I sometimes think that my life isn't really exciting enough to write a blog. Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all (as the band Del Amitrimight have put it). If I'm to write anything, I generally have to stick to my interior life. You can do some clever things with your imagination.
When I look round at the comfortable existence I lead with my husband, our two children, the dog and the cat, I wonder if this is what we were striving for all those years ago. Hours of essay writing at university, playing office politics during our twenties, running drunk through Soho... it was all leading to up this: domestic humdrum in a Home Counties bubble.
But that is the trade-off when you have children. Any appetite for risk diminishes almost overnight. I love that scene in thePaddington film when groovy Mr Brown drives his pregnant wife to the maternity hospital on a motorbike and then picks her up the next day in a new Volvo estate. Safety first, wildly fulfilling life second.
The dynamic will shift eventually as our children turn into thrill-seeking teenagers (my seven-year son is already telling me that his life is too boring) and we parents make one last-ditch attempt to rediscover our youth. In a rather sad indictment of our current circumstances, both my husband and I admitted we were looking forward to retirement the other day, if only because of the freedom it promised us!
Val says
Emma Clarke Lam writes beautifully she is an author as well as a blogger having had published " A sister for Margot" to great aclaim. I read this small piece of an article on her blog and thought " no " fight against playing safe". Do something dangerous take up sky diving, sailing, keeping donkeys, find a family sport that keeps you all on the edge. One life, go for it. Retirement does give you the chance to do more exciting things but do not let the excitement slip from your life in your middle years. Have a challenge of doing something new, daring and exciting and then with all your wonderful skills write it into your next novel. Lots of young couples here gave up corporate jobs and moved to France, how exciting and scary is that... get living on the edge, fun is waiting just for you and the family but you need to bravely scoop it up.Think what would really challenge you and then fly with it.You might crash land but then you could regroup and think of the next adventure.
GO go Emma
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| Safe in our bubble |
But that is the trade-off when you have children. Any appetite for risk diminishes almost overnight. I love that scene in thePaddington film when groovy Mr Brown drives his pregnant wife to the maternity hospital on a motorbike and then picks her up the next day in a new Volvo estate. Safety first, wildly fulfilling life second.
The dynamic will shift eventually as our children turn into thrill-seeking teenagers (my seven-year son is already telling me that his life is too boring) and we parents make one last-ditch attempt to rediscover our youth. In a rather sad indictment of our current circumstances, both my husband and I admitted we were looking forward to retirement the other day, if only because of the freedom it promised us!
Val says
Emma Clarke Lam writes beautifully she is an author as well as a blogger having had published " A sister for Margot" to great aclaim. I read this small piece of an article on her blog and thought " no " fight against playing safe". Do something dangerous take up sky diving, sailing, keeping donkeys, find a family sport that keeps you all on the edge. One life, go for it. Retirement does give you the chance to do more exciting things but do not let the excitement slip from your life in your middle years. Have a challenge of doing something new, daring and exciting and then with all your wonderful skills write it into your next novel. Lots of young couples here gave up corporate jobs and moved to France, how exciting and scary is that... get living on the edge, fun is waiting just for you and the family but you need to bravely scoop it up.Think what would really challenge you and then fly with it.You might crash land but then you could regroup and think of the next adventure.
GO go Emma
Comments to taglines82@gmail.com
