"Do you know how old you'll be when that kid is a teen?"

Heard that? Yeah ... I'll be you have.

Does it scare you? No?

What? Are you simple, or something? Because it certainly should!

Not that your status as an older adoptive parent should be the root of all fear. No. Any parent of any age should tremble at the thought of sharing space with raging hormones, perceptions of wisdom far beyond what years would indicate, and the potential for mistakes with dire and life-long consequences.

Teens are scary,... more

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 the title of this post does make it sound like I'm about to take off on the hilarious thread going on over on the geezer adoptive parent group, GAARP, about adoption from other planets ... I'm asking permission now to post some of the amazingly creative comments here as a testament to the brilliance of older adoptive parents ... this will be a rather down-to-earth composition.

(If you are looking for writing from me on interplanetary adoption,... more

Continued from here, where we've been catching up with some news ... I know this isn't going to sound very PC, but I'm not one bit disappointed to learn that the South Dakota Legislature just killed a bill that would have required five to seven-year-olds to ride in safety seats... more

The LaLeche League is celebrating its 50th year.

With breastfeeding rates dropping almost 20% in 1957, the League started up with a mission to, "help mothers worldwide to breastfeed through mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information, and education, and to promote a better understanding of breastfeeding as an important element in the healthy development of the baby and mother." Adoption and politics... more

Continued from here ...

And now ... the gains. African Adoption Blogger, Holly Richardson recently wrote about her daughter, Rachel, describing the events that led her to the family through a disruption and how wonderful it's turned out to be:

... my heart just did flips - she was SO cute and I wanted... more

Continued from here, where we were looking at statistics on adoption disruption and dissolution.

For more details, see the Child Welfare Information Gateway, where it is explained that: No national data are collected on the number of disruptions and dissolutions or the percentages of adoptive placements that end in disruption or dissolution. Most of the data that are... more

Domestic or International, concluded adoption process or not, disruption ... actually called dissolution in cases where the adoption is final, but classed as disruption in the common vernacular ... may present, as in all adoption, both loss and gain.

First the loss. The story of the Minnesota couple who returned their son to the Ukraine has pushed disruption into the headlines lately and thrown a pall over much of the adoption world causing endless... more