Wednesday, May 12, 2010

"Are you really 26?"

We had a mother's day tea at Emma's preschool today. All of the mothers showed up during the last 45 minutes of class and we squeezed our post-birth hips into preschool sized chairs and pulled ourselves up to a preschool height banquet table and then had our preschoolers sit on our laps while we drank sweet tea and ate cucumber sandwiches. It was bliss. Each child filled out a questionnaire about his or her mom and we got to see how our children view us. Here's what Emma had to say about me:

My mommy's eyes are __green___.
Her hair is __black__.
I think my mommy is __26__ years old.
My mommy likes to __take a nap__.
Her favorite food is __beans__.
My mommy laughs when __"I be silly"__.
My mommy and I like to __watch tv__.

Perhaps I should spare you my thoughts about her answers. (Black hair? Really!)

Since this questionnaire was handed back to us during the tea, all of the moms got to chuckle about the answers. Some kids said that their moms liked to do laundry (yeah right!), and most of the kids said ridiculous numbers for their mom's age, like 150 or 9354. Well, the age question gave some other moms the courage to ask me what they'd been wondering for the past few years: "Are you really 26!?"

"Um, no, I'm 28 actually."

to which I received comments like:
"Ooooh, 28. I had my first kid when I was 28." [said kid is now in 8th grade so this mom is in her mid 40's]
or
"Oh, to be 28 again! I'm 44 and I'm about to be a grandma!"
or
"Oh man, my twenties were rough. My thirties were sooo much better. And so far, my forties have been very enlightening" [blah, blah, blah]


Needless to say, these conversations confirmed what I already knew but was hoping to disregard: I am by more than a decade the youngest mother in Emma's class. No exaggeration. The mothers of her friends are closer to my mom's age than they are to my age. I know that it's cool to wait to have kids later in life and all, but really, can't there be ANY moms around that are my age? Or even in their 30's!?!

To my dear friends who are not yet married and don't yet have kids: no need to fret. you haven't missed the boat. in fact, if you move to walnut creek, you'll buy yourself another 10 years before you'll even start to feel the need to procreate :)

4 comments:

Danae said...

Maybe we should switch playgroups? I've got all the 21 or 22 year olds surrounding me! I'm feeling ancient at 29...although we are not that old my Mom had already had 4 kids by my age!

MacD Kids said...

haha i find the same thing! Im the youngest by far, and i have the most kids! I constantly get the 'how old ARE you?!' question. :) Oh, and people REALLY get wide eyed when they find out my husband is also a lead pastor!

Holls said...

same thing round here sista. except, for me other moms just assume i'm their age cuz i have 3 kids. which really sucks. then i tell them i'm only 30 and they are shocked. its pretty not awesome looking so old.

We are the Ganyos.... said...

I too feel very alone in terms of my age as it relates to my stage of life. Many of the moms I interact with at school are older than me by 5-10 years. However, here in Woodland, there is no shortage of mothers who begun child rearing at there ripe age of 17 or so putting me in the middle of this very odd, very large gap.