Yes you read that right. I’m looking forward to being forty. It’s still a few years off yet (2018 to be exact) but there are several reasons I’m looking forward to forty. It’s not the age as such that I’m looking forward too, more where my life will (hopefully) be in three years time…

We’re currently in the process of trying to relocate from Scotland down to England to be nearer both mine and Barry’s parents. Hopefully within the next six months or so we’ll have moved so in three years time my boys probably won’t remember a time when they didn’t see their grandparents every week or two, rather than only a few times a year like they get at the moment.

We viewed some houses just last week and we think we’ve found one we’d like to buy. It needs quite a lot doing to it in terms of decoration, plus it has potential to extend or remodel in the future but all that will take time, so it’s another thing that hopefully in three years we’ll be living in a house (even if it’s not that one) that is decorated to our taste and works well for our family.

Of course moving nearer to my parents has the added benefit of providing us with babysitters much closer to home. So in three years time I’ll be able to enjoy the odd night out, or even away, with my husband. We’ve only had one night away from Toby since he was born – that was back at Easter this year, and in fact that was the last time we went out as a couple at all!

The other thing I’m looking forward to is that the boys will be 5 and 3 by the time I’m 40 and hopefully a bit easier to manage. I know there will be different challenges as they get older but just things like being able to go on holiday, or even out for the day without having to take seemingly the entire contents of our house with us will be amazing. At the moment, with buggies, travel cots, nappies and everything else there’s barely room for us in the car! There’s also the fact that we’ll be able to go on holiday to places where the kids are old enough to join in with activities (and go to kids’ clubs giving us a bit of a break too!) and hopefully they’ll find it exciting going away and sleeping somewhere different rather than freaking out. The last holiday we attempted we abandoned after one night because Toby screamed his head off every time we tried to get him anywhere near the bed he was supposed to be sleeping in. (To be fair that’s better already – he slept in a double bed at my parents’ house last week and was been absolute fine).

Work-wise I don’t really know where I’ll be in three years time, or where I want to be. I can’t really see myself going back to full time teaching but you never know. I’d love to set up my own business teaching French and Spanish to pre-schoolers, and maybe doing some tutoring as well but I need to look into it in more detail and see if there’s actually a demand for it in the area we’re planning on moving to. If I do go back to teaching in a school, even part time, then Toby will be at school and Gabe at pre-school so we won’t have anywhere near the childcare costs we’ll have if I go back to work at the end of my maternity leave.

So although I don’t want to wish my life away, and I know I should make the most of these baby days with Gabe, especially because we’re not planning on having any more babies, I’m still very much looking forward to forty. Are you looking forward to being a particular age, or time in the future? Or are you happy with where you are now?