- My wife and I met in our late 30s, and we had our two children when we were older.
- Now that I'm an older father, I worry I'm losing time with my kids.
George Clooney has 6-year-old twins and is in his 60s. Al Pacino recently had another child at the age of 83.
Compared to these two, I'm a spring chicken, but still, being 49 years old with a 4-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son has me feeling my age.
I've come to realize I will be a senior citizen by the time my kids graduate from high school and enter college, so I'm not wasting any minute.
My wife and I had our children when we were older
I met my wife in our late 30s, and once we were married, we struggled to have children. Thanks only to in vitro fertilization and prayers were we able to be successful after years of trying.
First came our daughter, Ellie, and then two years later, we had our son, Jack.
Interestingly enough, even though our children are a couple of years apart in age, they're technically fraternal twins as they came from the same group of embryos. Jack just waited around in a freezer for an additional two years before he made his appearance.
There are some advantages to having kids later in life
Of course, one of the main advantages is that we are financially set since both my wife and I are getting up there in age. Young parents often struggle with money, but we have both passed that stage of life. So my children already have more money put away into their savings accounts at their age than I had when I graduated from high school.
Plus, my wife and I probably have more patience in dealing with tantrums and certain issues. We now have the life experience to understand everything is temporary, so there's no huge need to get bent out of shape about the little things.
But it does seem for every advantage, there are two or three disadvantages that come with having kids later in life.
There are downsides to being an older parent
For one, my kids will not know their grandparents as much through actual interaction. Instead, it will be through stories recalling the past. My father died when Ellie was a 1-year-old.
The biggest disadvantage is that we will probably have less time with our kids because of our age. It's something that weighed heavily on me when we were struggling to have children and the years seemed to be slipping by.
When Ellie was 2 and Jack was just 1, I had several health scares, and it worried me that I wouldn't be around much longer. I wondered whether they would barely have memories of me if it took a turn for the worse. They might just recall there used to be a man around who watched "Scooby-Doo" with them.
I made sure my children would remember me no matter what happened
At the time, I didn't seem to be getting any healthier, so I took my knowledge as a writer and educator and wrote a couple of children's books they could enjoy later in life if I was no longer around.
It may sound morbid, but I wrote and published "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Ghost Hunters" and "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Vampire Hunters," using aspects of our lives. For example, I used my kids' love of spooky and mysterious stories.
I now spend as much time with them as I can
Nothing provides more happiness in your years than having children run to the door to greet you every day. I have enjoyed it so much that I work entirely from home now and spend almost every waking minute with Ellie and Jack. Luckily, they average about 10 or 11 hours of sleep a day, so I still have a bit of time here and there to get my work completed and regain my sanity.
But it's all worth it because I don't want to waste a minute with my kids because soon enough, I'll be a senior citizen, and they'll just be starting their lives.