So, those who have reached this age will understand the topic right away.

I.E., Picking up a catsup jar, and dropping it. Picking up a glass of water, and spilling it. (And so forth.)
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I think I have figured out why these things happen at a certain age (if I am able to explain it so others can understanding what I am trying to say).

Butter-finger age is when we don't use full strength to pick up things anymore, items which we didn't use to have to think about..it just came natural to us.

In butter-finger age we conserve our energy.

However, this is really fallacious reasoning, as things we drop and spill then need to be cleaned up.

Anyone have a solution for the butter-finger phenomenon?

By the time I get something from the kitchen I'm lucky to have remembered what I was after.

pollythinks Wrote:
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> Anyone have a solution for the butter-finger
> phenomenon?

Rubber gloves? :)

The incipient arthritis doesn't help.

I agree; the earlier grip came naturally and without thought.

My -only- solution is to focus on what I'm doing, instead of thinking about something else.

I have to say, though, I had never thought about it as being a condition of weaker muscles, but rather a condition of being so much more mentally busy, and not paying attention to what I'm doing.

When I was younger, thoughts were not so multi-faceted. Ask me what I thought about anything, and I would likely have a ready opinion. Age, experience and education have changed that reaction, and I find myself delving much more deeply into matters.

Once upon a time, if I were cooking eggs, that's likely what I was thinking about - cooking the eggs just so, warming the plate, doing things related to getting the eggs done "just right." Now, hundreds of egg-cooking sessions later, eggs are just eggs; I can get lost in thought while cooking them, and return the carton to the freezer (I recently found my "lost" pasta in there).

A young person might observe such behavior and think, "The geezer is losing it."

I, on the other hand, think that the geezer is finally finding it. :)


And for me, it's not the condiments most at risk. Latte seems to send me into the far reaches of my mind, though. I keep a spare keyboard on hand. :)

Maybe Rosie the Robot? ;)

Short of hired help, there are exercises you can do to strengthen motor skills. Stretching and contracting hands and fingers are one.

Lifting small weights another.

I've recently acquired Chiffon fingers, too. I drop many things, then cuss and pick the many items up. Fun time in the big city.

I thought you wanted to know when Butterfinger candy bars were invented.

I'm starting to find misplaced items in strange places and can't even imagine why I would be put it there to begin with.

My manual dexterity is left wanting as I age. Pisses me off. Hate picking up shit I've dropped...especially the 2nd and 3rd times.

Amyjo: "there are exercises you can do to strengthen motor skills".

Exercises!? Are you kidding?

(Anyway, thanks for the thought.)

From your own post you asked the question, "Anyone have a solution for the butter-finger phenomenon?"

Are you instead now saying that "the age of Butterfingers" is irreversible?

I would like to think there are things one can do to help reverse that effect of aging.

I've noticed a change in manual dexterity as I've gotten older. But there are strengthening exercises you can do to strengthen the muscles in your hands and fingers.

Pianists use them to play the piano. I don't know why it would be different for us.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2017 09:26PM by Amyjo.

With virtually everything I handle, I hold it with one hand and have the other hand underneath it, so I can't drop it. I have been doing this for years.

I've been mindful of dropping things since I was a little girl. I can painfully recall being on a walk with my babysitter and little brother and I was the one in charge of carrying the glass milk bottles. Why would anyone put a 4 year old in charge of that God only knows. But not just one slipped out of my hands on our walk. It seems that I dropped at least two at the same time.

I've had a hangup about that since lol. When I carry bottles these days such as a water bottle, juice bottle, whatever - I always remember carrying those bottles as a child.

When one slips out of my hands these days I remind myself it's deja vu all over again.

There are times I still feel like that little girl holding on to those bottle/s for dear life. Have considered it may be a form of arrested development as that happened around the same time an older brother was dying and then died from cancer. Our lives were frozen in time, if but for a moment and forever altered by those early childhood events.