Under 30 Parents Round-up: Age is but a number

Photo credit: Inara Prusakova, Shutterstock

Two weeks ago, we were sat around a table at #BML16 chatting about life as a parent under 30. Thank you to everyone who joined us – I know the Under 30s session clashed with some pretty awesome sessions from Facebook Live and Snapchat to supercharging your Instagram. 

It was great to put some faces to blogs, some of whom I’ve followed through their pregnancies and into parenthood, others I was new to. Esther (Coco Spring) summed it up really when she said how lovely it was to meet, be a part of a community and “to not feel so alone”. 

From my perspective as the Round-up Editor, I found it incredibly interesting how similar yet completely different our parenting experiences were. 

Amber (The Goblin Child) and I (Finding Our Feet) are both from London and we talked about what a big deal it had seemed to be pregnant at just 24 or 25 – we were definitely the minority and treated as such. Similarly, Jodie (Life With Pink Princesses) talked about how a fellow student’s parent tried to get her chucked out of school for being a ‘bad influence’ when she was pregnant at 15 with her first.

But not everyone had a negative experience or even affiliated with the term ‘young mum’. For Amy (Everything Mummy) and Alice (New Young Mum) in Dorset, being a single mum played on their mind more than their age. Amy in particular said she didn’t think of herself as a ‘young mum’ at 24 at all. Claire (The Witt Family), now 27 and has had children since her early twenties echoed Amy’s sentiments, and in many ways I was pleased to hear she was surprised at mine and Amber’s experiences. 

But despite these apparent differences (always a good place to start any session…!) many of us felt that having children before our 30s meant our careers hadn’t necessarily panned out as we had originally envisaged – whatever that may have been. 

Ami (My Mummy Spam) and Hannah (Hi Baby Blog) both talked about how they hadn’t had a chance to establish their careers before having their first child in their early to mid twenties, meaning that once they resurfaced from maternity leave, they were left asking the question – what do I do now? 

Ami (now working three days a week) and Jade (Raising The Rings) both spoke about the age old guilt of leaving the kids to go to work. Stacie (Parker and Me), a Dance and Performing Arts Teacher, said she had also gone part-time since having her son, which helped ease that nagging feeling.

Some of us wondered aloud if our careers had been hindered by having children younger, but ultimately, we all agreed that blogging had opened up doors for us we didn’t know existed before. (Look out for a full round-up on this subject soon as it dominated a lot of the conversation during the hour!) 

Over all, however, the topic we kept coming back to was that age is but a number. We are parents, who just happen to be younger than the average first time UK parent. 

Regardless of your niche within the parenting community – post 40, dads, travel, SEN or even just your bog-standard-30-something mum – parenthood is parenthood. We struggle with exactly the same issues as the other parents around us. For example, we definitely talked about trying to fit cleaning in around jobs or kids (which we’re all now going to follow Jade’s example and hire a cleaner!) for far longer than is probably acceptable! 

Didn’t make it to BritMums this year? Check out these two Parents Under 30s’ round-ups of the day:

Sophie & Lily’s #BML16 Round-up

Emily & Indiana’s #BML16 Round-up

Thank you to everyone who joined the #ParentsUnder30 Table Talk at #BML16. Whether you’re a veteran blogger or new to the scene, please send your posts to Amie (@findingourfeet) each month via Twitter and join in the conversation using the hashtag, #ParentsUnder30.

(So far, no blogging under 30 dads have come forward – if you’re out there, give us a shout!)

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