Writing as a father whose hallway mirror cracks a little more each morning as I check my haggard features before leaving for the school run, I can say that, yes – unequivocally – our children age us. Traditional research, however, suggests a more complex relationship between parenthood and ageing.
There’s no question that becoming a parent brings with it major physiological changes. This phenomenon has even been named: matrescence in mothers and patrescence in fathers.
These terms describe the physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes that parenthood brings, and several of these are well understood.
Major hormonal changes, for example, like decreases in testosterone and increases in oxytocin around childbirth, are biological adaptations thought to make for more attentive parents who bond more easily with their offspring.
Our brains shrink slightly and restructure too, probably for similar reasons.
