an "old person" hobby. I really wish I would have gotten into thinking about retirement and investing a decade earlier!
My parents are terrible with money but my grandpa got me into investing when I was young which I am very thankful for. It’s a crime that it isn’t taught more in schools because investing early is soooo important.
They do. It's just for most kids it's in one ear out the other. I vaguely remember being taught interest and compound interest but I didn't care about it.
i would’ve had a better understanding if they let us paper trade in class.
A High-school class explaining compounding interest and how to just invest in some index funds and how doing that early would benefit us would have been fantastic!
My high school did have a class like this. Tbh, i dont think it helped . Many of us didn't take it seriously enough. Hopefully, someone benefited from it.
Same. We covered investing and compound interest in a couple math classes and yeah, I'm not sure anyone took it seriously beyond trying to memorize the equation for a test.
Same situation for me. People definitely need more than just 1 high school class. Most high schoolers, understandably, aren't planning or thinking long term. They barely know who they are yet. They need parents to emphasize the value and importance of investing multiple times over the course of years.
I did, I found it very interesting. I can see how it would be boring to others, especially when you're young and don't really care about those things I also ended up working in the Finance department where I'm at though lol 🤣
It’s amazing how often I talk to people in their early 20s who think “I don’t think I’m ready to think about retirement” the metrics are insane when you start saving in your 20s vs 30s.
I was too busy thinking about the next party I was going to
Investing/saving/retirement discussion legitimately just being a thing people casually bring up in Discord conversations is the ultimate "How old are we again????????" thing for me
This keeps me up at night. Make sure you're signed up to your company's 401K plan and/or start an IRA 😭
“keeps me up at night”… ah so im not the only one! retirement planning makes me want to throw up, honestly! but better to get started and get educated - best time was yesterday, next best is now..
I don't have a company. I'm a 1099 & small business owner.
There are a lot of retirement plan options for business owners. https://www.schwab.com/small-business-retirement-plans https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-for-self-employed-people
My husband similarly, my husband (older millennial at 38) said he knew he was getting “old” when he started unironically discussing mortgage rates.
lol this! have started “investing”..
Getting up 2 times or more in the night to pee.
I'm a 37M, and it wasn't till last year that I realized, "Hey, I don't have to turn the bathroom light on in the middle of the night to pee if I just sit down in the dark." Game changer. Try it, fellas. 
I already do! I feel my way thru the bathroom, but instead of using my sonar senses to try not to miss the toilet standing up, I just pee like a pretty princess. I never miss now.
Yeah, I don't miss the good ole sonar days of "Floor, wall, ceiling, lid, ooops ::let's just lift that up:: seat, water......therrrrrre's the water. Now we're in business."
I sit down every time, checkmate.
Yeah of course, no way I’m flash banging myself at 3am to piss. Just sit and stay half asleep
Just two?! Amateur. Once perimenopause came for me, I’m up 4 to 6 times a night. Like being pregnant with no baby. 😭
I never have to get up in the middle of the night. Instead, I have to go 3 times the first hour I'm awake.
I recently took this up too. I keep worrying it’s my prostate, which I don’t think I have because I have ovaries and a uterus and such
Making grunting noises while getting up from a sitting position 🤣🤣🤣
TIL I'm a hobbyist
Keep at it! You'll only improve!
That gutteral sigh when you take a seat after a long day, ahhhhh~!
The sigh is almost more cathartic than the relief washing over our overworked bones.
My ten year old niece stayed at my place over a weekend last summer. One of the mornings she said I was making Dad Noises. Apparently my brother and I have the same pitch and tone in our grunts. Turns out it’s genetics (or that’s my excuse).
I didn’t even realize that I was making noises until a younger relative (Gen Z) said that I was making “old people” noises.
Crochet
Haha me too, but I tell people my hobbie I fiber arts... 😆
Fun fact if you say your hobby is fiber arts. It gives you license to do all of them.
Me too! And knitting! I can’t even express how much I enjoy it. I was knitting at a family reunion over the weekend and my cousins teased me about being an old lady. I took the wind right out of their sails by confirming that I am an old lady at heart and I love it lol.
I love knitting and crochet, which I know are traditionally old lady hobbies but I started both when I was 7 so I don’t really associate it with being elderly
Same, it did wonders for my mental health once I learned during lockdowns.
Sitting on the porch to enjoy the quiet
This is especially relaxing when it’s raining and you have a cup of coffee. Or when it’s sunny and you have a cup of coffee.
How about when it’s cloudy and you have a cup of coffee?
Reading for fun
Hah! I did this voraciously as a kid, then stopped after college. Now I listen to podcasts while I run.
Yeah, same. I loved reading, but now it's hard to find the time to just sit and read. I also blame college for ruining the job a little. Now, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts because I can multi-task while I am doing other things. I still hope to sit around and read my book collection someday if the eyesight holds up.
