My Mom was 22 years old when she had me.  When I was 22, I was in university and enjoying all the, um, benefits of living on my own as a student.  The thought of getting married and having kids was laughable.

Nonetheless, I'm here years later.  Married.  With 3 kids.

I do love my role as Mommy.  I've changed my whole life to embrace it.  This isn't anything new.  Becoming a Mom, raising kids, making sacrifices.  Women have been doing it long before me.  That said, I do think there are some differences between the Mom's of today and the Mom's of yesteryear.

One of the notable differences is how children play.  Child psychology and the vastness of the internet for parenting information aside, playtime has changed.  Here are a few differences I have noticed between the children of 1975 and the children of today.

1975 child:  Playing kitchen using actual pots and pans and cooking on a cardboard box stove.
2013 child:  My children play kitchen using child sized pots and pans from Ikea, on a plastic Little Tykes fully equipped kitchen, creating gluten free dishes.

1975 child:  Make believe hair salon, giving shampoos and updo's.
2013 child:  My children's make believe hair salon has tattoo and piercing options as well.

1975 child:  Dragging out the board games for a round of snakes and ladders.
2013 child:  My children using my Blackberry to play Saving Yello.

1975 child:  Playing outside in the neighborhood, and coming home when the street lights come on.
2013 child:  My children play outside within a locked 5 foot unclimbable fence with a security system.

1975 child:  Thinking we were playing as we 'helped' our Mom clean the house.
2013 child:  When I pull out the vacuum, my children inform me that it belongs to Lynn, our very appreciated cleaning woman.

1975 child:  Using tin cans to create a telephone.
2013 child:  Being informed by your 5 year old that creating tin can phones is wasting because tin cans are recyclable.

As long as my kids are playing, I'm pretty much cool with whatever methods they create.  They are products of their environment, so a few 'tattooed' kids sitting around eating gluten free muffins at their herbal tea party while locked up in their fenced yard outside so that the cleaning woman can do her job without tripping over children is all good with me.