Ticking time bomb

This weekend it's my dad's 60th birthday party.

Considering I'm 32, that's pretty young, right? And I've got an older brother. My mum is even younger  she's only 56. My mum and dad were childhood sweethearts and got married when my mum was just 19. They had my brother when my Mum was 22 and me when she was 24. So young! They were just babies themselves.

I loved having young parents and I was always a little bit proud of the fact they were younger than most of my friend's parents. I think that was more about their frame of mind though; my parents were always considered quite cool as they let us do fun stuff and weren't particularly strict.

Growing  up I always wanted to be a young parent. I knew how much fun I had with mine and I envisaged myself in the same scenario. As I got a bit older I realised I'd rather be closer to the 30 mark but all of a sudden that 30 mark is fading into the distance... 33 is just a few months away!

How the crap did this happen? I swear my 30th birthday was just the other week. Stop the frigging clock! Don't get me wrong, I'm cool about being 33. I quite like the sound of it in fact, but over the past few weeks I've just realised what this means. I'm almost in my mid 30s - and I suit being here!

I spent Boxing Day with TB's family. He is the eldest of all his cousins on the side of the family that were there - the youngest is 6, the eldest 21. I like hanging out with them and finding out what they are up to - but the reality is, I had more fun with their mum - who is in her early 40s! I'd like to think I've got more in common with the 18 year old (boys, makeup, career, clothes, music) but no - I'm more like TB's Auntie (sense of humour, cultural references, music). Shit! How and when did I topple the divide?!

The main thing I don't like about hurtling towards my mid 30s (ugh) is that the meaning of time has changed quite significantly. In your mid 20s a couple of years means nothing. So what if a few years go by? Now, those couple of years can have a big knock on effect. I just can't quite believe I'm at this point in my life. The point where I need I need to decide that in 12 months time I really should be thinking about getting pregnant. The reality is that I'm already pretty late in getting into the game but even so - I feel like all of a sudden that time in my life is on my doorstep and it's knocking pretty loudly to get in.