Millennial bridges Gap with midlifer Mum

Today marks the launch of an unprecedented campaign called ‘Bridging the Gap’ where 100 Millennials and 100 Midlifers are coming together to blur boundaries and put an end to stereotypes.  This campaign is inclusive as we  believe we are stronger together and divisions such as Age are unimportant.

I did not travel far to find my Millennial and so my daughter Courtney guest posts today and shares with you her opinion of her ‘blogger’ mum! 

When my Mum first told us she was starting a lifestyle blog, we laughed at her, loudly, in her face! I know, not very cool and certainly not very supportive, but you see just three years ago my mother could barely turn on a computer or send a cohesive text message, let alone run a blog – so we were convinced she was joking!

However, when she signed up to computer classes and photography lessons to get her skill levels up, we knew she was serious and we all got behind her 100 percent, although admittedly none of us ever predicted the success she would make of it.

Now she has established herself as Ireland’s leading over-60 lifestyle blogger, with brands such as Specsavers, Anthony Peto and Flybe all taking note and collaborating with her on blog projects.

When she asked me to take part in the Milliennial & Midlifer challenge – well, honestly I felt obligated to say yes (because she’s my mum) but really I would have been insulted had she asked anyone else!

Mum was an English teacher for over half her life and was incredibly loved by her students for her passion, compassion and probably her mothering nature too. But it was her love of the English language and the Arts in particular that made her stand out as a brilliant teacher… so really the blog seemed like a natural progression for her, using her creativity on paper (or on a laptop in this case) instead of in the classroom.

She would be the first one to admit it is a daily challenge – constantly looking for good creative content; dragging my Dad (aka GG) or me to take photos of her; and staying on top of social media which is completely new for her (I tell her off about some of the images she posts but she is getting better!).

Every week, she is learning something new – even just how to read her statistics or post her own imagery on the blog and upload it, which initially started out with my sister or Dad having to do all that for her.

I am constantly in awe of her. She now gets dolled up, goes to events and even attends blogger conferences. She has never let the fact that she is retired or in her 60s stop her – in fact, I think she has more balls the older she gets anyway.

She has really shown me that there is life after retirement and how to live it to its fullest potential.

#wearestrongertogether