it’s heavily implied that he’s middle-aged.

What alternative classification would you suggest, if not “middle-aged”?

What other options are there? Def not “young,” per se, at 30. And you’re DEFINITELY not “old,” between 30 to (I’d say) 70-ish. Personally, when I turned 30, I considered myself “middle” aged. But…rather than go by my personal opinion, and since I’ve always had to provide umph-teen “academic” references (as opposed to subjective, anecdotal, or personal opinions) for nearly every paper in grad school…I figured I’d do some research to find out how the term [middle age] is (generally) defined…. lol!

“Young adult” is (generally) considered 18-35 years old ;

“Middle-aged” adults are classified as 36-55 years old (in this particular study).

“Older adults” are classified as 55+ in this study.

But “older adults” isn’t the same as “old,” or senior citizen...Medicare doesn’t consider someone to be a “senior citizen” until 65+.

But, if you’re wanting to get technical, Brittanica has “middle age” between 40 - 60 years old.

The TL;DR: technically, any age between “young adult” and “senior” is in the “middle,” right? So, that COULD, technically, be anything between: 18-65 years old.