MINI: What is the Midlife Squeeze?

Matt chats about the odd point of life he has discovered himself in - which experts are calling the Midlife Squeeze. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Can I reveal to you something very personal, Brittany?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yes, also as long as you know it's me and
the rest of the nation.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, of course, I when I ask you, it includes
everyone listening. But I am thirty eight years old.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Would you believe I am shook to my call that
you are simply thirty eight?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I feel like I'm twenty eight weeks forty. I'm I'm
getting a lot of grays.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I think you look wonderful. What's the problem.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I've always been someone really fortunate who doesn't have to
deal with a lot of stress and anxiety in my life.
I felt like I've been through many stressful situations, but
it's been something that hasn't like rattled me to my core,
like water for ducks back. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, I think that's probably as Laura deals with most
of it.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Excuse why, because I don't think Laura would say the same.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I don't think Laura would say that she isn't stressed.
Is that not how it works? Think that she takes
more of the stress. It's weird you don't.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Feel stress right up until now, you're looking at me
with daggers.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, I just thought you were insinuating that I don't
do anything.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
No, but I just think she takes a lot of
the stress. Look, he's still daggering me.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Wow. Sorry you said wow. I'm here opening up to Brittany.
I was just trying to.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Get to the bottom of it.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
I've never met anyone that says they don't feel Listen, Brittany, No,
I think now that I'm thirty eight, this would have
to be, without question, the most stressful period of my life.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think every day is more of a struggle now
than it has ever been.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
But do you think that is around the kids.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Absolutely. I think nothing can prepare you for being in
the trenches with multiple children. And the transition from two
to three kids wasn't anywhere near as significant as a
jump from one to two, but it's definitely added a
layer of complexity to the whole dynamic and situation between
and struggling work and social life and everything else.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Also, because you were just getting it back together a
little bit, like you had a six and five year
old or five and four year old, and so your
life was back manageable.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
It definitely it's and even just in the evenings as well,
just once the kids go to bed. We used to
get that little, you know, get your nights back, you'd
have your own dinner. Law and myself, we could, you know, relax,
connect And that's taken away, which is fine. But I
was thinking about now compared to when I was younger. Man,
there has never been kids as well. But also I

(02:40):
think career wise, I think it's a really big transition
when you get into your late thirties that you're then
you're letting go of your youth and all the social
elements that came with it. You know, I think your
social circle becomes so much smaller. And I think the
jump from when you're in your like I guess when
you have kids, when they start school, all of a sudden,

(03:01):
there's so much more of a priority in your life.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well that's all you think about all of a sudden,
Isn't it like your life doesn't matter because everything revolves
around them? But I think I would say for me,
and maybe because I don't have kids, But you said,
like when you hit thirty, it starts to change and
you realize your youth sober. I didn't get that at
thirty I'm thirty eight, We're the same age. I only
really felt it in the last like twelve months really

(03:25):
recently for me. And what was the trigger just a
realization I'm not knowing what six seventy is.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I was like, wow, I've been aged out. I don't
know if there was a real trigger, do you know what?

Speaker 1 (03:37):
It was Probably my fertility doctor being like, you're almost
on the other side, like I feel too young to
have kids right in my brain.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
But he's like, you've got.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
To get that out of you got out of your
head because you're you're on the other end of that scale.
And there was that momentere I was like, wow, it's
like it doesn't really matter how you feel. Time is
going past, Like we can't stop it, we can't slow
it down.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, And I think this period right now, and I'm
sure other parents feel the same. But when you're juggling work,
a mortgage, the kids, trying to have some kind of
a social life, and as well trying to keep the
spark alive with your partner and make sure that's not
being deprioritized at all. Oh man, there are so many
plates struggle right now, and they're calling it as a

(04:19):
term it's called the midlife squeeze apparently, So if anyone
out there is also struggling right now, just know that
you're not the only one going through a midlife squeeze.
I am as well.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Why are they calling it a squeeze? Is crisis too aggressive?
Call a midlife crisis?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I think the squeeze is just I would. For me,
I interpret that as the pressure, the midlife pressure of
everything right now. You're trying to have everything firing in
your life at once. And do I dare say I'm
looking forward to my fifties.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Ah?

Speaker 1 (04:52):
But that's because the kids will be at like high school.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
When I can just relax again. Brittany, you know my problem.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
By the time I'm in my fifties, my kid'll be
like three.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
At this rate, good luck.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
You're on your own.