I'm another woman without kids, I just turned 54, and my life is so much busier than it was when I was younger. On the other hand, I'm a lot happier now than I was then, so I guess it's all the kind of busy-ness that makes me happy: teaching, caring for home, husband, and dog, biking, kayaking, motorcycling (recently added), and traveling when we can.

I, too, don't know how I'd do it all with a couple of kids thrown into the mix, but I do know that most of us do what we're called upon to do. I've been primary caregiver to both my mom and my dad as they (we) struggled with Alzheimer's disease, and that was while I worked and tried to do all the other things, too--except for traveling, which was severely curtailed during those periods. And those were THE hardest times of my life, bar none, but we all got through it somehow. That's not exactly the same as raising children--easier in some ways, much harder in other ways--but the point is, again, we do what we're called upon to do for our families, whether it's raising children or escorting our parents through their last illness.