Growing Old Disgracefully: How to Upset and Perplex Your Children with Increasingly Erratic and Unreasonable Behavior

by Rohan Candappa

Where's the fun in growing old gracefully? Humorist Rohan Candappa believes it's "far better to put your name down for a course of bad behavior, irresponsibility, and questionable fashion choices. And anything that winds your kids up must be worth having a crack at." Embarrassing and exasperating your kids doesn't have to stop when they become adults and move out of the house. Rohan points out that "If life begins at forty, then a sixty-year-old is not yet twenty-one. And think how much mayhem still lay ahead of you at that age. Act accordingly."Growing Old Disgracefully offers hundreds of pointers for making your sunset years seem like the dawn of your existence. Here are just a * Advice on dressing Lycra is always a good bet. Fluorescent Lycra, ideally. * Looking Forget dieting, exercise, and plastic surgery. Instead, tell people you're fifteen years older than you are. * Confusing young ' On a crowded bus or train, offer your seat to someone obviously much younger than you. * The best anti-aging Ice cream! What other food makes you feel like you're eight years old again? * Making grandchildren your Buy them presents that their parents have (sensibly) refused to buy them.Growing Old Disgracefully serves up plenty of irreverent fun for everyone (except your children).

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[msleighm · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

From mom circa 2004, much more relevant now....

"A simple piece of arithmetic: if life begins at forty, then a sixty-one-year-old is not yet twenty-one. And think how much mayhem still lay ahead of you at that age. Act accordingly." (page 3) This means I'm eight, what wonders lay before me!

This book is written by a Brit, and published in the U.K. in 2003 so there are so words and references that are dated or unclear to an American reader. However, even here, there is a shot at Trump. Prescient.

I found some of the advice a relief and will definitely "take to the air and fly" with my new wings (p. 142-3).

Since I don't have children, or even nieces and nephews, some of the wonderful suggestions were lost on me. A great suggestion: "what I'm getting at is that maybe the best way to preserve your sanity is to occasionally feign a little madness. For instance, by living in a house with twenty-two cats." (p.169) I believe this has a lot of merit.

Mom has probably forgotten all about this book, I'll have to hand it back to her in case she needs any inspiration. Then I think we need to track down Lou's Winnebago and make sure she is rocking the good life to the fullest.

Read: 1/7-14/2018

[Mandi Lucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to remember some of the things that are suggested in this book

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has given me lots of ideas and when I get old I just might use some of these hints if I can remember them. I suspect that my client has already read the book judging by some of her behaviour. I am not going to be a pensioner or a senior citizen or a wrinkly I am going to be a SNDY. (Still Not Dead Yet)