Age of Frenzy

So it's decided, we're moving my mum to her old person's bungalow on Monday 12 May, which gives us a whole two weeks to get organised - yippee! In having to meet this deadline we need to return from babysitting grandsons in London the previous Thursday. This has caused our daughter much chagrin as she is supposed to be working on Friday and the nanny is on holiday (which is why we are up there in the first place).

All this has caused me to reflect on the pressures of the seventh decade.

When you are a child you have no-one expecting you to accept responsibility for them, indeed you are the one demanding care and attention. When you grow up and have children you suddenly have responsibility for them thrust upon you and, as a result, think this must be the most demanding period of your life. Not so! When your children grow up and have children, particularly in this era when both parents feel the need to work and socialise, you suddenly find you have a responsibility to help your children with their family workload. This is fine but, as in our case, you also have your parents reaching an age when they are expecting you to look after them as their mental and physical faculties fail.

So, at a time when you might have thought you could switch off and put your feet up, your time and energies are in demand from both sides of the generational chasm! of course, we wouldn't have it any other way, indeed we would probably complain that we were being ignored if such expectations were not raised. Ironic though isn't it?