{"id":299,"date":"2015-09-30T15:23:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T21:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2015-09-30T22:18:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T04:18:32","slug":"where-aarp-meets-kindergarten-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"Where AARP Meets Kindergarten Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m rarely one to begin a sentence with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the risk of dating myself . . .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (There are so many reasons for that, most of which exist at the intersection of ageism, feminism, American standards of beauty and value, and plain old stubbornness. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to discuss it, but that kind of digression would take a few years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and at my age, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that kind of time.) But essentially, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be doing when I begin this story by referencing a 1981 Saturday Night Live sketch<\/a> featuring George Kennedy, of Cool Hand Luke<\/em> (1967) and Airport<\/em> (1970) fame, singing an off-key lament about being \u00e2\u20ac\u015353 at Studio 54.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

For those who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grow up in the 1970s (or earlier), Studio 54 is the short-lived-yet-long-revered New York City nightclub that opened in 1977 and boasted all-star clientele during its roughly 5-year heyday: the Warhol crowd, Liza Minelli, Baryshnikov, Diana Ross, Elton John, Calvin Klein, Cher . . . pretty much anyone a regular, 70s-era, Kansas-bred schlub like me wanted to be when he or she grew up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including one particular person I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d venture to say everyone<\/em> wanted to be (surely it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just me): the stunningly gorgeous Bianca Jagger, who was famously photographed atop a white horse inside the club. (Despite decades of ensuing lore, Jagger denies having ridden the horse into <\/em>the club, which is too bad, because if anyone could have pulled off that kind of bad-assery, it would be her; however, whether or not she actually went Lone Ranger that night was of little consequence to those of us who knelt at her proverbial feet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or maybe at her horse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proverbial hooves.) But again, I risk serious digression.<\/p>\n

Back to SNL. Kennedy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s woes, put to music, detail the reasons his age makes him an ill fit for a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hip joint\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (and of course the SNL writers make use of that double entendre) like Studio 54, including lines like<\/p>\n

Once I get down, I can’t get off the floor<\/em>
\nIt’s no fun to be 53 at Studio 54<\/em><\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

It’s no kick to snort and smoke and joke with artists and their models<\/em>
\nwhen you wheeze and cough and only take your drugs from plastic bottles\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate an online video of the sketch (what gives, YouTube? I can watch a thousand videos of Justin Bieber doing and saying idiotic things, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get some old-school SNL?), but if your cyber-sleuthing abilities are better than mine, and you can find it, I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n

Why, though, do I bring up a 1981 SNL sketch about a nightclub that fizzled out (under new ownership) not long thereafter, you ask? Because Kennedy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dirge about his \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to borrow a quote from Danny Glover as Lethal Weapon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/em>Roger Murtaugh (which reference dates me once again, I know) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153too-old-for-this-shit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d situation is one of the first things that popped into my head after I, at age 45, huddled awkwardly over my own lap in a Target bathroom stall to hold that famously prophetic white stick in a stream of my urine . . . and read the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pregnant\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the results window.<\/p>\n

Let me repeat: Age 45<\/em><\/strong>. This is the age where most of my college friends are sending their <\/em>kids off to college; when maybe some of them are slightly saddened (or perhaps invigorated) by newly empty nests; when a handful of them are even welcoming grand<\/em>children into their arms and hearts and spare bedrooms. And here I am, readying my<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spare\u00e2\u20ac\u009d room (which I recently redecorated and set up as an in-home office for myself, but so much for that) for a child from my own aging loins. Granted, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m no stranger to late starts; I gave birth to my first (surprise!), and so far extremely spoiled only child (boy, is he in for a rude awakening) at age 37, when most of my friends were already lamenting the fact that their once sweet, innocent, and loving babies had suddenly reached the infamous eye-rolling age, and were beginning to look upon their parents with more disdain than a Studio 54 doorman on a C-list actor. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m well aware of both the advantages and the pitfalls of what the medical community calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Advanced Maternal Age.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But this time I am beyond \u00e2\u20ac\u0153advanced,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. And unfortunately, moving beyond \u00e2\u20ac\u0153advanced\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in this case doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve achieved \u00e2\u20ac\u0153expert\u00e2\u20ac\u009d level. In fact, it more or less implies I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve aged out of the damn contest (the chances of a woman my age conceiving without medical intervention are somewhere around 2%).<\/p>\n

At this point, however, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nearly halfway to D-Day, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made peace with the whole idea, and \u00e2\u20ac\u201c after a slew of nerve-wracking tests to ferret out potential chromosomal abnormalities (which so far have shown none) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have actually come to be a little bit excited about this impending new addition to our little tribe.<\/p>\n

