Do you think adoptive parents that are slightly older make better parents?

No. I think it is unfair for a child to be adopted by an older couple.

I think that there are advantages and disadvantages to having older or younger parents, respectively. Older parents might have more life skills figured out and be better off financially than parents in their 20's. Younger parents have more energy play with their kids and generally interact. My a-parents always say that they were glad they didn't adopt later in life, as they started to lose energy when they hit their 40's. Both of them are in very good health.

I decided to start my family (biological) when I was in my 20's. We started trying to have a baby when I was 23, but suffered a miscarriage. I had my first child at 25, four months ago. We aren't in perfect financial shape, but by the time she's old enough to notice material things we'll be normal upper-middle-class people. I would challenge anyone who implies that a 35 or 40 year-old would be a better parent to MY child. The same way I would presume that I'd be a better parent to THEIR child.

No. My son's adoptive parents were older and they always seem more like grandparents, he always said. In fact they're close to my parent's age.

More importantly though , I think any child is better off with it's natural parents (unless it's an abusive home) or at least another family member than any other set of parents older or not.

I was a parent of 3 in my 20s and I had plenty of energy to play ball and sports with them. I am now a parent in my 40s of two other children and I noticed this time around I don't play sports like I used to and I am more relaxed then when I was younger and less prone to yell at them when they do wrong I tend to talk with them now so what I am saying a younger parent will have more energy to do sports and run around with their children and be more prone to raise their voice however I have found out at a older age I am more likely to spend time with them going to the breakfast house or just talking to them and just enjoying them . When I was younger I would go to bars and drink which took time away from the children now I sit at home watching a movie we call it Movie night Things are very different between the 3 I had when I was younger And the 2 I have now I enjoy being a parent more now then when I was younger

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/20/georgia.child....

I post the article to prove the point--the demographics of the family-natural, older, adoptive, foster can have nothing to do with the quality of the parenting. That doesn't exclude the emotions that come from the uniqueness of the situation the parental/child situation came from-but I truly believe people are the people they are at the time they are. Situational and emotional stress can make people bad parents. That is the same of the adult who is responsible for little people they either birthed or not.

I get frustrated with the generalizations made about adoptions being good or bad as if it is a black or white question that applies to everyone involved in parenting.

Questions like this call for generalities that are really beside the point. No two children, adopted or otherwise, are the same, and no two grown-ups, regardless of age, are the same. Each parenting situation is different, even within the same family. It doesn't matter how old one is, parenting will always be a combination of discovery, joys, disappointments, challenges, and surprises. Anyone who thinks they're prepared for all of the parenting eventualities is practicing self deception on a grand scale.

With that said, human biology has adapted us to bear and rear children from early adulthood, and has provided natural parents with "preparation" for the children they create. While older folks may have achieved more material success than their younger counterparts, it takes more than money and material things to raise a child. It may even be that the older couple has made life choices that detract from their parenting ability.

No, I think adoptive parents that have a natural love for children and that have patience and understanding would make a way better parent than some one in their late 30s to mid 40s in great health. Having older parents embarrasses children anyways. My husband's father had him at 60 years of age. My husband once referred to his father as some old guy to classmates and when word got back to his father, he said his father never looked at him the same way even though he denied he said it. How would adoptive older couple be able to handle the remark? Would they be insulted, would they understand that is something kids say biologically related too. Would they look at the child different for the rest of their lives because of it? Being young when you have kids is natural. Why do you think after you go through menopause you are unable to have children? Because at that age it is unnatural to be raising infants.

No, I don't think so. Certainly not if they're adopting an infant.

That 60 year old who was the oldest woman to give birth was 'in good health' - and was dead before the kid was 5

It's embarrassing at the park to have your parents mistaken for your grandparents; and devastating when they die and miss the rest of your childhood/early adulthood.

I don't think age automatically improves someone's parenting.

I think good parents need emotional maturity, stability, and a strong support system. However, some younger parents already have this, and some older ones never manage it.

It's about commitment, effort, unconditional love, and empathy with your child, not calendar age.

""Do you think that their age and life experiences help them be better parents than adoptive and/or natural families in their 20's?""

Why on earth would you ask a question like this?????? Since the dawn of time...humans have been giving birth at very young ages and raising their families and evidently didn't do such a bad job...as we are all still here! The Human Race did not die out because there wasn't scads of older adoptive parents around to do a better job of "parenting" than the natural families.

And I have often wondered why PAPs/people who adopt, who have never parented a child, who were not already engaged in raising a child whether bio or adopted, feel they have the better qualifications/credentials to do so, than a natural mother/natural father?? How does one come to these conclusions??