The Tired Thirties

I am 32.

I am tired.

I am not alone.

A few weeks ago I managed to get away for a “boys-only” weekend. No kids. Good surf. Lots of meat. Bliss.

But one thing we all were aware of was just how exhausted we all felt. Pretty much all the time.

We concluded that the decade between thirty and forty is often the time you are making the greatest advancements in your a career, stepping into bigger roles, and taking on more responsibility than ever before. At the same time most couples in this age bracket are raising small children, who are arguably at their most demanding. These two combine to form a perfect storm of tiredness.

Case in point, all of us on the weekend were in our thirties, all running our own organisations or taking on higher leadership positions, and all of us with two kids under the age of four. And lets not even talk about the sleep deprivation that comes packaged with our little bundles of joy.

No wonder the famous writer, Madeline L’Engle, called it “the tired thirties”.

Of course, alongside chronic exhaustion comes a whole host of others nasties. These include irritability, anger, confusion, decreased sex-drive, and depression.

Wow… this blog just got super depressing! Did I just write decreased sex drive??

My point is, next time you see a young parent in the shops and their kids are running amok, or we react defensively to your innocent comment, or we can’t seem to pay attention to your story… cut us some slack.

We’re just tired.

It doesn’t mean we aren’t happy. We love our kids, we love our jobs. We wouldn’t change it for the world.

We’re just tired. Really, really tired. And not getting enough sex. That too.