Midlife Crisis

Majority of people would agree that life begins at 40 for man. This is the turning point to see the changes either good or bad.

A good friend of mine, once advised and cautious me that her guy changed when he reached 40. She said the hubby easily sulk on small matters and she had to treat him like he used to treat her during their courtship period. I just took it lightly and hopefully mine would behave better.

Another friend told me about his father (a non smoker) started to pick smoking habits in his 40s.

I found this article about mid life crisis in reader's Digest , August 2009 and would like to share the 10 signs of midlife crisis :

1. Job Change
This is a terrifying early warning sign that meltdown is imminent. When he comes home and announces he is leaving his 30-year career in insurance to open a home-brew supply business, you know you're in bumpy ride.

2. Death-defying behaviour
And potentially widow-making. This is when he comes home and announces he is going to take up rally driving/BASE-jumping/big-wave surfing. "Life is short,"he philosophies. "I don't want to die without ever having thrown myself off a cliff."

3. Grooming
When one day he looks in the mirror and sees some old guy looking back at him. Eeeek! He panics, ditches his trusty barber for a stylist who does highlights, books in for a back wax and buys a new wardrobe and some musky man scent.

4. Reverting to twenties behaviour
This classic attempt at recapturing lost youth usually involves the sudden desire to go to music concerts, drink excessively, and live on nothing but junk food and two-minute noodles. This will ultimately undo or lead to point 5.

5. Excessive frenzy
he's at gym three mornings a week and watches his reflection in the window as he lifts the new flat-screen out of the car. One of the few MLC symptoms to be encouraged.

6. Outrages purchases
You come home from work to find a Harley- Davidson Fat Boy/Hummer parked in the driveway and a 65in flat screen TV installed in the shed. That money was supposed to last until you were 90, but it's nice to see him smiling - for a change.

7. FlirtingThe old "have I still got it?" trap. It's a nagging questions that leads many a man of a certain age to drop his voice an octave, lean casually on reception desks while flicking back his newly highlighted hair and say things like ,"Let's hook up for a Cosmopolitan," to girls younger than his own daughter. Most harmless but can lead to over-inflated egos and/or arrest.

8. Seeking out old lives
This is either in the obvious form of finding his first girlfriend on facebook , rediscovering the rush of skateboarding or digging out his old amp and bass for a jam. This is a desperate attempt at reminding himself of who he used to be and why people liked him. Can lead to bouts of self-absorbed nostalgia and using words like "cool" a lot.

9. IrresponsibilityHe gets the words "free spirit" tattooed across his shoulders, starts paying for everything on credit and stays up until 2 am watching soccer.

10. Excessive reminiscing
"Remember that time when the band played and we all stayed up all night drinking beer and talking about how one day we'd...blablabla."