Repost: No, being an older parent isn't the worst thing in the world

I've contributed to the Orlando Sentinel's Moms at Work blog since 2010. The blog is changing content management systems and my old posts will no longer be available to the public, so I'm reposting them here, in the order that they were originally posted.


Dec. 12, 2012

It seems as though every month there's a new study or article designed to convince parents that everything they've ever done is wrong and will ruin their children.

This month, the chattering class wants you to know how absolutely terrible it is -- for you, your child and society at large -- for you to become a parent to a newborn when you're older than 35.

I get it: fertility declines for both men and women after 30 and there are definite studies linking a father's age at the time of conception to the likelihood that a child will suffer with schizophrenia or have autism.

As someone who became a parent for the first time when I was [*cough*] older, however, I'm unimpressed by all this hand-wringing.