Speaking of the dreaded “G” word

Oddly enough, the only time (so far or at least to my face) I’ve been asked if I’m the “grandma” was while I was visibly pregnant. We were shopping at Babies ‘R Us (I hate that name. I mean, come on! Babies Are We! Grammatically correct WITH a play on words to boot! We….Wee……., what a lost opportunity.)

We had a huge shopping cart full of stuff and I was standing behind the cart, so the cashier could really only see me from the waist up. She asked us if we were buying for someone’s registry. We said no. Then she started to say, “Are you the Gra…..,” and fortunately never finished the sentence. I stepped out from behind the cart and she swallowed the word just in time and said, “Do you want to sign up for our frequent shopper’s program?” Nice recovery.

Having babies in your 50s is becoming more and more common, so I hear. And it’s not being a parent of a baby at my age that really concerns me. I mean, it’s not my mother’s 50s, and anyone who knows my mother or my mother-in-law can testify that those two gals make the 80s look like the new 60s. Hopefully, I will still be in the same shape my mom is in at her age, which is amazing. She still works (volunteers) as a nurse and would still have a job in a doctor’s office except for the computers.

But we do have a tough decision to make. Not to sound like a bad Lifetime TV movie (ed. note: tautology?), but who will take care of our baby if the worst happens? We have siblings, but they are close to my age themselves and have raised their families. In a few years, they will all be empty-nesters. Is it fair to ask them to start over? The next generation is a possibility, one of our baby’s cousins? But they are all so young at this point. In ten years time, maybe one of them could step in.

Having an infant and toddler at our age is challenging, but we are both pretty energetic. But having a teenager in our mid-60s? And then there’s retirement, which we’ve pretty much accepted is never going to happen for us. As long as there’s a WalMart (yuck) still hiring old people to greet other old people at the door, D and I will be working. (Lisa A, I’m just kidding, we will NEVER go to work for the devil.) We owe our son support at least through a Master’s degree, so working until we are at least mid-70s might be a very real necessity.

On the other hand, we don’t really need to start a college fund! We will be drawing on our 401ks by the time he’s in school. And of course, I bought a whole buttload of MegaMillions quick picks this week, so there’s that…..

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