My next birthday will see me turning forty.  And I will have a one year old and an eight year old.  If you had told me this fact three years ago, I would have laughed and encouraged to you keep on enjoying whatever you were smoking.

I kid, I kid.  But, there are definitely some good things about being an older mom:

– Perspective.  I haz it.

– I’ve already done all the “crazy” stuff I wanted to do in my twenties.  As my friend, who had her son at 38, said, “Sometimes twice.”

– A fairly well established network of friends and family totake advantage of ask for help.

– A bit more patience, although I’m guessing that might be a purely personal thing.

– A good sense of myself, one that I can honestly say I didn’t have until I hit about thirty, and it’s only gotten better since then.

– Lots of years of pop culture behind me, the better to quote to my son, who has no idea what I’m talking about. But I do, so it’s still fun.

– More financial stability and just a better general knowledge of money and how it works, or in some cases, doesn’t.

– I have the self-confidence to not care what the younger moms think of my gray hair.

– The boobs were already headed in a southerly direction, so not much trauma there.

And, there are some drawbacks as well…