Some people can't imagine allocating all of their available resources to a little bundle of joy from the time they are twenty until they are forty...or so. Some can't imagine starting to do the same at age forty and continuing for another twenty years. It all seems to be a wash.

There probably is a down side to adopting as an older parent. We shouldn't paint a rosey picture as if it is all peaches and cream. Still, I can't imagine any negative aspect of being an older adoptive parent that doesn't apply to being a parent in general. Yes, there is the energy and physical fitness thing, but we have discussed that ad nauseum and there are all kinds of ways to look at that issue as well. You can be out of shape and lack energy at any age.

I know once, when we were visiting with my mother-in-law my children kept running around behind her, asking her a million questions, just pestering her in general. Finally, I heard her exclaim with exasperation, "Y'all get somewhere and sit down now. I'm not used to having anybody worrying me like this." She didn't snap at them. Her tone was as grandmotherly as ever, but I understood exactly where she was coming from. Basically, my kids were "getting on her nerves" as the saying goes. My mother-in-law was 54 when my son was born. In this brave new world of adoption, she could have adopted him at her age.

So, what about that one? We older parents like to play the older/wiser/more patient card when we are ticking off all the ways that we are better than when we were younger. But, I'm not convinced that the more patient line is necessarily true.

So, as seems to be my modus operandi, I have posed a question and offered not a single helpful answer. I hate it when I do that. Maybe the readers have some thoughts? So, whadaya think? Is there a down side to older parent adoption that is specific to being older? Just because I can't think of any doesn't mean that there aren't any. I think it would be a disservice not to bring them up and discuss them if they exist.