Finally, someone is appreciating motherhood.

A mom has written a book claiming having children makes women smarter.

I was beginning to think being a mom turned my brain into a mass of sticky pudding — or was that the inside of my refrigerator?

I have to stack DVD rentals in front of the door so I will trip over them and remember to return them.

To remember an appointment, I have to leave a sticky note on the back of the front door so I’ll see it every day on my way to work.

Maybe if I’d made myself a note, I wouldn’t have found a Christmas present in my closet the other day that I bought for my daughter Shannon — in 2003.

But now Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Katherine Ellison, a mother of two, says I am smarter than I was before Shannon was born. Her book, “The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter,” even includes scientific research done on rats who have just given birth. (What better animal could they have picked to represent mothers than one that spends its life scurrying and eating?)

When I stopped and thought about it, I realized I have learned a few tricks, er, things during my nearly 12 years as a mother.

Because we moms have to stick together, I’ll share a few:

1. How to sound like you know the answer to any question.

When Shannon was 2, this was easy. She mostly pointed and asked, “Baw?”

I would answer, “Yes, that’s a ball.”

“Shanny cookie?”

“No, Shannon can’t have a cookie right now.”

I did know all the answers.