All Baby Boomers Look Alike in the Dark

On Thursday of this week, I was shopping in Harris Teeter (my favorite grocery store) when the lights went out.  I'd never had that experience before, although one of the employees said  it happens there about once a week.

One lady asked how long it would take before the lights came back on so she could check-out.  That's when we discovered that although the lights went out in the store, the power for the cash registers were working just fine.  No problem there.  We may not have been able to see the price of anything as we shopped but the scanners at the registers would help us out.

When it was my turn to check out the cashier kindly asked me if I was a senior.  I have to admit I was taken aback by her question.  Although I thought I was looking good after an intense workout at the gym, I was certain the cashier  had not mistaken me for a high school girl but I sure couldn't believe she thought I was a senior citizen.  What?!  Are you kidding me!

I asked the cashier if she was serious and if she thought I looked like a senior.  She didn't respond to the question but she covered it nicely by saying, "Thursday all seniors get five percent off their grocery bill and I forgot to ask the gentleman ahead of you so I didn't want to make the mistake again."

Well, she did make a mistake but I didn't want to get indignant so I asked her if 55 qualified as a senior.  She said I had to be 60 so I told her if I was still shopping there in five years, I'll qualify.  Then I turned to the white-haired woman behind me, who CLEARLY looked like a senior, and said, "I guess we all look alike in the dark."  

And if it's any consolation, I did get some free seafood from the seafood and meat section.

Celebrating Grandparents Day for the Sixth Year

If anyone had told me I would be a grandmother before the age of 50 and my daughter would become a teenage mom, I would’ve called them a liar and reminded them that my daughter was raised with the right morals and values so that wouldn’t ever be an issue I would be concerned about.  It’s probably the same thing Sarah Palin thought about her daughter, Bristol. 

While my daughter is working diligently to complete her final year in college, her stepfather and I have joined the ranks of primary caregivers for five-year-old grandchild. We are part of a growing trend in America—joining nearly millions of grandparents who have grandchildren living with them.

Here are more numbers from the AARP about grandparent caregivers: 

Nearly 7.8 million children live in households headed by a grandparent or other relative

More than 2.5 million grandparents say they are responsible for most of the basic needs, such as clothing, food and shelter, of one or more grandchildren who live with them.. 

21 percent, the percentage of preschoolers who are cared for primarily by their grandparents while their mother is employed or in school.

My mother and I were both the same age when we had a baby---age 32---and we were both married.  That trend seems to be fading away as grandmothers become younger because their daughters are having children at a much younger age.

Is there a blame to place for this so called "new normal"?  What do you think?