I had my first child last year, a few months after I’d turned 45. I gave birth at an age when many of my friends were sending their first-borns off to college. Admittedly, for some of them, their first-borns may have been the result of poor planning or an “oops!” moment. Still, my husband and I (though he is six years younger than me) are taking on new parenthood at a time when most parents our age are looking ahead to diapering their first grandchild, not their own newborn.

I’m sure that when I was 25, if someone had told me that a 45-year-old woman maybe, just maybe, was wiser than me as a result of age and experience, I would have told that person to stuff it—except I would have used a less-polite term. But now, through benefit of that same age and experience that I didn’t used to think mattered, I now see that we older moms do offer certain advantages to our kids.

Find out the reasons why being an older mom is better at Mamiverse.com.