I had something said to me too that just bugged me. It was a co-worker at a temp job, and he was from a very different culture, one of arranged marriages at young ages (I have a friend from the same culture, and her marriage was *sort of arranged* and has worked out quite well, they love each other very much, so I'm not totally against such things, I'm just telling the story). He was not that much older than me at the time, and had teens closing in on adulthood. He found out that I was 32 (maybe early 33?) and was only engaged, no kids, and he said "oh, well it's too late for you."
I wanted to say "you and your wife might feel old, but I don't, and it's not too late, go away!" but I just handed him his paperwork with a quizzical expression and ignored him.
And I got pg on our wedding night, pretty much.
For me, the main difference in having a baby at 34 vs what my friends experienced at younger ages was the REACTIONS each of us got, especially from supposed health care providers. Especially with pregnancy, they take a bell curve, call it "expectations", and then if you do not fit into that exact mold, you're abnormal. And age is just another one of the ways they do it to ya. Pretty much, if you're under or over 26.34, it seems, you shouldn't be having children. Too young, too old.
And the thing that so many don't understand is that many people aren't *choosing* to wait, it's just LIFE. I could have had 10 kids before I did, but they would have been with substance using losers and our lives would be full of stress and no money and it would have been so so so hard. I'm glad I didn't just go do that.
And now...we're waiting out the side-effects of a pituitary tumor in hubby, one that took his fertility down to as close to zero as you can get. A tumor that went undiagnosed for THREE YEARS (from symptoms, looking back), and do you know why? Because every time he complained to ANY sort of health care professional, and told them his concerns and how we weren't getting pregnant again (started trying when DS was 9 months old) and he really wanted his hormone levels checked...to a one, they said "your wife is 2.5 years older than you, and you're fat, that's why." They were age-ist about a woman who wasn't in the room, and wouldn't do the stupid bloodwork (which insurance TOTALLY paid for when we finally found someone who would order it), b/c again, their bell curve of fertility decided that it was ME because I was OLD. Malpractice, IMO. 3 years. Prolactinomas are not fun for anyone, and for a man the side-effects...just awful.
So we're waitin' that one out now.
All that to say...main differences I saw was in the reactions of the "professionals" I ran into!
And in my friend group, the ones who had kids "young" are all exhausted and looking to party party all the time. I'm feeling younger every week and looking younger, I get *carded* (at 41) when others around me aren't being carded, my energy is increasing... I like being an "older" mom, even if it's something that I never *chose*. I fully expect that when I get pregnant again, especially with the experience I had with DS (was a skosh bit overly whiny), it'll be even better. And maybe I'll just lie my butt off about age to any health care professionals I might run into. Would be interesting, to see how they reacted to different info! (sure I'd be paying OOP but still)