As older parents who had never expected to be fortunate enough to have children, we had settled into a life of work and holidays. We were lucky enough to have good jobs where we could buy what we wanted as well as what we needed. However, what we should have been doing instead of spending was saving!
David, despite the initial fertility treatment costs (which were obviously huge) isn’t really that expensive and if we could have left him at home with a bag of snacks, the telly on and a toddler walker coming to see him mid-morning, then we would have been fine but apparently you can only do that with pets.
With the cost of living rising, I wisely decided to leave my job as head of a primary school last August. It was a scary move but necessary both for my mental health and to not waste the time I can spend with David. In my former role, I would leave the house at 6:30am, pick up David from nursery at 5:30pm, eat and then put him to bed. I would then work until 9/10pm before collapsing into bed. I salute all those who continue to work in our education system, but I wanted and needed a job where I could leave work at work and have evenings and weekends with my family. I have fortunately gained a position in a completely different area which starts in September and which I am really excited about.
Meanwhile, I have been doing supply teaching to pad out our nearly vanished savings. The point I think I’m getting round to is that as older parents (who weren’t wise about saving), we are probably going to have to stay in the workplace for a lot longer than we intended. Someone informed me recently that the current average age for children leaving the family home is twenty-four. If that happens with David, I will be seventy-one and my husband seventy-six. Our long, laid-back retirement sipping gins in the south of France is looking a lot shorter and cheaper. However, when I pick up my little boy from school and he asks if we can run a café together in his bedroom until dinner, the easy retirement doesn’t matter a jot. (Also, perhaps the after-school café could become a new income stream!)