What that older Mother knows

As mentioned before in this blog, I sometimes play the game "when my Mother was my age" to remind myself of how different my life would be if I was a young Mom like she was when she had my brother and me.

This usually makes me appreciate my life as I know I don't have the emotional maturity at my age to handle a teenager.

But, I would like to think that I have the emotional maturity to handle a seven year old. (At least on most days.) And it is interesting to think about what that emotional maturity does for children overall.

There is some preliminary research to indicate that older Moms (at least Danish ones) have more emotionally mature children, due to the fact that they mellowed out a lot before they had babies. Factors like economic stability and emotional behaviors settling down in the mid-thirties played a role in mothers creating more stability for their children: They yelled at them less often and gave them more balanced information than their younger mother counterparts.

This got me thinking about how the media portrays young mothers - even those in their early 20s. It's always that cheesy picture of a woman with a briefcase in one hand and a baby in the other, or the frazzled woman who looks exhausted. I'm not saying that is the case for all young women, but it is telling that the media doesn't show us many images of older Moms. If they did, would it be of women who seem more settled?

Do you consider yourself to be an older or a younger Mom? Tell me in the comments.