Sooner or later

A woman walks into a chemist, patiently waits her turn to pay. A man turns to engage in small talk, woman replies with small pleasantries and continues to engage with her children. Man replies “are they twins”, woman politely smiles replies “almost, born on the same day but one year apart”. Man smiles and mumbles something, chuckles to himself and turns away. Shop floor now becomes busier, then he turns and replies, “but you're the gran (mother) so can't be too much work”.

Yes, he called me a grandmother...

I turn 43 in two weeks (a quiet reminder for you all ;) ) and I was carrying my first when I turned 40. Fertility is challenging at any age, and not as straight forward as my sex educations lesson 26 years ago led me to believe. I momentarily felt embarrassed by his comment, but quickly composed myself and asked him to repeat himself by which time the women now standing behind me harmoniously asked him what he was talking about.

He isn't the first to assume I'm the grandmother. I will be in my 50s collecting them both from primary school, and that's that. Going from not knowing whether it would happen, to having two babies almost back to back, I was never concerned about my age, just that it was happening.


So I just wanted to say that a mum at any age is still a Mum.