There’s an element of this parenting thing that nobody prepares you for when your kids are young. Well, actually, there are many elements of parenting nobody prepares you for but one in particular is on my mind at the moment: How you have to pay adult prices for everything once your offspring hit the age of 13. Whatever it is you buying or wherever you are travelling, once your little ones are no longer so little, family costs increase hugely. Or, to put it another way, there is a direct correlation between how much money is not in your bank account and how old your kids are! Oh yes, the cost of living has increased enough but through in older kids and you really see it.
Where we’ve seen this the most is when buying train tickets or, on the odd occasion we fly, airline tickets. Once upon a time cost was a consideration, but not necessarily a showstopper. With two kids who are now well and truly in their teens, we have to think about every transaction.
Cost regularly stops us from doing all sorts of things as a family. From going to the cinema to grabbing a quick bite to eat, many things are out of our price range now we’re paying full price for four people.
Oh how I look back fondly on the days when we could buy off-peak cinema tickets for £1 or get our little ones a kids’ meal at Pizza Express for about £6. Cinema tickets will cost at least £15 a head and if we eat out, the waiter(ess) will always give our eldest an adult menu. Around Izzy, our youngest, there will always be a moment of confusion as the waiter(ess) looks her up and down with two menus in their hand: One adult, the other a kids’ menu. After a moment of consideration they always decide she looks over the age of 12 and hand her an adult menu too.
As I write this, a tale from our family’s distant past comes to mind. Our eldest had turned five years old a short while previously and we were getting on a bus in Glasgow. Keep in mind that at that time, four-year-olds got to travel for free on public transport in Scotland.
Mrs Adams was speaking to the driver trying to pay but he was refusing to issue a ticket. She’d informed him our child was five years-old and he kept correcting her:
“I think you said she’s four,” the driver repeated several times.
Each time Mrs Adams heard this, she counted by saying Helen was “five.”
Realising the driver was trying to do us a favour I eventually leapt in to the conversation and explained our daughter was indeed four years old. The driver issued tickets to the adults and we all got on the bus and went on our merry way. No, it was perhaps not my most honest moment, but come on, was I going to turn this generous offer down?
Alas, such generous offers are much harder to come by when your kids are considerably older. I guess we just have to sit tight and wait until the youth of the household qualify for student discounts!
