I guess I'm a grown up

Sometimes I don't feel my age. I'm not old, I'm 39, but I'm not young either. The time from the end of college, to marriage, to kids in school, flew by; I still feel like I'm too young to have kids in school. When I go to pick up my son at kindergarten, I feel like every parent there is older than me since they have kids in school. The funny thing is, I'm probably older than most of them since we started a little later than most people.

The other day I picked up my son at his friend's house and his mother introduced me to her high school age daughter as "mister". Ugh. I think I hit on this point before, but I feel like I'm not mature enough to be responsible for kids. I think I do okay, but sometimes I feel like I'm still a kid in a way myself.

I remember, about two years ago, my wife and I were pushing the kids in the stroller around the block and some high school kids walked past us. They didn't acknowledge us, of course. I asked my wife, "Do you think we seem old to them?" Yes, she was pretty sure they felt that way. In my mind it wasn't all that long ago that I was in high school, but it was over 20 years ago now.

All I need to do to remember I'm not a kid anymore is try to stay awake past 11pm. I can do it, but it's not as fun as it used to be. In college the cool parties didn't start until 11pm, then you go to bed at 4am, wake up for dinner, and go out again. I can't imagine doing that now. I just hope that I can stay up for the whole episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight. It ends at 10pm, you know, and I have to work tomorrow at 7am. How am I supposed to function with that kind of schedule? Where are my slippers? Get off my lawn you kids!