I would like to share my life as an over 60 mum… Nothing unusual there, but my kids are 13 and 15.
When they were younger I was always asked if I was their nan but that doesn’t seem to happen any more, or I just can’t hear the comments. One of the kids commented the other day that their friends’ grandmother was ONLY 50. Ah, I replied, young breeders runs in the family.
It’s an interesting journey which of course I really love. Especially explaining how things were ‘when I was a girl’. We didn’t have a home phone, no washing machine, my mum didn’t drive and stayed home all day….and B&W TV! My kids tell their friends with great glee about the ‘olden days’. Geez.
Teacher pupil interviews are always interesting. It seems that I am linked in the younger teacher’s minds to their mother and they sometimes say the weirdest things. The older teachers always tell me about how things have changed since we were young, too funny.
Maths homework is how to prove what I do on paper with the calculator. Telling the kids that it is a theorem doesn’t cut it. There are no slide rules or log. Tables, remember those? I must say I love those calculators though. When I was at Uni the one I had cost about $300. My kids have these ‘you beaut’ ones that have so many more functions and only cost about $20.
They don’t hand write essays any more. All done on the laptop, with cut and paste pictures and graphics. Wow they look great, with the spell and grammar checks doing all the hard work. The kids tell me it allows them to be more creative.
My daughter is now wearing my 60’s clothes. Not that I am a hoarder or anything but there are some things one can’t bear to part with! Hippies are cool, as are Kombis. Well, we all know that. So I do get some kudos for being around in the Flower Power era.
My life as a single mum wasn’t what I thought what would happen when I had the kids, but that’s life. I get to talk with the other kids’ nans when I ‘do’ the weekend soccer and netball regime.
I’ll be working well into my 70’s to pay for their education and still loving every minute of my life.
I’m keen to hear if there are some other older parents out there too?