People ought to be warned about middle age. My daughter is 18 and needs help dealing with increasingly adult situations. My mom is 78 and is able to handle very little by herself anymore. Increasing pressure and responsibilities at work. I know it happens to everyone. Nevertheless, it’s a lot!
David Walbert I sent my daughter off to college while I was managing my father’s estate… I hear you.
Donny C @JohnBrady We think about this a lot, especially since we’re “gettin em in right under the buzzer” (Nate Bargatze). My son will be 1 when I hit the 4-0, while I have clear, teenage memories of my parents turning 40, and of grandparents turning 60. I’m fairly go-with-the-flow most of the time, but this is a rough thought for me
Anna Havron @JohnBrady Hmmmm, but it appears, if I may go by the lovely photos you occasionally post of the youngest generation, that you are giving care rather than being in need of receiving it. This makes a mix of metaphors.
Kyle Essary I completely understand. My parents are 70 and our kids are 19, 16, 14, and 12. My seminary and organisation responsibilities continue to increase. It's definitely a challenging time that we are struggling to manage.
David Walbert The bright side was that thanks to the timing she was able to use the money he left to go to school out of state. But having it all in the same year I turned 50 was a lot emotionally.
David Walbert @tinyroofnail There are good reasons to have children young(er). I didn’t either; I’ve thought of them all far too late. But I think a lot about the dwindling of extended families, partly from children being spaced out and partly from one-child families making fewer cousins.
David Walbert @annahavron @JohnBrady I expect the longer one continues caring for others, the longer until one has to be cared for. That would have been my grandmother’s wisdom, I think.
Donny C @dwalbert It’s very true. In admitted self-defensiveness, it was never a plan or an ideology. I’m just a slow, late- and sporadic-blooming, lost sheep. 🙂
David Walbert @JohnBrady Funny, that's one of those movies I've never seen but have heard referenced so often that I feel as though I might as well have. I believe any ethnic stereotyping was not only in the original but the point of it?
David Walbert @tinyroofnail Well, I tend to think that most of the early-and-often approach to having kids has always been a product of not thinking through all the available options, so actually being wise may be contra to what wisdom would have us do. Or something.