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Cranky. That’s what I am. Just plain cranky. I was cranky in my last post and I’m cranky now.
From the UK we have an article titled: Children of mothers in early twenties struggle at school.
The children of women who have their first child in their early twenties appear to do much worse at school then those born to teenage or older mothers.
Cardiff University researchers believe the stresses that accompany becoming a mother aged 20-22 undermine the ability of women to help their children gain a good education.
They found that children whose mothers [were] in their late twenties or early thirties were almost three times as likely to get at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C. Even those born to women who first became mothers aged 16-19 did twice as well as those whose mothers did so in their early twenties.
Huh?
Researchers divided 165 children born to women in Lambeth and Thamesmead in 1986 into three groups based on the age at which their mother had her first child and examined their GCSE results achieved in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
The children were not necessarily first-borns. Among the children whose mothers were aged 16 to 19 at the time of their first child, 43 per cent got at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C.
Only 22 per cent of those born to women who were between 20 and 22 when they first became mothers attained the same grades.
In those born to mothers who waited until 23 or older when they had their first child, the proportion was 61 per cent.
The national average of children achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C was a little above 50 per cent during those years.
Ah ha. So, they’re saying that it’s having kids when you’re between twenty and twenty-two that’s the issue. Talk about a narrow gap! Older mom’s seem to do about eleven percent better than the national average. Interesting …
And here’s a headline: from Australia: Late Start Begets Brighter Babies.
… children of women in their late twenties and older do better at school, British psychologists conclude from a 16-year-long study of 165 women and their offspring.
The children are three times more likely to get top marks than those born to younger mothers.
It is thought the results reflect the fact that older mothers tend to have a better education and more experience.
So, if they’re talking about better education and experience, this would be as true for adoptive moms as for birth mothers. Once again, good news about older parenting.
Now, for cranky …
A couple of comments on Dr. G’s post (Yo! Sister Geezer Blogger!) started this train wreck of thought and had me do a quick ‘let’s see what pops up in a couple of minutes on the topic of older parents’ perusal of info. There are loads of stats on life span and lifestyle, educational, financial and security issue stability and long-term benefits of parenting later in life.
Couldn’t find a single thing to hold up the argument that, “Children desreve (sic) parents who can reasonably be assured of raising them to adulthood, based on plain old common sense.” It appears guarantees are very hard to come by in the real world and there are differing views on what constitutes common sense.
Of course, facts won’t have much impact on someone who thinks older parents adopt to, “serve as a fantasy way to hold on to youth”, and is comfortable correlating the tragedy of a pregnant fourteen year old with an older family bringing a child home. Once again, a direct quote:
We are quick to condemn 14 years olds that want to raise their children because the timing is “off” I have never understood while we are now saying its great to place infants with people who will be close to 70 with teenagers!.
Almost seventy with teenagers? Yeah … so? And the problem would be ….?
Get with it, folks! Fifty is the new thirty and seventy is the new fifty, but fifteen is still fifteen, and much happier with a home, a family and love … even if there are wrinkles involved. And common sense tells me that fed, housed and loved for a while is better than never at all.
Every year, every minute, is a gift.
I detect shoulder chips in the comments on this, the “Older Parent” blog, and get really annoyed when they start sliding around and clipping bystanders upside the head. One thing about us older moms: we take less crap, especially when we’re cranky!
