The middle aged parent

Did I ever think I would be a middle aged parent? Did any of us? My husband recently celebrated his 46th birthday. I think for both of us, this is significant – he’s closer to 50 now than he is to 40. He is officially middle aged. That makes me officially middle aged too although I’m nearly three years younger. In fact, it makes me feel even older!

The joy of watching our children grow up, learn more, develop more, change and become older is a double edged sword. As they grow up, we grow older. In theory, we have less energy, we’re tired. We are entering the age now where our parents have health problems, our relatives have health problems and even some of our friends are developing age-related health problems. We ourselves develop health problems. It becomes depressing and difficult. It is a fact of life.

In reality, we don’t actually feel any older. We may feel tired, but we don’t feel old (unless of course you go on a talk show and the person sitting opposite you is in their twenties). We still think of ourselves as young parents with a young family. The truth is that things are changing.

In less than five years, our oldest child will be 18 and will probably move out. On the one hand, we are scared of this happening. On the other hand, we are amazed that we’ve made it this far without breaking any of them! And thank goodness we had our youngest! He definitely keeps us all feeling young.

For me, this opens up more opportunities and possibilities for traveling to the States, showing my children the real America and perhaps for them to spend some quality time there either studying or doing Camp America or a similar type of experience. It’s funny because when I was 18 I was looking for experiences that were non-USA, outside of the States. Now, for my children I want them to experience life outside the UK and Europe, I’m pointing them towards the US. It’s all very exciting I’m looking forward to re-connecting with my home country with my ‘adult’ children. But when that happens, I’ll be in my 50s! ….. Ok so let’s not go there quite just yet.

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.