Mother at 63 Defends Her Rights

There are no guarantees in life--even young mothers can die for unforseen reasons. Planning for a child's future without parents is something all responsible parents should do. It is my life and I can do what I want to--butt out! I'll be a better parent at 63 than the teenagers who get pregnant and are single parents and can't provide a life for them. Technology is awesome!

Those are just some of the arguments, some would say rationalizations, that Dr. Patricia Rashbrook and her 61 year old husband must have used to decide to become parents when most people are grandparents and some are great grandparents. According to actuarial tables, Dr. Rashbrook has 23 years to live. Lucky child! The article in The Herald didn't say what her husband's life expectancy is...probably because he only has about fifteen years to live--statistically anyway.

Tony Randall, best known as the Anal One in the Odd Couple, married at 75 to a woman 50 years his junior and died at 84 leaving two young children, ages seven and six. How nice for him. Men can have children later in life and experience parenthood. An "experience". For him. Grief and misery and loss and fatherless in elementary school for his children.

To unexpectedly lose a parent to illness or a car wreck, while sad, can be explained. But one day, these children grow up and then must reconcile the fact that their parents willfully and with full knowledge subjected them to their fate. No father at their wedding. No mother at the birth of their child. No grandparents for their children. No moral support and wisdom during times of crisis. Alone.

Maybe with parents so self-involved alone is better than the advice or help they might get from their parents. I bet that will be a tough sell to these old folk's kids when the kids have a lifetime alone to think about it.

Oh, and never mind being a teenager caring for your parent in Depends and worrying about mom and dad keeling over dead at the soccer match. Lots of fun.