Been thinking about decades this week. And it's 9pm and I'm tired of looking at screens all day, so it's going to be short. But I want to put this down somewhere.
I feel like my decades have so far had themes.
1-10: Kid Life
10-20: Achievement-oriented
20-30: Adventures and Self-discovery
30-40: Building Family Foundations (aka The Childcare Era)
And I'm trying to think of what my 40-50 will or should be. I think I want it to be something like "Transitions"?
The end of this decade will be the end of my main parenting "life" and I'll have to transition in some big ways. I'll have to transition away from being the center of my kids' lives and transition them into being capable individuals. I'll have to transition back into being just a couple at home instead of a family and all the emotional rollercoasters that will likely bring. And transition fully into "middle age." I also need to transition and figure out how to navigate private sector career life as an "older woman" -- which is actually proving to be really, really hard.
I think....I think what the big issue is is that I'll have to transition into an unknown life when so much of my life until now was entirely or mostly pre-scripted. And that's kind of scary and kind of exciting....but mostly scary.
Maybe it's "Transition into Possibilities" or "Acceptance of Unknowns"?
Still workshopping... I wonder what I'll see this decade as when I'm on the other side of it. I hope I get there.
The social worker in me would like to encourage you to read about Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. I expect you'll find familiar sentiments there - what you wrote above totally tracks with what he calls "middle adulthood", even though it's weird to think of us as middle aged. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson%27s_stages_of_psychosocial_development
ReplyDeleteSending love and good vibes always, my friend.
I only just saw this. I am putting this into my goodreads list immediately. Thank you, Sarah - And I miss you.
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