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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

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Spouting Off | Episode 284

Expectations are a Bitch! Don’t Let Them Ruin Your Life

Following the rules, when they don’t work for you, creates a big mess!

5 min readNov 7, 2022

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The 1950’s were a long time ago. You know what I’m talking about, right? A time when good girls were supposed to do everything that others thought they should do: Follow the rules and listen to their advice even as you winced at the very thought.

1950’s family all dressed up for the holidays. Me in a dress.
Author on left with parents. Notice the grip my mom has on me. LOL! I guarantee I had shorts on under that darned dress!

Having ADHD back then didn’t make for a smooth beginning. The 50’s weren’t awash in knowledge about ADHD, and I was, and am, a poster child for it. Impulsiveness, interrupting, hyper-focus, total lack of focus, blurting out thoughts, and busy, busy, busy. I was my mother’s nightmare and dream child. She worked diligently to squash my most outlandish behavior while holding an internal pride that I stood in my truth regardless of its inconvenience.

Expectations of Marriage

When I was a young woman, women were supposed to get married, cook dinner, have 2.36 children, dress them properly, join the PTA, go to school conferences and report back to dad.

Dad was supposed to go to work, come home to a from-scratch dinner and an immaculate house, pat the kiddos on the head, put his feet up and relax after a busy day.

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Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

Nancy Oglesby
Nancy Oglesby

Written by Nancy Oglesby

I explore life and tell stories! Embracing the world of Drabbles. Publisher of Fiction Shorts, the Challenged, and Another Fucking Publication

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