Happy birthday to me! I’m another year older, and I was lucky enough to spend a chunk of my special day celebrating the milestone over lunch with my mums’ group.
We started meeting together about 16 years ago, and I’m actually a bit of a ring-in as Katianna is older than the other first-borns by three months. It was an age gap that seemed huge in her inaugural year, but is completely insignificant now.
Catching-up five times a year to celebrate each of our birthdays, we love swapping stories on everything related to raising a family and holding our homes together. Which, miraculously, we have all managed to do.
Hot topics of conversation over the years have varied dramatically.
In August 2018, we are deeply interested in learner permit driving antics and hours, debutante ball involvement – or not – and when, if ever, our 16-year-olds will stop growing taller!
We seem to have bred a very elevated bunch amongst us, with all of us mums shorter than our eldest child now.
This height is a recipe for very expensive shoes and extremely difficult to find dress lengths.
Of course, keeping these towering teens fed seems to be a major challenge facing us all, as making double just doesn’t cut it anymore.
We didn’t even mention lunch boxes, I don’t think we could go there.
While extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs and social lives have our children keeping later and later hours, we are desperate to get to bed earlier and earlier … or is that just me? Apparently, I’ve been completely blessed that the teenage eye-rolling stage has only just kicked in with full force at my house now.
For us mums, our education, long careers and life experiences seem suddenly completely irrelevant in today’s modern world.
I have it on good authority that this phase could last for about five years, so we shall just have to wait it out.
Work experience, university open days and career interests are of serious concern now. Although we fully expect all teen thoughts to be completely different this time next week, any passion for future paid employment seems well worth exploring and supporting.
For, as my birthday celebrations unquestionably confirm, we are not getting any younger.
Yolande Grosser