Too Old To Stay Up Late

I have long been an advocate for people waiting to have children until they were absolutely certain they were not a child themselves. Of course that would prevent many people from ever having children, so I hope that at least one parent is grown up enough to be the actual parent. I married a man who was old when he was young so he was never at risk for being a child father. I was ridiculously old by the time I actually became a mother, so I followed my own rule.

Being an old mother paid off in those early years. I no longer felt the need to go out to parties and stay out so late when Carter was a baby. It was not the staying out late that would be the problem but the getting up early when the baby woke up.

I knew this situation well from my own childhood. My parents often had trouble getting baby sitters because they liked to stay out late and party. At age five I was good at getting myself up on Saturday morning and making my own breakfast in a quite way so I did not wake my sleeping parents. I was not so good at doing anything for my one-year-old sister who had to just stay in her crib. That is when I discovered the joy of riding my bike into the center of town to escape any baby responsibility.

Now I am rethinking my late arrival into motherhood. Not because I wish I could stay out late, but because now at my advanced age it is harder and harder on me to stay up late enough to make sure my teenager gets home safely. Last night Carter went to the fall formal and was having two friends to spend the night afterwards. Since they all can drive now I had to stay up late enough for them all to individually get here. Of course they did, but I have been a wreck all day from my late night.

I guess this is why humans are built to have children young. Not just so we can chase toddlers around, but so we can keep up with our kids when they are teenagers. My parents did not have to go through this since we all went to boarding school. Ignorance is blissful to an aging parent.