Children's writers of a certain age...

I just did a statistic gathering survey and found out that most writers of children's books are women between 30 and 39 years old. This puts them smack in the middle of having school age children at home.

The kids are at school from 3 to 6 hours give or take bus time or carpooling. That gives moms time to do all their chores and write for maybe 2 hours a day. Maybe. And they have loads and loads of research material at home the rest of the time. My hat is off to those women. Good luck.

Now I do not fit into that age range. My babies are grown and since they do not as yet have kids of their own I am in that transitory pause between – I can reflect on my children, appreciate other’s children and grandchildren and observe them all from a 'bird’s eye' view.

I can see the parent’s point of view and the children’s point of view because I don’t have to pick sides. It is a golden time to write for children and about children, children of any age from 0 to 18. I’ve been there and now I can see the essence of who children are, what they want, what we they think they want and what really is: from the shining heart to the black hole.

Surprisingly this essence is not what I would have guessed it to be when I was in that 30-39 range. I plan to take advantage of that perspective and I advise all those women writers to enjoy and pay attention because this is time, the moment of the best research they will ever do. Enjoy it.