As I approach the end of my thirties, I’m beginning to look back and think where the hell did the last ten years go? Of course, it’s a fog of babies and young children, from which I’ve now emerged, sanity just about intact, but memory and body somewhat worse for the wear.

How different I am and how much has changed since before I had children. It got me thinking and I know I shouldn’t really compare life before and after, but I’m gonna anyway…

Life then:

• A career, working long hours and a wardrobe full of suits and smart outfits
• Dinner out with my husband at least once a week
• Friday nights at the pub celebrating the end of the week and the coming weekend
• Saturday mornings laying in
• Sunday mornings laying in
• Saturday afternoons shopping for clothes you didn’t really need but bought anyway, whilst husband goes off to play football
• Nights out in London on a regular basis
• Sunday afternoon snoozes on the sofa
• Gym two to three times a week after work
• Posh holidays to Italy, doing nothing except relaxing, eating and drinking
• Liked to think that I looked younger than my years

Life since:

• Suits have long gone to E Bay and probably wouldn’t fit me anyway
• Lived in jeans and t-shirts for almost ten years and became eternally afraid to wear white trousers
• By Friday you’re just glad that you will have someone else around for two days to help look after the kids
• No lie ins – EVER
• No desire to get drunk because you know a hangover is not worth it
• If I ever get to go out with just my husband and I it’s a miracle
• Saturdays husband now goes to watch football, not play and we spend the day running the kids to various clubs
• If I ever have to go to another holiday park and a children’s soft play and farm again I will kill myself
• Gym once a week at best and constantly battling with a stomach that’s been stretched too many times and refuses to go back to the once flat and smooth state that it was in
• Look old and knackered and now on a constant battle with the grey hairs and wrinkles

Ah look at that young and expectant couple with their first born

The reality is, kids age you, they really do. I wonder if the rate at which they age you is dependent on how many you have? Anyways, three is enough for me and at the end of this decade, I have three fantastic young people I am proud to call my own. They are my priority now and I accept that. I think it takes a while to accept that when you first become a parent, but you come to realise that you are shaping these little human beings to become great people and you need to put all your energy in to that. I had my time before and I’m beginning to get some of that back too. Yes, we emerged through the fog of tinydom, with our youngest turning seven in December. It’s easier. They wipe their own bums, feed themselves, dress themselves and are generally quite self-sufficient. We don’t need to go to children’s soft play and farms anymore either. Woohoo!

But hang on a minute, what will the next decade bring? Teenagerdom, argh! There’s something that happens to a teenage brain that seems to make the person whose brain it is forgetful and generally lacking in common sense. I’ve got all that to deal with, along with the ‘I hate you’ and ‘I hate my life’ and any other overly dramatic statement you can think of. God knows what I’ll look like when I’m fifty…