The Absent Uncle: The Ages

Currently, I’ve a 50-year-old daughter and a 30-year-old son. Some would say quite a disparity of ages – but if you knew the life events, it sort of all makes sense. Take my word for it.

But the real disparity comes in the raising of kids some 20 years apart. When you are young, probably going from paycheck to paycheck, experiencing for the first time what infants really need, physically able to scramble on the floor with a toddler, chase a child learning to ride a bike, and experience parenthood for the first time it is all new. Following that child through school, the growth, so anticipated and not. What a trip. All so new and never before experienced.

And now comes that second kid. (Just in case you are trying to guess life events – yes, a second wife after divorce. She is nine months older than me, not the expected typical “younger woman”).

Raising that second kid was so different. Our finances were so much more solid, our future so much more focused. For the child, he had parents that developed plans, thought more about what should happen in education, socialization, and the future. Not so much flying by the seat of our pants.

For the two of us, we enjoyed raising our son; experiencing his life, adding to the richness of childhood and because we could, we continued to add more special time and experiences to his adolescence. 

Today, both of my children hold advanced college degrees and are successful at what they do. They occasionally struggle, as all of do, but all in all – they have survived their parents attempts at raising a child some 20 years apart, under very different circumstances.