Trips for Two by Sharon O’Donnell

One of the things about being an older mom with a child considerable younger than his/her siblings, is that you inevitably begin to spend more time one-on-one with that youngest child as time passes and the siblings get older. When my two oldest sons were in college, I found myself eating out or going to movies very often with my youngest son, their little brother who was nine and six years older than them. And since I held my youngest back a year in school because he has an August birthday, there is a decade gap in school between my oldest and youngest. My oldest was a college freshman in 2009, while my ‘baby’ just started his first year a few weeks ago. That’s a lot of time in between. An age-gap baby indeed.

But I’ve so enjoyed my one-on-one time with my son, which was frequent, especially when my husband travels a lot. What I’ve enjoyed most are the trips that my youngest and I have gone on together. Several weeks before he went off the college two and a half hours away, Jason and I went to Chicago together — just the two of us. I loved it, and I think he did, too. I was so grateful for the time together before he left for college. Yes, sometimes it’s challenging to be an ‘older’ mom, but most of the time it’s so incredibly rewarding.