Thursday, November 14, 2013

I'm old and young at the same time, I guess

Alot of the time I feel like I have "old" moments such as forgetting stuff, getting confused easily, making references to culture in my youth and today's young folk have no idea what I'm talking about and have a child turn 10. Then there is the fact Soleil Moon Frye, aka: Punky Brewster, who I know is older than me has children the same age as mine! She's not a peer- She's a role model dammit! or something like that.. It's weird. Also I find men in their 40's attractive such as here, here & here. Sure sign of being old if you ask me. Also such expenditures such as student loans, car payments & mortgages... I can keep adding to the list.

But I'm not old. I'm a mere 33. Still young to most. When people find out my age they say, "oh, you're just a baby!" Thus, whenever I get the chance to say it to someone younger than me, I do too. I really don't like it when they say it to me, b/c I'm in my 30's for crying out loud. Not. A. Baby.

Anyway, I have been finding out recently though, that many other moms who have children in the same age group or younger than mine are 10 years older (or more!) than myself, and I think they are the same age as me. They talk about things they did in 1990 that surprise me, because that year, I was in the 5th grade and 10 years old. This is when I start to feel weird about being a "young mom" because to me, I'm not a young mom, I'm average. My mother was a young mom, and my best friend growing up was even a younger mom at 16 and her mom a grandmother at 32 or something totally crazy young to be a grandmother, seeing as some women don't even start to have babies until their mid-30's. Having a baby in your 40's is an odd thought for me, but very real and often very much desired with some people.

All I know is that when these older moms will be dealing with potty training and the prospects of children hitting puberty, my kids will be old enough to say, "Adios boys, mama is going on a vacation! Don't burn down the house!" Having children when you are on the younger side of the life spectrum is often shunned, but I am thankful I had babies in my younger, more energy filled days where my health is good and I'm not relying on social security just yet.

There are pros & cons to parenting in each age group, but for me, I'm happy about where I am.


Chronically behind the times

It all started when I was a kid in the 80's. We didn't have a lot of money, by any stretch of the means so we often relied on hand me downs from clothes to video games.

We got our first system, an Atari with games from my cousins, when they got the all new Nintendo Entertainment System .

I loved the Atari- my favorite game was Donkey Kong, and also Big Birds Egg Catch. Give me a break guys I was like 6 or 7 when we got it, so it's totally cool you guys. Then when the SNES came out WE inherited the NES.. HOT DOG! That was loads of fun! It also started my mother's addiction to Dr. Mario and the Zelda franchise... It's possible we didn't inherit theirs but got our own, but I don't think so. My mom began this great task of creating her own maps of levels and How-to guides for MANY games. I bet she still has them somewhere too. Many countless hours were played in Dr. Mario on Level 25 (the highest possible level) as it was her downtime. Sidenote: Mom also played using her 1st 2 fingers with her right hand instead of her thumb.

At some point, we acquired the Super Nintendo and we were always a bit behind of everyone else. Even now, I never owned a game cube, and got the Wii like 2 years after it came out and an XBOX360 about a year after that. I am never on the cutting edge of technology. 

Same thing with fashion. I am not sure what triggered my delay in fashion tastes, but I think it's partly because as a mother, my needs always come last last, and by the time I have the money and opportunity to purchase clothing for myself, the styles I liked I can't find. They have come and gone. It's not like I wear anything fancy either. I wear simple stuff cotton shirts and jeans. Now I have a hard time buying stuff because it doesn't fit right. I am wider in areas than I'd like to be, so even if the waste fits, other areas don't fit and my feet are big & wide so as much as I like shoes, I hate shoe shopping- it's very hard to find something that both fits comfortably and the right style for the occasion. It's awful. I think i'd rather get a tooth pulled than shoe shop all the time.
Even my nerd culture is behind the times. My husband has been a fan of Doctor Who
for a very long time and has been trying to get me to watch it for.... pretty much as long as we started dating, and I never did. It was cheesy old British television that I didn't care for. Even when the reboot came out. I didn't get it. I just didn't. It was weird any full of sci-fi stuff I wasn't really into in my twenties. Thie past couple seasons of Matt Smith as the Doctor, got me hooked. I don't know why. I think even though the fans were upset that Tennat was leaving and smith was controversial, I really enjoy his portrayal of the Doctor. Now we are on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the series. It's coming out in mere DAYS. As a result I have been binge watching Doctor Who (reboot) all fall and watched 4 episodes last night alone o.O . I am at the point where the doctor changes from Tennant to Smith. Even if I can't finish before the special comes out that's okay. I have seen the majority of the episodes with Smith. I have thoroughly enjoyed the timey-wimey adventure the most current doctors and companions.

Also I was late to Twitter, and love it now, and late to Firefly- I became a fan when it came to DVD and didn't even know about it when it was on television. Star Trek, I don't mind. I'm not a big fan of it, but thanks to my husbands escapades of binge watching ALL of the different versions of that series, I don't mind it. He watches so much though, often I just don't want to watch it at all.

The list of things just goes on. What say you, internet? Please tell me I'm not alone!