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If you think your parents are 'older'. I'd say, be grateful, they are wiser. :)

Well, guess this is good news for my future children.
At the rate we're going and the luck we've had TTC, I'll be 50 before we have kids..... sigh

I guess I would be one of those who is conserned about the children. Having children at such an old age is very risky. And even if the child is ok, how long will you be there for them? Will you see them finish college, will you be able to do all kinds of activities that the younger parents are doing with their children? I am not encouraging that you should be a very young parent, but you should deffinetly not pass 40s to have children.

We naturally decrease in egoism as we age. Such that, we make better parents. We are less self-absorbed and recognize that our essential self-worth is determined through the eyes of others, and thus it is our relations which bring us the most satisfaction.

Of course this is a largely unconscious realization earned through a life-time of suffering ego-driven disasters.

Perhaps older parents are usually also more established economically, and therefore can afford to raise their kids better.

There is no guarantee that you will be there for your child if you are a young parent either. Things happen: people get sick, have accidents, sometimes they just plain leave.

I see no issue with having children when you are older, in fact I see it as an advantage. The parent is usually more secure in their life and know what they want and where they are at in their life. It seems that they have thought out the consequences of becoming a parent more so than a younger one might have.

Yeah, my parents were older...

Lots of funerals during my teenage years.

Of course all the old people died - as a kid, I was allowed to become attached to grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles, and of course none of them lived to see me graduate high school.

But also there were "early" deaths - people don't expect to die in their 40s and 50s, but it happens.

A lot.

My memories are clouded by grief. I see my grandfather smiling in photographs and I simply can't remember him except as he was after he lost his wife and his sisters. I remember lots of grief. I missed all the good times - I see in the photographs that there were good times, but they waited until they were through living to have me join them.

It makes me angry because I remember having this huge family when I was a kid - I remember crowded Thanksgiving dinners, and I simply can't reconcile this with not having anyone left alive to invite to my wedding.

I'm one of those older moms. The only downside I see for my kids is that they may end up visiting me in Sing Sing after I throttle the next person who asks me if I am the grandmother.

My mom had me at 35 and in 1987 she was classified as a 'geriatric mother'. Even though my mom is a lot older than all of my friends' moms, we have the best relationship by far.

Go figure that the studies that say older moms are just peachy keen were done by FERTILITY DOCTORS, no ulterior motives there eh?

I'm sure you could get mostly the same study results by looking at 20 something mom's from families with old school money.

There's numerous reasons nature makes it hard to juice up a 45+ year old ovum.

Weather you are a good parent is not determined by your age but by your character. Having said that, I still see that it is mostly very young parents who make the fatal mistakes of shaking a baby (out of frustration) and it is quite unlikely for very young parents (early twenties) to stay together for a lifetime.

Back when I was born in 1976, my mother was 46 and my father was 58. I was conceived naturally...before Viagra was invented. ;) Granted, I've come to the conclusion that I was probably a menopausal oops. I am an only child and the youngest of nine. I was the only child from my parents, but my mother had three children from a previous marriage and my father had five children from his previous marriages. The youngest of my half-siblings was born in 1953 and the eldest was born in 1937.

My father was retired from his job by the time that I was in second grade. It seemed as though they had more time to spend with me. During most of my life, both of my parents were accessible at home to take me to sports games or other after school activities. At times, I think that they were rather overprotective.

It made some things harder. They weren't quite able to go outside and play with me much. I do remember my mom coming out and building snowmen with me and trying to play catch with me for softball.

I do remember attending a few funerals as a small child,, as there were a good number of older relatives in my family. I think that I was introduced to my first funeral before I was in kindergarten. I was only able to meet my maternal grandmother as all of my other grandparents had passed away before I came along.

I was somewhat young when I lost my parents. I was 25 when my mother (71) passed away and my father (86) passed away when I was 28. I would have loved to have had them around for a bit longer. They were at least able to see me graduate from high school, but I missed having them at my college graduation (I went to college late because I was looking after my parents for a bit) in 2007 and my wedding in 2010. Plenty of people talk of the dead "being there in spirit," but that's cold comfort and just not the same.

in one of "The Conversations with God" books he points out that while it's biologically most healthful for young couples to have children, the children would be best served if they were raised by their grandparents, to allow the parents to mature into their lives and develop their careers. sounds like wise advice.