Cleaning up some corners of the desk today, I've come across some bits and pieces of information other geezer parents might find interesting or helpful. I'm particularly fond of this bit about common sense from the Earthtimes.

Common sense being a somewhat illusive attribute, simple to recognize but difficult to define, a recent study set out to identify just how the no-nonsense approach to life actually works, and to, "... pinpoint the... more

Although there are many aspects of mothering that vary widely from place to place and from time to time, I would guess there are at least as many more that are as common to moms ... older, younger, richer, poorer, here or there or everywhere ... as the rhythm of breath going in, then out, and repeating round the clock for as long as it can.

The sudden acceptance of poop as an obvious factor in our lives,... more

A new study out of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research is indicating that older moms are the happiest group of women in the country.

After examining nearly 6, 000 women, the result appears to be that, " ... it's not so much whether you have children as when you have them", as the next happiest group consisted of older women without kids, with young mothers... more

Thanks to suggestions from readers I've started posting some questions and answers on older parents. The introduction is here, followed by embarrassment and negatives here. SHB: Adopted by older parents as you were,... more

Thanks to suggestions from readers I've started posting some questions and answers on older parents. The introduction is here. SHB: Many older adoptive parents worry that their age will be an embarrassment to their kids when those kids hit the teen years. Any comment?

Kris: All parents are an embarrassment... more

I asked a while back for suggestions for topics for this Older Parent blog, as I was feeling idea-depleted. Some great thoughts came in, including a couple about seeking the perspective of adoptees who have parents that were up there in age when their kids came home. I put the word around in a few places I frequent that I had a few questions and was looking for people who'd be interested in answering. Here are brief descriptions:

Kris is 37-years-old... more

What activity is it that has most women wistfully wishing they were instead flat out in a dental chair experiencing the joys of rinse and spit? Is there something that would set you to thinking that a play date with 65 vomiting toddlers with the runs sounds like more fun that what you're doing at that moment?

Yep. That would be the Pap smear.

As one of the groovier aspects of aging, hit 70 and you can say bye-bye to the speculum and slide show ... assuming your Paps up until then have been normal ... how's that for making 70... more

Although I have four kids, only half of them came to me as newborns. Sam and Cj were both over three-months-old before we were allowed to meet them, touch them, smell them, and bring them home, and although that is young for international adopted children, as anyone who's been around babies knows, a three-month-old is most certainly not a newborn.

I still begrudge every minute of those three months these kids were out of my grasp, and am often reminded just how much I missed in having them pass those early days... more

Even though this blog is about older adoptive parents, there's no way I can let the story of the 60-year-old woman who gave birth to twins pass without a glance. (Just for the record, Frieda Birnbaum is not the oldest woman to have twins. That title goes to Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, a Spanish woman who was seven days away from her 67th birthday when she gave birth to two boys in 2006.)

Talk on... more

Sam and Cj have a life so different from that my first lot of kids lived as children. Of course, having a teen mom gives a whole different flavor to childhood from the one a kid gets when mother is closer to a grandmotherly age ... or even great-grandmotherly -- ack! ... and though both can be tasty, there's no denying they're not the same. (I tended to burn the cookies more often when I was younger, for one thing, and relied way too much on... more