<p>My dad is 5 years older than mom. He is in excellent shape and golfs with many people who are 1/2 his age or younger. He is much fitter than mom, who is getting a bit frail in her mid-80s. Dad will likely live another few decades or longer, like his uncle who died at 107 (and taught at the U & played doubles tennis through his 90s). </p>
<p>To me, having a stable loving relationship is a key ingredient to a great family. Many young people don’t establish this until later in life, especially if they are going for professional degrees and careers. Not sure that this will change unless somehow our society decides to value people having babies at younger ages and makes major changes to facilitate this.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m just enjoying hearing all the different ways there are to become parents and to be parents at different ages. </p>
<p>With the exception of the medical issues in the article, probably technology is the biggest difference for kids these days, IMHO. I wonder what it will be like for our kids ’ kids. I doubt it will be the age of their parents that made their world so much different than ours.</p>
<p>Those of us who were born to older parents decades ago were conceived and carried without the benefit of the fertility industry, which has added layers of potential future problems to those already there naturally as a result of older sperm and eggs.</p>
<p>The word “unregulated” is a key. People dealing with infertility sometimes will do anything in their quest for a baby. And for the most part, fertility clinics are finished with their work once the couple gets pregnant. </p>
<p>We have a family member who spent many, many thousands of dollars and several years of tears, hormonal storms and basing their lives around the quest for a pregnancy. The couple is in their forties, and just delivered a baby, conceived with the father’s sperm and a donor egg, carried by the wife. Baby was born six weeks early, and is doing well, but will be in the hospital, NICU at first, now in an intermediate care unit, for six weeks or so. Consider the cost, the proceedures and the drugs it took to accomplish this technological feat. </p>
<p>We are thrilled for this couple, and pray for the health of their beautiful baby, but every week our local news features babies, children and teens still waiting for a loving family to adopt them and I wonder…</p>
Oh, yeah? Think of what it’s like for us adoptees! I want to scream every time I go to a new health care provider and get confronted with the “family history” section of the paperwork. They just assume that everyone has access to that info, and act so shocked when we don’t have it. Just once, I’d like to see a check-off box that says something like “Family history incomplete or unavailable.” It’s not just us adoptees but people who, for whatever reason, don’t have access to family members who have this information. OT, I know, but I had to say it.</p>
<p>That’s okay! My BFF is adopted. She would have been upset by that, as well. They adopted one child for every pregnancy she had. They have eight wonderful children! One they adopted when he was twelve. What a really amazing young man he has turned out to be.</p>
<p>I was wondering about this as it relates to the original article. She talked about the development issues her son had due to what she thought was the fertility process involved. I don’t know if the article addressed this (it wouldn’t let me read it in its entirety unless I subscribed), but what did she think was the main contributing factor? Was it older parents with spontaneous natural pregnancies, older parents with fertility treatment assisted pregnancies, or both. I wonder what are the statistics on the development of children born to younger mothers via various fertility methods.</p>
<p>I’m not even going to read the article. I’m 43 and my youngest child is seven weeks old. My oldest child is turning 19.</p>
<p>I’ve done the math and it’s sobering. If my firstborn has a first born at the same age as I was when he was born, I’ll be a grandmother at 48. If I live to 90, that gives me 42 years to be Grandma to that child.</p>
<p>If my last born has a last born at the same age as I was when he was born, I’ll become a new grandmother for the last time at 86. That gives me four years to be a Grandma to that child.</p>
<p>But it is what it is. Each of my seven children’s lives is of objective, inherent value. It’s good that they are here, no matter what the ages of their family members.</p>
<p>They fall into two age groups:</p>
<p>18
16
13
12
(seven year gap… needed some sleep)
5 (our planned caboose baby)
3 (the buddy caboose)
7 weeks (the extra caboose that came chugging down the tracks, much to my surprise!)</p>
<p>VillageMom, congratulations and welcome back! I’ve been wondering about you and hoping all was well.</p>
<p>I think your lambchops will be fine on the back end because they have each other. As you can tell from my complaining, it’s being the lonely only with siblings and geezer parents that I objected to. If I had siblings who were really siblings, it would have been a different and much happier life.</p>
<p>My parents were in their late 20’s when I was born. Mom smoked, like many women did in those days. My in laws were pushing 40 when they had kids. My H never felt that his dad wanted kids, even though mom was awesome. </p>
<p>40 then was way different than 40 now, but all things considered I am glad we completed our family in our 20’s. i seriously cannot fathom middle of night diaper changes and feedings now!</p>