At least according to the New York Post, old moms can do it! I was happy when I logged on the other day and read the headline "How women over 40 can save the human race." Are you talking to me, New York Post writer? I'm ready. How can we?
The article didn't quite live up to the attention-grabbing headline, because I thought it was going to iterate a step-by-step plan as to how we could eradicate hunger and poverty with our very particular set of skills. That's not exactly what it's was about. But it laid out an important point. Birth rates have declined for all age groups except for women who are in their forties. They are down by about two percent for women younger than forty, and they are up by roughly two percent for women in their forties. The trends are explained by the shift in attitude—women who don't want to be parents are making that choice and not feeling there's a negative stigma associated with it, as their shouldn't be. And attitudes are continuing to change regarding making the decision to wait to have children. Improvements in fertility treatments help, too. It's not that biology has evolved to allow for later reproductive years. Science has allowed for it.
Funny little story to share as to why I was happy to read this story and get a little pick me-up, re-affirming we (maternally advanced moms) are a growing force. My daughter has a new nickname. Little Miss Details. She notices every tiny detail in a book. For example, on a page with a dinosaur, she'll notice the tiniest dragonfly in the background, point to it and get really excited. "Ooh! Ooh!" Her latest discovery is mom's freckles (sunspots). She points at them and then tries to scratch them off my body, as if they're pieces of dirt that don't belong. "Honey, you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to remove all mom's age spots." I can afford a little IPL for my chest, but the rest of my body is a canvas of a past spent on beaches drenched in Coppertone tanning oil and no SPF. This blog is supposed to be about the opposite of getting caught up in aimless pursuits of youth and beauty. But I can't help but think a day will come when the realization will set in with my daughter. "Wow, Mom! You look older than my friends' moms...You are older than my friends' moms. Why are you so old?" That little two percent increase and that headline...that made my day. We (MAM's) are a sisterhood.
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