If my children ask me for advice when they are older, things I would have ideally done differently, I think I would advise them to have their children younger than I did. Obviously, I couldn't have had Anna and Amaia any earlier because I had them within a couple of years of getting together with Thomas, but Marcel was born after André and I had been together 12 years, Charlotte, nearly 15. Time speeds up with age, as we all find out too late. I feel Marcel's primary years just about took a reasonable amount of time, but Lots's seem to have passed by in a flash. Didn't I take this photo (left) yesterday? And yet here we are graduating from Kirkhill already.
I was recently discussing this with Marcel - saying I wished I'd had my kids earlier. He asked
'Why, is it a bit tiring dealing with small kids and sleepless nights at 44?' Not at all, I'd do it again in a second but at 44, with a baby you are painfully aware of your own life-expectancy, of the chances you have of seeing your grandchildren grow up and that hurts in a way I could never have imagined in my early twenties.
1 comment:
I know that feeling, I was 30 when our first daughter was born and 40 when our second daughter was born. I sometimes get it wrong when people catch me off guard and ask what year they are in at school!
Too true about the point as to whether as a 40 odd year old parent with young kids will see many grandchildren, especially as the norm is now to have children later in life.
I suppose we have to appreciate what we have rather than worry about what we might not have.
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