The youthful-sounding reporter from a national woman’s magazine called to interview me about life balance issues, chagrined that the cut-off for ages to be addressed in the article is 35. “Please don’t pass this on,” she whispered to me, after reviewing this website. “I’ve got elementary school children in the house so everybody thinks I’m in my thirties, but I’m actually in my late forties.”
Susan, who freelances home with dogs barking in the background not to mention playground sounds and Nintendo bleeps, went on: “And you know what? I’m not the oldest mom at the school gatherings. We’ve got plenty of fifty year olds. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like for them to still be parenting in their sixties?”
In fact, I can imagine. Dr. Jimmy Laura Smull and I included some fifty and sixty-year-old moms of not-yet-adult children in our study. So, what did we find? You can guess that fifty or sixty is not what it used to be…so doesn’t it make sense that the generation/energy and vitality gap between older mother and child wouldn’t be so much a canyon, as a crack in the sidewalk—and one that the flower has managed to push up through, as well.
Our parenting styles and timing seems to be organically adjusting to our extended lifespans. As one twixter recently commented to me: “What’s the hurry?”
So however old your children, grandchildren or great grandchildren, savor the added years we’ve got to push those strollers and swings, learn to use (and monitor) e-mails, buy yourself a video cam, and know that we’ve still got plenty of time to relax and enjoy our empty nests someday, as well.
Carol Orsborn