There has never been a single time I've not had a book on the go since I was 6 or 7.
I bought a kindle and it goes everywhere with me now. A library of imaginary world and knowledge at my fingertips all day, I love it!
I'm sad that people think this is an old person hobby. Even nowadays, plenty of kids read for fun.
I feel offended that this person thinks reading is an old person's hobby. Lol. The only time in my life that reading took a backseat was during college. I've always been a voracious reader.
It's the opposite for me. Books were my original all-nighter vice as a kid. I read so much I undid my farsightedness. Now, I try to listen to audiobooks instead to spare my eyes.
I go to bed by 9 and get up and 4:30 and go to the grocery store at 6 just like my grandmother used to.
I like to go on quiet walks in a botanical garden near me. There are very few other twenty- or thirtysomethings there, and the majority of people there are older than me
Botanical gardens are so amazing and underrated.
Yes! It’s also become something I seek out when on vacation too.
Taking 5+ medications plus vitamins. Gardening/houseplants. Hiking. Reading for pleasure. Bringing casseroles to neighbors/friends. Watching the history channel. Water aerobic classes. Painting but I’m not sure that’s considered an old person habit. 1992 birth year btw 🙃
if watching the history channel is old, i was old in 97.
Back when there was history on the History Channel
Ohhh, what kind of casseroles do you make??
I’m obsessed with trees and birds
Same. I wfh and sometimes I just walk out into my backyard and look up at our very large pine trees. I have also gotten my son into watching the birds with me.
Walking! i thought walking was for old ladies, but ive lost 15 lbs just adding a mile walk a day. Im a normal weight too, which made losing vanity weight difficult so i used to do a lot more HIIT or running. But walking is so easy and readily available...it's so efficient and effective! imma stroll right into old age all fit and happy.
Woodworking/furniture building In all fairness, I started getting into that when I was still in my mid 20’s. Instead of buying the quintessential sports car for my midlife crisis toy, I’ve been daydreaming about filling a 3 car garage with $80,000-$100,000 worth of fancy woodworking tools and turning it into workshop.
I'm a bird watcher now. Got a feeder during Covid and have a pair of Blue Jays (now a third - their kid?) and a pair of cardinals who visit my little NYC fire escape for peanuts so I think that's pretty cool. Also scrapbooking - or junk journaling as TikTok calls it. Started out as bullet journaling, but now I have several journals for reading, junk journaling, tarot, traveling, brewing/tasting notes... one journal is dedicated to me and my partner, like a scrapbook of our relationship for the last 3 years. I have another one where I paste in ephemera from really good days so that on the bad ones I can look back at some of my favorite moments - like a visual gratitude journal.
My expensive mid life crisis toys are Warhammer 40K minis. Now that I have the time and money to play.
I decided to rebuild (and expand) my d&d collection. So like.. Get a complete 2ed and 3ed collection. Maybe dip onto 1ed and 4ed as well.
3.5 is golden. 5e has a lot more diversity with builds and items in the last few years if you have not built into that.
Yeah, my old people hobbies are my younger hobbies that i can afford now. I am lucky to have avoided 40k minis so far! That may change if I ever read that book or play that switch game sitting on the shelf. I did get back into MTG and Lego now that I can (sort of) afford to buy more.
It’s funny, I don’t play 40k proper but I do buy some of the models for other games. I’m terrified of even stepping a toe into MtG…at least with minis they’re crazy expensive but take up space so they limit how much I can buy/store. With MtG I could easily have several thousand dollars worth of cards stored in a shoebox.
The hobby where 40k is both the name and the price tag
Newer AoS player here! Love the Sylvaneth line.
I’m a quilter!
Me reading "I'm a quitter!" and thinking "Yeah, me too!"
Fellow patchworker! 👍
Writing in cursive with a fountain pen.
Yeah. I have a bad vintage Parker habit. I can’t pass on a 51 or a Vac.
crosswords
NYT mini babyyyyy
The mini and wordle are my morning zen
I have grown to love sudoku.
I’ve been old forever, I guess? Birding, knitting, reading since forever.
Have you guys discovered the unparalleled joy of stamp collecting? Just kidding, I'm still putting together gundam models
Researching ancestry. Specifically my matrilineage.
I have ancestors who did this! Hooked into the King of England in the 1300s and now that line goes back two thousand years!
Bonsai and miniature painting (the later is more like a very boring midlife crisis, where I buy and paint all the Warhammer toys I just couldn't afford as a kid lolz). Bonsai is definitely my old man hobby.
Birding! Never though I would be a birder, or really knew anything about birds at all, now I am obsessed. Birding has become kind of “cool” recently though. I have been talking to people even younger than me that are interested in learning.
