Too old to party. Too young to party.

I am so tired today. I ache with it.

We went to a 50th birthday party last night and I honestly couldn't keep up with the pace.

I am not 50 but my husband is older than me and some of his friends are a little older than him and so I know a lot of insanely cool 50 years old. The birthday girl last night was an excellent example of this.

I thought that now I have kids I am too old for wild parties and in some ways I was right but what I didn't realise was that I am also too young!

When you have little kids you wake up early and go to bed early. There is no respite because you didn't get to bed until 1am, and there is definitely no sympathy. And you're pretty much exhausted all the time so its hard to find the energy to stay awake, let alone dance!

To put a further dampener on my party girl instinct, the idea of Wild Man and a hangover both being with me at the same time is almost enough to make me cry.

Post children, my partying ways have been seriously curbed. In fact I thought those days were gone.

BUT....

Last night I learnt an important lesson ... partying comes back!

Once your kids are in their late teens you aren't so tired any more. You have time, energy and can spend all of Sunday crashed out on the couch watching TV and eating hot chips if you feel that way inclined.

Not only that, you don't need a designated driver because you can make your teenagers come and drive you home from the party. As one Dad said to me last night "They owe me!".

Amazing.

And to make matters even better by the time you get to 50 you're also likely to be a bit more financially secure so your party can have live music, decent wine and caterers!

Plus you probably have a reasonable place to hold it, you don't have to wait for your parents to go on holidays to have a party AND none of your friends are going to advertise it on Facebook.

Brilliant. I honestly can't wait because I do have quite a bit of partying left in me.

But in the mean time I seriously have to have a Nanna nap.

Have your kids stopped you having big nights?