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Old Moms: Hot New Trend for 2016?

“My mom is old as hell.” Photo: Erin Lester/Corbis

Disheartening though it may be to Google the term “old moms” only to be hit with a barrage of unsavory links to porn involving elderly women, research suggests that it won’t be long before those search results will change. Are American women abstaining from having kids until much later in life? Are the children of Generation Whatever Comes After Snapchat going to have a bunch of gray-haired, wrinkly-ass parents? Signs point to yes.

A new report authored by T.J. Matthews of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that in 2014, the average age of first mothers in the U.S. was at an all-time high. “Forty?” you’re thinking. “Thirty-five?” No, no. As the Associated Press reports, mothers in the U.S. aren’t having children until they turn 26.

John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health told the AP, “Women are staying in school longer, they’re going into the workforce, they’re waiting to get married, and they’re waiting to have kids.” The average age of first-time mothers has been tracked by the government since 1970, when the average age was 21. Only 45 years later and we’re seeing the old-mom trend really take hold. What’s next — motherhood at (gasp) 30?????

Old dads, on the other hand, have seen no fluctuation in their popularity.