When people are deciding what age to have children at, you'll often hear them say
that before they have kids there are a lot of things they want to get done first.
Maybe travel the world, maybe concentrate on a career, or at least just wait until the
twenties are out of the way.
On the flip side, some people will tell you that they want to have children at a young
enough age so that they can actively play sports with their children when the kids are
in their teens, adding that they don't want to be ageing parents because they fear they
won't have the energy required, say, in their 50s, to still be dealing with kids.
Today we'll talk about all the pros and cons, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Is it better to be born to younger or older parents?
As we just pointed out, there are many reasons why people choose to be younger or older parents.
Sometimes kids just happen of course, but often parenting is meticulously planned.
So, let's say you were born to older parents.
What does older mean?
Well, for women having a kid over the age of 35 could be said to qualify the woman as
being an older parent.
As for men, they can keep on giving well into old age, but that doesn't mean they should
do that.
Before we talk about the kids, we should say that science doesn't seem to disagree that
the longer a woman waits there could be more birth complications for her and the kid.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health tells us in older age women are more at risk of
having a stillbirth, miscarriage, or ectopic pregnancy.
That means the baby being in an abnormal position.
The woman also has more chance of having high blood pressure during pregnancy, higher cholesterol,
developing diabetes, and according to the American Stroke Association, if women are
over 40 after getting pregnant, they are more at risk of having a stroke or heart attack.
There are more risks, and they are well-documented.
It seems if a woman gives birth at a later age, perhaps over 35 or 40, there is more
chance of the baby being born with Down syndrome.
We are also told that there is risk of other congenital anomalies when women have kids
at a later age.
Other studies tell us the kids also have more chance of developing neuropsychiatric disorders
such as autism or even schizophrenia.
This all sounds grim, but the American Journal of Epidemiology said that this has more to
do with the health of the woman, her lifestyle, than it does with age alone.
Many critics will tell you that there is a bit of scaremongering going on, to compel
women not to wait too long.
Now for some good news for older mothers.
As you can imagine, having a teenage parent might not always be the best thing in the
world.
Often the woman has not matured enough in life to be an able parent, while there is
always the risk of the mother, and perhaps father if he is young too, just not being
ready.
There is also money to consider, as a younger mother and father might not be financially
prepared to have a child.
There are many other benefits of having children at a later age.
One Danish study that seems to be cited a lot found that kids born to older parents
had fewer emotional and behavioral problems than kids born to young parents.
But these were kids studied at age seven and eleven.
It seemed at age fifteen things levelled out.
It gets better for older parents.
Another study undertaken in the UK and U.S. found that kids born to older mothers and
fathers on average had a higher IQ than kids born to younger parents.
That study found the kids had more success in education, especially when it came to subjects
that fall into the STEM category, meaning Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Another study called "The Relationship Between Maternal Education and Children's Academic
Outcomes," found that kids born to older parents have more chance at developing good
vocabularies, being able to articulate themselves better, which has nothing to do with biology
but the fact that often older parents often have a richer vocabulary, and this is passed
onto the kids.
In fact, as Psychology Today tells us, older parents are on average more educated than
younger parents, whether formally or informally, and this affects how well the kids will do
in school.
The kids of older parents in general outshone other kids in education.
But you can add to this the fact that in general the kids of older parents spent more meaningful
time with their parents since those parents had more time to give.
Younger parents to some extent are still either working very hard or perhaps haven't grown
up enough to dedicate all their time to their kids.
Another bonus, according to a study in the Menopause Journal anyway, is mothers who had
kids later in life had more chance of living to a very old age.
It seems because older mothers had waited until the ideal time, they were able to take
better care of themselves prior to having kids.
It didn't seem to affect how much longer men lived, or at least the study didn't
mention that.
One doctor also noted, "This does not mean women should wait to have children at older
ages in order to improve their own chances of living longer."
The advantages of being an older parent are listed in many other studies.
That Danish study we mentioned also said that older parents are less likely to lose their
cool and start shouting and screaming at their kids, which is good if you are an older parent
but also good for the child's well-being.
A 2012 study published in the British Medical Journal said that young kids they looked at
born to older parents had lots of advantages.
Some of these were a better body mass index (BMI), advanced language capabilities, advanced
social development, and these kids were even less likely to be admitted to hospital.
It seems older parents were more adept than younger parents at keeping their kids away
from actions that resulted in injuries.
Again, there are lots of studies out there that will tell you that older parents have
more risk of producing a child that has birth defects, physical or psychological, and this
is solely related to chromosomal abnormalities.
But as we pointed out, there seems to be lots of benefits for the parent and child if the
parent is older.
We must also remember that many other factors will affect the child's development, such
as being born with one or two parents or how financially well-off the parents are.
Not all young kids are born to struggling parents.
Kids might be born to older parents that leave them with a nanny all the time and spoil them
rotten at other times, which isn't necessarily good for the child.
Ok, so now let's look at some of the benefits of being a younger parent, for both parent
and child.
Unfortunately, there seems to be less scientific research on this than there is anecdotal reportage.
Those benefits include young parents not having to deal with a tricky transition later in
life.
Older parents might have gotten a little bit too used to their lifestyle.
Some reports suggest that younger parents might be able to relate better to their kids.
They might understand their teenage culture, and so in times of difficulties be able to
offer more sound advice.
They will likely still have a lot of energy, too, which means being able to do more things
with kids, including dads going to the park and playing sports, at least with vigor.
But perhaps one of the biggest reasons to have kids early in life is to free some time
up in later age.
This is how one parent put it, "While other parents who decided to have kids later in
life will be busy chasing toddlers or managing the mood swings of preteens, I'll be busy
rekindling my dreams, pursuing my passions and traveling."
There might also be active grandparents around who are still young enough to get in on the
act of bringing up the kids, while kids with older parents might miss out on hanging out
with the old folks.
Live Science cited a study involving lots of parents, although the study, conducted
by the University of California, unfortunately only included parents that had good incomes
and were white.
It wanted to know what the ideal age was to have kids.
From that study it was revealed that being an older parent was better in various ways,
but the main reason was that the parents seemed to be more emotionally prepared for the task
of parenting.
Older parents in general had more freedom from work, more money, and more time for their
kids.
Saying that, many women in the study also said they would have ideally had kids earlier
in life if they had had the money.
They basically didn't have kids at a young age because they didn't feel financially
prepared.
Moreover, a third of the women in the study and a quarter of the men, who had all had
kids late, said they felt they didn't have the right amount of energy for their kids.
It's complicated, though, and some studies suggest that there is a sweet spot in age
to have children.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health wrote this in 2012, "We find that offspring born
to mothers younger than age 25 or older than 35 have worse outcomes with respect to mortality,
self-rated health, height, obesity, and the number of diagnosed conditions than those
born to mothers aged 25–34."
Perhaps, as we said, younger mothers and fathers might not be the best prepared, and perhaps
if mothers are over 35, as this study says, there might be more chance of birth defects
related to what it calls the mothers' 'fecundity" or lack thereof.
There are so many studies out there, and not all are equal.
You may have seen the British tabloid headline saying older dads made uglier kids, if the
dads were over 40.
But if you look closely at that study it's hardly science-based.
In fact, it's not reliable at all.
The debate is ongoing, regarding if it's better to have kids at a younger or older
age, both for the child and the parent.
What do you think?
Were you born to younger or older parents?
Do you think their age mattered in regard to your development?
Tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other show These Are The Signs That You Are Going Through
Puberty.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.
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