What Ever Happened to Manners

"Thats very old fashioned" she replied to me when I, responding to her comment, "you must have been a young mother to have a child that old" told her that I had my son when I was 18.
True enough I supposed given that the trendy way to do it is to choose a career, or failing that, choose a career and do the mothering thing with nannies, day care or babysitters.
"old fashioned". Interesting choice of words.
I tend to think that it was common sense, to choose to have a child while I was young and could play games, roll down the hill and hit a home run.
The fact is that at 48, with two granddaughters, I still play ball, I still use the water slide and I still hit home runs.
Trendiness aside, I'd prefer not to be a mom at 40, a gramma at 60 at the earliest, and NOT be able to match my grandchildren in their activities..
All those things aside. Granted, I was a young mother. I made mistakes, I did things the wrong way, GASP, there are times I even shouted "NO" when he was about to pull a lamp onto his head, and when he ran into the street, I grasped him to me with one hand while actually striking his little bottom with the other.
I wasn't the mother of the year, and in fact he's probably lucky he lived through my feeble efforts. My son achieved his adulthood without help from Dr Spock or the myriad baby and child care books that were available at that time.
My son also achieved his adulthood with a modicum of tact, with principles and ethics and with a few manners, in spite of his lack of a middle aged mommy.