But there are still moments. Oh, there are moments. Moments when the reality of all this really sets in \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like when I overhear a conversation between my mother (who is exactly 40 years my senior \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I was a surprise to her, too) and my best childhood friend, who are busy tsk-ing and tutting with one another about my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153old eggs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or like when I toddle precariously on cushioned flats, with aching hips and one hand poised for back support, towards the break room at work . . . and cross paths with another expectant mother, further along in her pregnancy than I am in mine, who struts jauntily by in cute skinny jeans (skinny maternity<\/em> jeans, which to me is a total oxymoron) and three-inch pumps. Or perhaps most of all when my husband and I make the requisite cutie-booty Facebook pregnancy announcement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which features our 7-year-old son in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Big Brother\u00e2\u20ac\u009d t-shirt, along with a couple of pithy Godfather<\/em> movie references \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the hundreds of responses range from expressions of excitement and congratulations to those of a couple of bravely honest souls, who reply simply, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153WHAT???\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153STFU.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

And don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even get me started about kindergarten. It was what I call the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kindergarten Realization\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that nearly knocked me on my ever-widening ass. For you see, when this precious bundle of joy and tears and snot and puke and giggles and wails and love I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m carrying starts kindergarten, I will be over half a century old<\/em>. I will be eligible for AARP. The year will be 2021 (frankly, up until this realization, I truly believed any year beyond 2019 only existed in science fiction movies). My child will be five. I will not quite be 53 in Studio 54, but I will be 51 at Kindergarten Roundup \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is, in many ways, the same. I have already begun to imagine the far-hipper-than-me regulars I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to find in this club:<\/p>\n

The 7-Months-Pregnant Mom.<\/strong> You know, the one who is wisely and carefully planning her family so that her kids are far enough apart in age that she only has to deal with one daycare bill\/diapered butt\/2 a.m. wailer at a time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but close enough in age that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end up being virtual strangers when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re adults who will be required to share in her and their other parent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s care and feeding. As a bonus, she has managed to hold on to most of the key baby items from her first child, so that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to buy (or beg for) every. single. solitary. thing she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to need for her<\/em> second baby all over again.<\/p>\n

The Barely-Out-of-Her-Teens Mom.<\/strong> This is the mom who has also experienced a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153surprise!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d baby \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but at the other (read: teenage) end of the age spectrum, so she is a virtual font of youth and energy. Her child will be whip-smart and full of confidence, because not only has she had the unending adolescent energy to engage with him non-stop, she also has a youthful disdain for conventional parenting advice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which means she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talked to him and treated him more as an equal than as a ward. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of admirable, really \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but still, playdates will be awkward, because she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the pop-culture references of the Over-50 crowd (after all, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, like, her parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> generation).<\/p>\n

The Hot Mom. <\/strong>This is the mom who is a little older, maybe, than the two aforementioned moms, but looks at least 7 years younger than her real age, thanks to daily runs, yoga, and a low-carb diet. (While I may look good as well, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hold a candle to this mom, because just running across the living room to save my child from concussing him\/herself on the fireplace bricks is a likely to be all the workout I can handle at that point.) She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be extremely warm and friendly, but her deep knowledge of the latest health foods and fads will make every other parent silently insecure about serving hot dogs and store-bought cupcakes (which her kid probably won’t even eat) at birthday parties.<\/p>\n

The Cool Dad. <\/strong>He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll show up for the first day of school with his ball cap on backwards. He and his kid will arrive in matching sunglasses (or perhaps matching piercings) and engage in whatever the 2021 version of the fist bump is as the kid takes his seat in the classroom. This dad will casually drop the name of whatever video game all the kids LOVE at that moment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with promises to play it with his kid after school. He and his mohawked offspring (will mohawks ever go out of style for cool kindergarteners?) will not hug goodbye, but rather throw horns at one another (again, this particular expression of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cool\u00e2\u20ac\u009d seems timeless) before Dad ducks out to rock out on his motorcycle ride home. This dad will like everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and everyone will like his kid \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but nobody will quite trust him to properly supervise a birthday party.<\/p>\n

The Clingy Parents<\/strong>. Bless their hearts. This is their first \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sending a kid off to school\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rodeo, and they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be ready to let go. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll both show up on the first day of school, take 1,000 photographs (kid in front of house, kid from behind as she walks to school, kid in front of school, kid in front of classroom door, kid at desk), and stay long after the other parents have left, just to get in one more hug. (Finally, the teacher will be forced to fake a seizure and, when they run for help, lock the classroom door behind them.) They, too, will be incredibly nice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it will be obvious that this is the first kid they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve sent off to school, because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet realize what this means in terms of their own freedom. The good news about playdates at their house is that the snacks will border on gourmet, and there will likely be Pinterest-worthy craft projects, for both kids and adults.<\/p>\n

OK, I confess: with my first kid, I was the latter type of parent (I mean, I thought he was going to be my only child, right?) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but when the next one heads off to Kindergarten, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll likely fit into this club about as well as poor George Kennedy among the Warhol\/Jagger crowd, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have at least a good 10 years on the eldest among them. What I hope I will also have, however, is my original set of hips (in good working order), more stories to tell . . . and gratitude for the ride thus far.<\/p>\n

Wish me luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m rarely one to begin a sentence with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the risk of dating myself . . .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (There are so many reasons for that, most of which exist at the intersection of ageism, feminism, American standards of beauty and value, and plain old stubbornness. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to discuss it, but that kind of digression … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Where AARP Meets Kindergarten Roundup”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.instaprincess.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}