I was recently chatting with a colleague about our respective kids, when he started comparing our situations. Ordinarily there’s no value in making comparisons. But it was just interesting to see the difference in our ages.
Despite being almost ten years older than me, our children are set to be very close in age. He made a comment along the lines of finding his kids quite a handfull, and it would probably be a lot easier for me to get around after my kid. But in answer to him, I had to say I’ve never found it effortless.
Every year it seems there’s a new oldest mother in the world, often with a lot of negative publicity. There’s a number of reasons why that’s not a good idea. Most importantly in my eyes is life expectancy. These mothers in their 70s would be doing exceedingly well to just be around to see their child’s 15th birthday.
But in terms of ideal age, I suppose it just made me reflect that it’s obvious to me that at no age a parent is going to find it easy to endlessly chase after and look after their kids while keeping them entertained. Last year I was probably the fittest I’ve been in my life. I was in marathon running shape so my stamina was quite high. But I can honestly say my son was still a handfull.
Perhaps the measure of a kid being a handfull is something they watch. Perhaps they are just able to guage how much energy a parent has, sap it to the point of exhaustion, then they’re ready to go to bed.
I think this may explain how my older, non-marathon running colleague found his kids such a handfull, yet I did too.
Guess it begs the question how much energy do our kids have. I think in all honestly, there is a connection between how well you’re able to keep up with them, and how much energy they’re able to exert.
But the longer I’m in the game of being a parent I also see the value of being creative. A game to keep them entertained is good. A game that keeps them entertained while not involving you physically is better. But a game that keeps them entertained, while not involving you physically, that helps with getting some of the house work done is clearly the best! I can’t recall any of these examples off the top of my head, but I will certainly document them when I remember.