I Now Have Retired People Problems

In the course of less than 3 months, I have gone from having high stress "working people problems" to no stress "retired people problems."  As a former teacher/union President, my former problems consisted of raising test scores for students, writing contract language, negotiating salaries/working conditions for teachers, and problem solving/handling disputes between teachers and administrators on a daily basis. What an immediate change my "problems" have gone through!  The decisions I used to make were high impact - life changing - for other people, needless to say, quite stressful.  On the 1st day of the retired chapter of my life, I immediately went into retirement mode.  Except for my role as a consultant with my teachers' union and a friendly breakfast with the new President and VP once a week, I have separated myself from my former working life.  So far, I'm loving it!  

So what types of problems do retired people have?  What types of decisions do we have to make?  For a couple of years, the talk around the family was that we wanted to revisit the beach vacations we used to take in Rodanthe, North Carolina.  Before our lives got busy with weddings, we used to stay at a beach house and spend the entire week playing in the ocean, engaging in water sports and connecting through activities such as campfires, making S'mores, ghost crabbing and telling ghost stories.  Since the kids are expecting their first babies this winter, I thought next summer would be a great time to go to the beach and spend a week together - start a family tradition.   Since I have cleared the desired week with the kids, it was time to get the beach house booked.  How close to the beach do we want to be?  Shall we get a house with a private pool?  What realty company shall we use?  Retired people problems!  As I harvest cucumbers and tomatoes from my garden and pears and apples from my trees, I have yet more decisions looming over me - what type of pickles shall I make from my cucumbers and shall I can pickles first then make the pear butter?  Which should be picked first - the apples or the pears?  More retired people problems!  

Remember when your kids were young and they would come home from school with their devastating, life impacting problems?  Their best friend wouldn't talk to them at lunch, they can't find the Beanie Baby they are looking for, you forgot to give them ice cream before bed last night!  No matter what their "problems" were, if they were important to our kids, the problems were important to us.  We listened intently, helped them find a solution or talk it out, then moved on to our own personal "real problems!"   As we retire, the tables turn.  Our kids tolerate our "problems" while juggling their own life impacting decisions - which house should we buy, what should we name our baby, what nanny should we hire?  When making the decision on the beach house, I sent the kids emails and links of beach houses to look at.  Although they politely read my emails and called/texted with feedback, I am sure they moved on and addressed their grown up problems after appeasing me! 

I kind of like my "retired people problems!"