So many. I crochet, cross stitch, embroider, sew, and I am trying to learn to knit.
Bingo, but I’ve been playing bingo since I was 21. Honestly, I never gave a damn that it was for old people—bingo is fun.
Lawncare/gardening. Also just signed up for golf lessons.
Live in an apartments for over a decade, and it's amazing how much you appreciate having and mowing a lawn once you have one again!
For sure. I'm about to buy my first zero-turn lawnmower and am way too excited about it.
All the expensive new LEGO sets I want. In conjunction with getting a bunch of smaller ones for my kids of course
Crochet. It used to be an only Winter thing for me, but I’ve found friends who crochet too and we have weekly Hooker Parties
I started using Irish Spring soap in the shower.
Oh my god antiquing. We can't really afford to buy a lot of stuff but looking through artifacts of the past is so much fun.
Antiquing is so fun because I was raised by my grandma and she always had a ton of old stuff. So when I go it's like visiting memory lane.
I learned how to do embroidery during Covid
Model building, fly fishing, fly tying, working out to stave off the dad bod, falling asleep on the couch when I have a moment to sit
Bird watching 👀 🐦🐦⬛ I can identify all kinds of birds now! (Obligatory bird person mention of the Merlin app 🤣)
Started playing chess which is definitely not just an old person hobby
Watercolor painting. I set myself up outside in my backyard & try to paint the sky. I wear a big sunhat and sit in an adirondack chair under a tree.
Complaining *now, what bothers me is…* I love it. It’s so much fun and it makes me a better person. My grandmother loved complaining and she made it well into her 80s with minimal exercise and an awful diet
Model ships here
I'm learning jazz music. I would love to sit down at a random piano and play background music for an hour.
As a dad/husband, my wife says I've bypassed my 40s-50s and have gone straight into my older years, by way of always wearing a tucked in plain white T-shirt to bed, being more anal about the thermostat and my resentment of most things about pop culture (which she mostly agrees with me about) and music. Oh, I also will fairly regularly wake up with sun-rise, and be up and at 'em, showered and ready to start the day by 7am. I am fully embracing my 60s while still being in my early 40s.
The number of books I have on various wars dating back to the Punic wars is in the dozens.
Puzzles! I find it so relaxing.
I like watching birds now
I no shit had an epiphany a few days ago while going on a walk - I understood why people get into bird watching.
Gardening, fermenting, and collecting Christmas/Halloween village pieces. Basically I have become my parents but without children to support, so I can buy more village accessories.
Smoking tobacco pipes. Started last summer when I was 32. Up to 7 pipes now. Love it.
Birdwatching. It's starts with a small birdfeeder.. then a better one, then a bath or two, and now we enjoy just sitting, watching, and listening. We can now hear the difference and identify some of the songs and chirping of a few unique ones like scissortail and cow birds without seeing them.
Is “house maintenance” a hobby? It involves a lot of specific tools, and most of my free time. So, it feels kinda like a hobby.
barely into my 30s and i am right there with you. i would have so much more free time if it wasnt for my damn house.
Quilting. I even joined a guild to hang out with my fellow old ladies.
We have a bird feeder and everyone loves it, especially the dog!
I'm being roped into learning how to crochet if that counts. Otherwise I'd rather just draw still. Just give me peace and quiet with loud music and a pencil and paper and I'm good.
saving money and not impulse buying.
Walking slow down grocery store aisles and getting in everyones way
Going to bed NLT 10 pm every day lol.
I find myself watching birds a lot more. Growing up and even now my mom and grandma always talked about the birds that come to their house “I’ve had a lot of hummingbirds this summer” “we have a family of blue jays that come up in the mornings” etc and I always rolled my eyes and called them old. Now I bought a bird feeder and have it right outside my living room window for the cats to watch and find myself standing there watching the birds myself. I’ve even been taking some pics of them or calling mom telling her what birds I’ve been getting lately and we always have to make sure we have a bag of birdseed on hand.
Metal detecting.
Houseplants😂
Golf is rapidly taking over my life.
Cataloguing birds I hear around my house on the Merlin bird ID app. And sneezing loudly.
Seaglass hunting.
Magnet fishing.
Jigsaw puzzles 🧩
Xennial here. Who decided to gatekeep birds for 45+? Got a bird feeder camera. That plus the Merlin app is one of the brightest parts of my day
My husband and I recently parked near the airport to do plane spotting as planes landed. It was fun but too much exhaust.
Bird watching, sewing, canning. I have a lovely bird book and a set of binoculars I like to use on nice days, and sewing and canning are handy skills to have even though I'm not the best at either of them.
I’ve been trying to make my house a home, one minor cosmetic improvement at a time
I have started hot flashes and night sweats along with irrational bursts of emotion. Yay to middle age and perimenopause!