Young and Restless

So I’ve been on this tear lately about finding a name for my kids. I feel like I am under some pressure to pick a good one, considering the originality of my own name. But the search has brought on other revelations.

I did some math this morning as I was thinking about how old my parents were. So…I’m 21 now. I have to find a girl to make a wife (2 years minimum), settle into career (1 year minimum), then there’s the pregnancy (10 months). So I’ll be at least 25 by the time I have my first kid. Not that bad, right?

Well, this is what I am thinking about. I’m a man, so if I have a son, I want to be able to play his sport with him in the front yard. Whether it’s throwing a ball around, or shooting hoops, I want to be physically able to do that stuff. But I’ll be 40 when my first kid is 15. That’s old.

Whenever I think of being 40, I picture Just For Men gel and medication for a mid-life crisis, not lifting weights with my teenage son.

So maybe this exercise was meant for me to realize that 40 really isn’t as old as I’ve always thought it was. To be honest, I stopped keeping track of how old my parents are, and I don’t think that they mind. But I think they were at a good age for me: old enough to be parents, but young enough to be cool. I don’t want to be the dad that is as immature as his teenager, but I also don’t want to be the guy with gray hair that is up reading the newspaper every morning before the kid catches the bus.

I hope I’m not alone in these thoughts of my future parenthood. I have found that it is quite a motivator when considering things like diet and exercise and how you live your life. Because I know for sure that most of you are at least slightly competitive people.

And I will never unintentionally lose a game of 21 to my kid.

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