The Age of Parenting

One thing I know for sure about having kids is this: they age you. There is no doubt about it. If you want to age, and age rapidly, have children.

I know I wasn't aging anywhere fast when Justin and I decided to start a family. I was a young-faced beauty, full of hope, desire, with a bright and youthful future. (Now, of course, I know what I really was: well rested and relatively sane.) It took less than one year after Amelia was born for me to get gray hair. Seriously, gray hair and girl number two worsened the matter exponentially. I am going gray and I most definitely blame that on having children. I also get "checked out" a lot less than I used to. I am still unsure as to whether that has to do with my aging, haggard face or the knock-off Ugg's with sweatpants, while toting two fairly dirty children...it's a toss up either way.

This is one of those deep, dark secrets nobody tells you about before kids, along with there is no such thing as sleeping through the night, winter is basically a season of runny noses and sickness, and three is even worse than the terrible two's. But what are you supposed to say? Yes, have children, lots of them and then prepare to get old. And fast.

I'm sure, scientifically speaking, the aging process slows down somewhere around the time they turn five or six years old and maybe one can recover some of the youth that was lost in the toddler/preschool years, but just when you're gaining ground it happens: they become teenagers. That is when I pretty much plan on kissing whatever is left of my youth goodbye.

Of course, it is heartbreakingly worth it. Most of the lines on my face come from smiling and laughing so much. It is worth it, without a doubt. But the next time you wonder how your mom got old so fast, remember this: she had you.