I went to a friend’s wedding reception last night, and his whole family was there, right out of my childhood. We grew up together in Sarasota, Florida, and while he’s getting married in his 30’s, both of his sisters got married just before or right around age 20.
His oldest sister dropped a real bomb on me. She and I were classmates, we hung out together, and she’s only about a year older than I am.
She’s a grandmother now.
I’m 39, and one of my best friends from high-school is a GRANDMOTHER.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go turn up the music too loud, and not wear any sunscreen.
Yow.
My condolences, Howard.
(my parents still aren’t grandparents, yet, let alone one of their children….)
Try living somewhere that has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the country. I’ve worked at a couple of places where I was the only one who didn’t have a child as a teenager. In fact, it was like I was expected to apologize for not having one until I was almost 26.
I’m hoping not to be a biological grandmother for at least another five years. However, I don’t have any problems with being a step-grandmother before then.
You’ll be okay, Howard. But it’s never too soon to start reading Successful Aging. Excellent book. I think everyone should read it. When I was taking my aging class in college, it just blew me away and gave me lots of hope.
There’s no such thing as too loud! Careful lest you fall into that trap!
Still, could be worse, pre-teen pregnancy isn’t all that uncommon around here.
I have friends who are starting to get married, and that makes me feel old. I can’t imagine how you feel.
Although, I do feel younger now. Thanks, Howard.
I had a semi-similar experience a month or two ago.
I’m 20 at the moment. When this happened, I guess I was 19.
And it turned out that one of my classmates from middle school has a baby.
On thinking about it a little more, I wondered why that didn’t happen to me earlier, being in one of the cities touted as the teenage pregnancy capitol of the nation, though the middle school in question was a mostly-jewish private school, and the high school was an elite honors school, so I assume that’s why this experience was delayed.
Parenthetical anecdote: I hear tell that most of the underclass black folks in said city (Buffalo) have the life goal of getting pregnant early so as to get welfare checks. I don’t know how accurate that is, but if it is then it may contribute to the high teenage pregnancy rate.
At any rate, I’m already older than I ever wanted to live, and I’m now entering the stretch where it is most common to have kids, so more and more of my childhood
friendsacquaintances will be having them, and it just feels weird.This sort of thing has probably happened to everybody. But I just thought I’d share.
yep
once you’re over 32 the chances of one of your high school classmates being a grandparent is non-zero. One of my classmates had a ten-year-old at our 10-year reunion, and 20 years is coming up next year so there’s an even chance she’s a grandma by now if her daughter followed in her mom’s footsteps. (that’s a very odd-sounding phrase given the context.)
I’m 43, and my kids are 20, 21, 23 & 24. Fortunately, they are waiting to start families untill they finish school. While it would be neat to have grandchildren, I’m glad the kids are taking their time. We went to our 20 yr reunion in 2001, and I wasn’t so much surprised by those who were grandparents as those who were new parents. Two of my closest friends had children in their late 30’s. I couldn’t do that. I don’t have the energy anymore.
“Long Live Rock!”
Al
Earlier today there was someone in my World of Warcraft guild channel that said “Oh, I love that song. It reminds me of my childhood.” … in regards to a song that came out in 2001. (Luckily they’re one of the youngest members of the guild — I think the average is late 20s, so “old farts” like myself aren’t quite so out of place.)
Then there was the day I realized that I actually had dice older than the players at the table in the game store … all of whom were adults.
My baby turned 5 yesterday. She goes to school in the fall. Empty house. Thank God I’m already out of the house at work during the day so I won’t be rattling about in an empty house.
I’m 39, and one of my best friends from high-school is a GRANDMOTHER.
I’m 39, and about yay close to being a grandpa. The oldest step-daughter is on her own, married and is trying to get in the family way.
It’s all good. When you’re a grandparent you can dandle them until they get fussy and then back to mom or dad they go.
Also, eat something with lots of trans fats and sit really close to the TV while watching a brain-rotting movie with lots of sex and violence.
I dunno. That might be pushing it.
My neighbor’s my parents’ age, and she’s a great grandmother. My parents are … parents. No kids for me for a while still!
My parents are closer in age to my wife’s grandparents than her parents, even though she and I are only two years apart and her older sister is a year older than me.
But wear sunscreen, that was a great song…