Having A Child After 40!

You know, I wonder if a women that is pregnant and in her twenties "does the math" to figure out how old she will be when her child graduates high school? Does a women in her early twenties every wonder if she will be around long enough to see her grandchildren or great-grandchildren, knowing that her children should be at least 20 (or older, hopefully) when they have their own children.



I did this when I was pregnant with our first child. It was sort of a sobering thought when I realized the age I will be when she graduates. Then we didn't have our second child until almost 4 years later. It has forced me to look at mine and my husband's health and how we live our lives. We haven't made very many changes but I am trying. Unfurtunatley we love our Starbucks coffee and it shows......on us! I also LOVE chocolate (almost as much as my family....LOL) and getting my hubby to eat healthy is like trying to pull teeth from an alligator!



But having children at an older age makes you look hard at what the long term consequences will be of how you eat, exercise (or lack of exercise) and generally take care of yourself today. We don't smoke, due drugs and I don't drink and Larry rarely drinks. So it's not that we live an unhealthy or destructive lifestyle, we just don't go out of our way to live a real healthy lifestyle.



We are starting to make changes though. We are walking much more often and have been spending quite a bit of time at the pool. I love that our oldest daughter is our little cheerleader and spurs me to get up and just do it which in turn makes me push Larry to get up and move also. You see, Larry and I's biggest fault is we are both work-a-holics. Before children we got ourselves into a habit of keeping each other on track of not over-doing the work stuff. However, as our family and financial need grew, our work-a-holic personalities came back into play.



The good thing is like I said, Katelynn and Sarah keep us in balance and they probably aren't even aware of how important their roles are to us. But it's funny, I can see my hubby and mine "always working" personality develop in our daughters. Which also makes you stop and think.....they won't want to sit on our laps forever, or dance in the front room with us to their favorite Cheetah, Hannah or Jonus Bros. song.



So what does this all mean? Our children grow up so fast and there will always be bills to pay. We as parents need to make sure we enjoy every possbile minute of their lives and keep good care of ourselves. Even people who become parents at a young age need to live their lives healthy. There is no gurantee that any of us will be here tomorrow either.



Take Care of yourself,

Rebecca in Beckys World 101



P.S. In case your are curious...I will be 55 when our oldest graduates and 59 when our youngest graduates. Larry will be 53 and 57 respectively.