I think we have written enough posts on this blog about being an older adoptive parent to have pretty much arrived at the conclusion that while being an older than average parent should not deter anyone from pursuing adoption, there is no holding back father time or mother nature. Fight it all we like, the signs of aging will eventually push forward onto the stage of parenting despite our every effort to keep it at bay, physically, psychologically, emotionally. What's a 40ish, 50is, 60ish and beyond mother to do when she still has relatively young children running about?

Aha! What about...cosmetic surgery? I wonder if there are any older parents who have gone to what some would consider (me being among them) extraordinary lengths to manipulate the age gap between themselves and their young adopted children. Most of us tend to rely on good old fashioned humor to manage the matter of being mistaken for our child's grandparent. Still, I must admit it's not always so funny when that happens, although I always manage to pull it off with a smile and a joke. At one point I made a commitment to lose some weight because I knew the extra weight made me look frumpy. I lost the weight and felt better about myself as a result. Being several pounds thinner did not make people mistake me for my children's grandmother any less, but, somehow when it happened I didn't chafe quite so badly from the mistake.

Are there some older parents who grow so weary of the "Is this your grandchild" mistake that they decide to do something more dramatic about it, like erasing a few of those worry lines with a shot of botox, or turning back the clock a few years with some lift or another?

This post is not an attempt to dissect the psychological meaning of an older parent who chooses to have a cosmetic procedure to look younger. It is certainly not written to judge those who may have chosen this route. I'd just like to know if there are any parents out there who have and if so, how has that experience worked out for them.