Were your parents much older than usual ?

Question

Ever since I can remember, my parents were too old to keep up with me . Their attitude was always "Why go out and have fun when we can stay home ?" . They griped and complained every time I wanted to go to the movies, or to another town . I didn't like that, and I swore I'd never put my children through that . NOW -- if your parents are older than most, what kind of an experience was that for you ? Did your parents push themselves to keep up with you, or did you have to have to sacrifice so your parents could take it slow and easy ? Did your parents gripe and complain whenever you wanted to have fun ? Was having older parents a good or a bad experience for you ? Do you think it's okay for parents to be old ? Are there any difficulties with having older parents that I didn't mention ?

Answer 1

Yes, my parents were born in 1931 and 1936. They are older than me by 37 and 42 years.

Answer 2

I made a choice a long time ago to have my kids young for just that reason. I was 21 when I had my daughter and I could keep up with her no problem! Had my son 2 years later and again no issues. I now have an 11 and a 9 year old and I relate pretty well to them. I am 33 and still young enough to know what is cool and not so old that they can pull stuff and I wouldnt notice. My new hubby and I are tryin to have a baby and from the very start I said that I didnt not want to have a baby after the age of 35. It was hard to get up and have energy when I was 21 and I know it will be sooooo much harder as I age. Plus being so much older than your kids is difficult since you have no idea what is going on in the “young world”. Sometimes it is quite embarrassing to birng your parents to a school function and have everyone wonder if they are your grandparents..... just my personal opinion tho - plenty of people have children at a later age and absolutely have the energy for them and love having them when they are older. Guess it depends on the person.
Sorry you had a hard time with parents that were quite a bit older than you.

Answer 3

My parents were 28 and 30 when they got married. 42 and 44 by the time I was born so they were quite a bit older than most of my friends parents were. I don't think they tried to keep up with me. I mean if I wanted to go a movie I rode my bike. They would take me to my friends houses in other towns sometimes but not a lot cause we were in the country and towns are kind of far apart.

They certainly didn't complain about me having fun. Mostly I played on my own or rode my bike over to friends to play. My mom sometimes complained about playing board games cause she didn't like to play them but that had nothing to do with age, she just didn't like board games I don't think it was a problem for them to be older at all.

One negative is that dad died when I was pretty young, just 14. Mom didn't die till I was 32 so she was able to finish raising me and see me married and settled. I miss them a lot.

Answer 4

I worry about this all the time. I was 39 when my son was born... my husband was 45. We met late in life and decided that we were still in the phase of life to be able to have and "keep up with" a child, so we had one.

It is my hope that our son has a positive experience and I will "put this in cold storage" so that when he asks me to play or take him to a movie, I won't disappoint him because I'm "too old".

Answer 5

When I was a teenager my parents were in their fifties. They were strict but we could talk and I learned a lot from them. I still wish they would have been younger though.

Answer 6

i thought it would be cool to have older parents..like in the 50's ... mine are only 39, and 40... they are so strict.