There are only two alternatives. Get old or die young. What do you choose?

this part was trouble me also, hana

Saddest part was when they were leaving their controlling step-fathers house and the look on their step-siblings faces when they realised they weren't going to see each other again
that was sad.

DOesn't have to be disturbing. You can think so but that won't be helpful for anything.

Just another disturbing reminder that people do get old and we can't do anything about it.
Except maybe not grow a horrible mustache that turns you into Tom Skerrit!
Seriously though, I think one thing that can age people in a bad way is that a lot of people do seem to make very weird choices in presentation as they get older, which are unnecessarily unflattering.

I just watched it for the first time and was a little freaked out that Ethan looked exactly like Tom Skerritt by the end of the movie. Not that Tom isn't a good looking man, but I've always seen him as the older man in movies. It was unsettling to see Ethan turn into Tom Skerritt. Just another disturbing reminder that people do get old and we can't do anything about it.

The haircut and wispy moustache of later period was not a particularly good look!
"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

Absolutely; there are at least a couple of generations enjoying that more youthful look longer than it seemed like previous generations looked. Better nutrition once we got past the World Wars, better information about health.
Ethan always had boyish, pixie-ish features, on top of that. He will probably still look boyish when he's 60.

Generation X is not exactly aging the same way the generations before did. People in their 40's now are what 20-somethings looked like in the 1970's and before.

Hmm I dunno Ethan kinda doesn't age that much though does he? Of all the cast, he's the one who seems the most unchanged, so that they had to put mustaches on him just to make him seem more dad-like later on. He still looked too young for the part even by the end!