Birth Certificates

I copied this from a post on the girls site.  Thought it was interesting.

A family friend has adopted a kid from out of country. They didn't get him until he was 6 years old. The kids birth certificate was lost. They were able to choose a birthdate and year for him. She was telling us that she wishes she chose a later year, so he could be more dominating in sports and maturity level and what not... i asked her, were you able to choose any year? And she said yes. They give you 1 opportunity to create a new birthdate for this person.

Long story short... there have been players ages in question over the years... one in particular that i can think of that looks 2-3 years older than most of her teammates and has for the 5-6 years we have been doing this... Needless to say, this was the first thing i thought of.

Has anyone ever heard about the birthdate and oversea's birth certificates? I know I'm speaking of an adopted child here, but i am thinking this applies to all oversea birth certificates...

http://www.txsoccer.net/t24919-interesting-info-on-birth-certificates-from-overseas#225235

It is true that in some countries birth certificates don't report the actual birth date. I know for sure from friends who adopted from Ethiopia that their children were much older than the date reported in the documents. This may have many implications for the well-being of the adopted child as he may develop physically earlier than expected and the adoptive parents may not be ready for that.
That an adoptive parent would express the interest to have her child birth date set to a later date so that the child could dominate in sports is very sad. When you adopt an older child, there is more to be worried about than seeing your child dominate in sports!

Laroja_2012 wrote:It is true that in some countries birth certificates don't report the actual birth date. I know for sure from friends who adopted from Ethiopia that their children were much older than the date reported in the documents. This may have many implications for the well-being of the adopted child as he may develop physically earlier than expected and the adoptive parents may not be ready for that.
That an adoptive parent would express the interest to have her child birth date set to a later date so that the child could dominate in sports is very sad. When you adopt an older child, there is more to be worried about than seeing your child dominate in sports!

Spot on! The biological parents see it as an out from their current circumstances and a better opportunity for their child(ren), unfortunately we have people that will take advantage of this and use these kids to win at a young age. The rest of the kiddos will catch up, so was it really worth it?

All of the developing world documents are to be trusted as absolute authority.

The irony of course is that there are reasonable medical tests that can establish age accurately (they are used in forensics etc). We would not want to hinder junior from stomping on children many years younger and diminishing his chances to dominate. I assume they apply the same standards to their academic education...