Parent or grandparent, who can tell?

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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