I've just returned from a much-needed holiday in Turkey. While I was there, I discovered I had a superpower. I was at a bar with the teenage daughter of a family friend when it became clear I could make previously polite young people recoil with horror without touching them. All I had to do was to tell them how old I was: 34.
Now that I'm back home, I've found out my young would-be pals might be right in veering away. According to a new survey, women are at their most stressed at the age of 34. Perhaps the younglings could smell the waves of anxiety emanating from me.
So, just what is it that's making me and my identically aged sistren freak out? The researchers for the study, conducted by a beauty brand, asked 2000 women to rate what made them stressed, 62 per cent of respondents saying not having enough money was the key cause of their woes. Fifty-seven per cent worried about their health, 48 per cent fretted about the wellbeing of their family and friends and 42 per cent found trying to balance family life was causing them kniptions.
I have to say that despite my natural scepticism about the findings of cosmetic-company-funded research, I have to agree that my 35th year is topping my personal stress charts. I'm extremely preoccupied with money and the wellbeing of my family. But I sense this has more to do with the fact that my husband has been in hospital for six months after being hit by a car than the fact that it happened shortly before my 34th birthday.
I'm stressed about money because I'm now the sole earner, and I'm beside myself about my husband's health because he's suffered a traumatic brain injury. I'm desperately worried about how my stepdaughter is coping.
