A young mother makes you dumb

I don't care what the research says, I sincerely doubt that children "do better at school if their mothers wait until their mid to late 20s before starting their families". I hope what's going on here is that this is an error by the journalist and not an indication of the quality of the research or report involved.

The way this first sentence from the Times's article is written you'd be inclined to think that if a woman has her children while she's in her early 20s the child will underperform in school. What I suspect is really going on is that, on average, women who are having children at 22 (or whatever) are less "educationally oriented" than those who are having children at 28.

I'd like to see the actual report to see if the woman leading the research allowed for differences in the natural intelligence of the mothers at various ages and for the stability in the home life, etc. I want to blame the Times, but this comment has me wondering about Dale Hay, Professor of Developmental Psychology at Cardiff University,

"It's my speculation that women who start their families in their early 20s are not seen as a risk group by society," she told the British Psychological Society meeting in Cardiff.

I just do not believe that a child born to a 22-year-old woman in a stable marriage would be any better off if she had simply waited 5 years.

Oh, wait a second, maybe this is one of those April fool's articles? If yes, it's not that funny.