Being an older mom of teens keeps me young. I speak their language and make an effort to learn about their hobbies.

The author is a mom of teenagers and feels it keeps her young.Courtesy of Jennifer CannonI had my youngest daughter when I was 38, and now, I'm a middle-age mom of teens.I love having teens in my 50s.

It keeps me young.I make an effort to speak their language and learn about their interests.I may be 57, but I'm still 35 in my mind.

I had my first child, a son, at age 18. I was naive, unprepared, and mostly clueless in the midst of my own reverse adolescence.Two decades later, my youngest daughter was born, joining her 2-year-old sister, when I was 38.

It didn't occur to me at the time that I would be 51 when my youngest turned 13 and the effect two teenage girls would have on me as a middle-age mom.I could be mid-hot-flash, suddenly enraged and/or crying over something like them bickering, only to have them dissolve into laughter, directed at me, saying, "It's not that deep, Mom." I didn't have time to wallow in the perimenopausal symptoms that began around the same time they got their periods because they kept me too busy.

I had to, as the kids say, "Clock in."I speak their languageI speak fluent teenager, and am able to translate their often abbreviated language. Keeping up with their lingo keeps my brain young.

If I'm messaging either of my now college-age daughters, I don't use punctuation, or they think I'm mad. My oldest daughter recently texted, "Please tell Dad to stop using periods, it's freaking me out."This may seem silly to some, but to me, it feels like a privile.