Reason #1: 10 more years with my children
A few weeks ago, my best friend (who has a 9-month-old little boy) texted me and said, I don’t know why you don’t like being a young mom, I love it!
But…I do love it. I wouldn’t trade it for any other life I could have chosen. It’s the best part of my life. And although we do tend to come together to share the common struggles and perceived judgments here on Early Mama, my main goal for this site was to provide encouragement and support. To prove that being an earlier-than-accepted mom can be a monumentally rewarding decision. The best decision you’ll ever make.
So to emphasize the positive, I’m starting a new series to collect all of the reasons why we love our lives as early moms — and I need your help. I’m sure I can think of 1,000 reasons all on my own, but I want to hear your ideas, your reasons. Either:
- Tweet your reason with the hashtag #earlymama, sending out your positivity to the Twitter-verse; or
- Email me at michelle@earlymama.com with your reason
I’ll feature my favorites here every Tuesday, linking to your Twitter feed or blog if you’d like. Be creative! Be honest! Be encouraging! If you love that your body snapped back mere weeks after delivering, shout it out. If you love that you were able to take a summer-long trek around Europe in your early 40s, show us a picture. If you’re happy that your children could watch you build a successful career from the ground up, let us know.
There’s no “right” time to have a child — there are pros and cons all around — but us early moms tend to get the most criticism and doubt. So my #1 reason that I love being an early mom is that I get 10 more years to know and love my children. That’s an extra decade of kisses, hand holding, heart tugging. An extra decade of watching my children grow into the people they’re meant to be.
An extra decade.
So what’s your reason? Let’s see how many reasons we can come up with.
My mom was an early mother. She had me when she was 19 years old. Now I’m 26 and she’s 45 and one thing I love about her being 10 to 15 years younger than the mothers of some of my friends is that it doubles my wardrobe. She still has a very active career and since we’re both still in the professional world, we pass tons of business casual clothing back and forth.
I’m not sure if we would have the same taste in clothing if she were closer to 60.
I come from a long line of early mother’s as well, so I was able to get to know and have a great relationship with not only my grandparents, but also my great-grandparents.
I’m an early mother as well and I’m hoping I’m lucky enough to someday lay eyes on my great-grandchildren.
10 more years to know and love your children means that much more time to get to know and love your grandchildren too! Not to mention you’ll probably still be young and spry enough to be the really fun grandma who can do cool things with them. Also, the opportunity to meet and love your great grandchildren which most older moms regretfully won’t have.
Also, your kids getting to know their great grandparents. My daughter knows her great-great-grandma… that’s freaking cool.
Fantastic idea Michelle!
I think it’s cute how my daughter’s friends literally call me “Mrs. Cool.” I’d like to think they’d call me that whether I was an earlymama or not, but I’m probably in denial and it’s probably just because I’m younger.
I’ve honestly never thought about it that way Michelle–10 extra years is pretty incredible. Thanks for the great thought! Yay for early mamas!
My mom was about 55 when she finally stopped being able to keep up with technology. If I manage the same, I won’t have to ask my daughter for tech support until she’s 31. I could even be a technologically savvy grandma!
My newborn wants to stay up until 3 or 4 many nights. So do I.
All my favorite books from my childhood are still in print. My mom couldn’t find many of hers when I was little.
None of my friends give me sanctimonious advice based on the perfect way they raised their kids, because they don’t have kids.
I’ll be able to run around the park with my kids.
My mom was 40 when she had me. My husband’s mom was 40 when she had him. Both of us wanted to be young parents specifically because we knew what it was like to have older parents, and to be jealous of our friends with young ones.
You can have more babies…:) and you have the energy for them!
I love Early Mama!:)
[...] we’re collecting all of the reasons we love being “early moms” over at my blog Early Mama. So far my readers have come up with a pretty good list, including things [...]
I am from small town Missouri and it’s really common here for women to become mothers earlier in life. I never really thought of myself as a young mom but I guess I am/was. My first pregnancy was at 25 and I’m now on my third at 28. I can’t narrow down just one reason why becoming a mom at 25 was the best thing that could have ever happened to me but it just was.
I’m not really a young mom but I remember being age 28 vividly in 1997 the day after giving birth to my first child, now 14 yeard old, and knowing I should have had her ten years earlier – annoyed at feminist societal big sisters who advised to put career in front of baby. I applaud you young mamas!!!
Thanks Anne!
I had my son when I was 21 years old. It was hard to raise him but now we’ve gone through the hard times and it is the most valuable experience in the world to have a 14 year old boy by my side. I enjoy his company so much and we share a lot of things… we have this empathy which wouldn’t have been possible if I were 35 or 40 years older than him. Life’s a dilemma.
My latest favorite reason is getting carded when ordering a cocktail, then seeing the servers face when I tell them I have a 15-year-old! (I’m 36).
Im 25 and my son is 9 months. Happily married we both work and at buying a house. We tried for almost 2 years to get pregnant and after nothin happening and two of my cousins (sisters who are 21 and 19) sharing their news that they were pregnant (they both had girls may 3rd and may 15) we decided to find out what was going on. The dr had me go for bloodwork and an ultrasound on my ovaries turns out I was pregnant. I LOVE the fact that we will be able to enjoy our babies longer. And the fact that I want to be able to go out and play football or soccer with my son is enough for me. He has 2 great grammas, 3 grammas 2 great grampas and 2 grampas hell be able to learn things from them instead of hearin them from me what could be a better way to learn your own history