I had an older mother.  She is now in her 80′s as I am in my 40′s.  It was almost unheard of to have a kid over 35 in 1967.  My Mom was not a playing Mom.  She wanted to be with the other Mothers, like Mothers do, and chat, she used to tell me constantly she could not participate in whatever activity she was trying to get out of because she was “too old”.  My 5 year old self swore I would never ever use that as an excuse to get out of playing with my kids.
I became a Mother later in life than my Mother did but this afternoon I played with the boys at the pool.  We jumped off the diving over and over although I mostly stuck to the low dive.  Aaron and I jumped off the side in the deep end holding hands, and then the three of us raced but Ryan kept cheating by trying to pull us by our bathing suits.  They asked me to play “mommy train” with them, a game we invented when they were really little and learning to swim where each of them held onto one of my legs and kicked as I pulled with my arms.  The pool was getting empty and the lifeguards were smiling at our antics.  Of course I had time to chat with the other Mom’s and heck I even too a little nap but saying yes was important.

My Mother never knew the joy she was missing by using the excuse she was too old.