Growing Up

"When I grow up - I'll have matching furniture."

This is the one concrete thing I can remember thinking, as a child, about life as a grown up. I imagined a fancy house where everything was new and fashionable. This was what being a grown up would mean - having the money to live in style!

Although I don't remember consciously considering it, at the same time I was absorbing more serious ideas about what being a grown up would be like.

I've had a few strange moments recently. The first was when I was walking down to the local shops, pushing Hamish in the stroller. I was vaguely looking around at the trees and houses, when it dawned on me - this is it. I am well and truly a grown up now. That time I used to imagine way in the future, when I was little - I've arrived there.

I think it struck me that the day was so similar to my childhood - with one massive difference - I was the adult in the picture now, not the kid. Very weird moment.

The second strange moment was just the other day, in the kitchen. I was wringing out the dishcloth after having wiped the bench with it. A picture sprang to mind of my mum doing exactly the same thing. And I realised - I will be doing this for a Very. Long. Time. It wasn't a bad thought, just a sobering realisation that the kitchen and I will be spending a lot of time together for the forseeable future. And that I am really, really a grown up now - just without the fancy furniture!