Parent or grandparent, who can tell?

Yes I was often mistaken for my DGC’s mum, very flattering of course!

Yes i was in a shop with my 11yr granddaughter and a lady said you look just like your mum. I said you mean me and she said oops you not her mum are you. I laugh and said no I’m her nanna. I’m 56 Then when we went home granddaughter told her mum lol i took it as a compliment. But my oldest wife had a first baby in lockdown and she is 38. She going to be 50 by time granddaughter going to same age as my oldest granddaughter is now. I had both my sons by time I was 21 and I still believe have them young can do more with them. I don’t think I’d want a sloppy teenager at my age now lol. Quite happy to send them home love them to bits lol

If I’d been 59 I would have been flattered too, but it just seemed weird that anyone could mistake me for a parent.

An unforgettable moment fir me was just after having my first child. Yes I was primagravida but was only 27.
So I washed my hair put on a bit of lipstick and put new baby in the pram fir her first walk to town and off we went.
I was looking in a shop window when a woman standing next to me said ‘what a lovely baby, you must be such a proud GRANDMOTHER!
I am 73 now but it is etched on my memory. How old must I look now? Hate to think.

or It was what a beautiful granddaughter , not as etched as I thought. Either way it was a shock.

I was 50 when our granddaughter was born. People often assumed I was her mum.

I wold never actually say ‘wife/daughter/husband/son’ etc because we just don’t know. We all had those awkward moments when someone said ´your daughter/son’ when in fact they were partners. I’ve had both experiences having been married to an older man and then to a younger man!

Grannyactivist
Similar to you, there are seventeen years between my oldest and youngest.
When my oldest granddaughter was little I was very often taken for her mother, but I was forty five when she was born, so probably not so surprising.
But I’m now late sixties, and am still getting it with the three year old.
I took her to a NT property last week, and the volunteer said “ Oh , aren’t you like your mummy” my little granddaughter piped up and said I wasn’t mummy “you must be auntie then “ she says “there’s such a resemblance “
I explained I was granny, and off she went again about what a young granny I must be.
For goodness sake, I’m late sixties, and I am really not your glamorous granny, I am out and about with my twelve year old granddaughter quite often, and am frequently called mum, we just let it go.

Yes...I am mistaken for the mother quite a lot! I think generally, people do look younger these days. 50 is the new 40, and so on. We also look after ourselves better than our parents did, certainly grandparents.

Of course...people are having children later now generally. So we all meet in the middle.

The average age of first time mothers in the UK is over 30 now. My DD’s experience in having two babies in four years is that mums are either young, up to about 20/21, then there’s an age gap with the other mums being 30+. My other dd who works as a doctor in maternity units says the same. Young mums then 30+ mums. She says being young is the best age for having a baby - they generally give birth very easily! She says she’s missed the boat there as she’s 26.

Like Grannyactivist I’ve got a big age gap between my oldest and youngest, 21 years. When my youngest started secondary school she had a friend whose parents were younger than her own brother!

Oh, I forgot to say, I’ve been mistaken for my grandchildren’s mum before now, too. Very shallow, I know, but it made my day.

I did say to one little girl ´Look your grandfather has come to collect you’. I was told ‘It’s my father’.
Another girl, a teenager, told me that she worried at night because her father was so old and thought he could have a heart attack at any time.

Silverlining ?

I think it`s down to the fact people are having children alot later on in life these days.

It actually happened to me 3 times, another time in a shop the assistant pointing to my friend said that my ‘daughter’ looked lovely in something she had tried on. My friend is 4 months older than me.
I probably started old and got younger as the years passed by. I look about 16 now. You will have to take my word for it,

Sue
Similar situation, when my youngest started school she became friends with a little boy, one day the mum asked me if I was L … s mum, turned out they had been friends at school!
I admit, when I’m out with my grandchildren, I’m often confused about mums and grans, it’s very often difficult to be sure, even more so with men I think.
One of my cousins has nieces and nephews older than her, people always assumed my auntie was her gran. She was a very unexpected baby, but my auntie lived to over a hundred, so my cousin had her mum around for a long time.

I agree BlueSky Never assume. I was out with my sister once and she met someone she knew. This person looked at me and said 'You must be her mum'. I am 9 years older than my sister!

I was mistaken for my granddaughters mum a few weeks ago.I decided to take it as a compliment and like SueDonim it made my day!

Nope, never. 56. Look my age, although not older. DGS is 4. No need me ever assumes I'm his mum.

I had old parents, well, old back then, would not be considered old nowadays, Mum was nearly 41 when I was born, Dad nearly 45.

Although lovely parents, I always wished they were younger, like other mums and dads seemed to be.

Had my two children at 21 and 23, didn’t want to be an elderly mum myself.

Now with 5 G/C ranging from 19 to 14, find many of my contemporaries just starting down the G/P road.

No chance of me being mistaken for my GC s mummy!! Oh how I wish !

I haven't been mistaken for my twin GC mum. But on many occasions when pushing them in their pram. People were astonished how they resembled me. They would say we looked like triplets I was so proud. With their hair red and very curly mines snowy now but the likeness remains.

I once went to Chepstow Races with my DD (who, to be fair, is quite short) and my SIL. They offered SIL and I adult tickets and a child's for our "daughter"!

Luckygirl3

I once went to Chepstow Races with my DD (who, to be fair, is quite short) and my SIL. They offered SIL and I adult tickets and a child's for our "daughter"!

I hope she got in for half-price ?
Mind you, if they saw her drinking alcohol they might wonder!
???