As They Grow Up, We Grow Old

[e_moon60]

Having a kid who's over 30 means every birthday sparks thoughts of one's own age far more than it did when said kid was three.  I didn't consider his birthdays linked to my age when he was shorter than I was (even when he got to be taller.)   He was kid, I was parent, kids grow up and...we just sort of stick somewhere until they're out of high

Comments

[labelleizzy]

yes. I'm coming up on 45, and childless, but with children I love growing older, going to college, etc. definitely makes you think.

thank you for this.

[learnsslowly]

I read this nervously expecting to find a article complaining that as the child ages the parent feels older and how unfair this is to the parent. Sadly, there are parents who resent both children and grandchildren for "making them feel old" by being the age they are. Thank you so much for still loving your adult child. Adult children only have one alternative to getting a year older every year, and it is encouraging to find a parent who does not resent their adult child for getting older or complain about them doing so. Long may this continue. With very best wishes.

[e_moon60]

The only alternative to growing older is...dying younger. Personally, I prefer growing older. I would rather not have the associated problems, I got some of them by way of fabulous experiences and wouldn't trade. Some were intrinsic, some accidental (nobody intended for me to have the encephalitis that nearly killed me, and I certainly didn't plan being bucked off that horse and kicked in the butt while in the air), some fall into "everybody" (in this region anyway) gets "that" (cataracts, sun damage, skin cancer.) Children are reminders and sometimes stressors, but I'd rather have had a stressful time raising an autistic kid than working for a bad boss or many other things. I consider growing older an achievement. There were some close calls. Lots of decisions I could've made differently and done "better" (maybe) but at least as many that would've made things worse.

[learnsslowly]

I've never heard a parent or grandparent actually say outright they wished their child had died instead of got older, but I've seen the despair on faces of adult children as their parents have ranted on in front of them about how dreadful it has made them feel that their adult child is now grey/adult/a parent themselves/suffering from some of the problems of middle/ old age/at a significant birthday and making them feel old. Feeling your parent doesn't love you/ cannot forgive you/is angry with you/ feels very hurt by you for continuing to age at 60 seconds a minute seems to be such a hopeless thing.
I wish I knew a way of making it better.
Thank you for your response as well as the original post.

[controuble]

A Happy Belated Birthday to M.

I turned thirty-mumble 6 weeks after I had my son. He's 18 now and not out of high school, yet (taking bio 2 and co-op work training in year 5 and he wants to take another year if they'll let him.) He wants to be a vet or at least a vet-tech.

[seekerval]

At 59, I can relate to your comments despite having no children of my own and needing to rely on my 38 nephews & nieces and their numerous offspring for comparisons and inspirations (and hugs).

I love your outlook. More inspirations there. Thanks.

[redvixen]

My daughter was born one week after my 22nd birthday and this upcoming year she turns 30. So our ages have been interlinked fairly tightly.

Yes, my body is no longer in shape but I would not want to be her. I have been the amazing recipient of a gift I see when I look at her and am thankful for having. She has brought more joy into my life than she will ever know and I do not begrudge her the life she has. I miss the child she used to be and am very proud of the adult she has turned into. She has turned out better than I hoped for.

So, yeah, fifty-something is just fine as well. :)

[e_moon60]

My friends who had kids had them younger than I did, so I had some idea of the passage of time as their kids grew from infant size to "tall as my knee" and then my hip, and so on, but it didn't sink in really until ours was "up there."

So I had a little experience of being the childless woman among women with children in one cohort before I had one--and then I was old for a new mother, older than mothers of kids our son's age. (My mother, who grayed very early, was often asked if she was my grandmother.)

If you live long enough, you'll be old...with or without children.

[e_moon60]

And I managed to place this under the wrong person's comment...SIGH.

Y'all can figure it out, I'll bet. I have Sunday-after-singing-brain, which isn't going to cope with moving a comment reply around.

[redvixen]

S'okay. :)

I'm actually on the old(er) side for being a mother in my family. My sisters were Moms at 16 and 17, my oldest sister was born when Mom was 17 (married at 16). My grandmother had her first child at 18, great grandmother was 16, etc backward. I;m also about ten years + older than most of my friends who have kids so all their kids are just entering or leaving the teen years.

Kids are great for helping you stay young at heart and in spirit. Sure we all get old but there's getting older physically and getting older in attitude. I'm lucky to be from a family that handles physical aging well, people always thought Mom was 10-20 or so years younger than she really was and I get the same reactions.

Then I open my mouth and people think I'm wise and well-balanced for my "age". Lol.