The sleep deprivation and constant attention needed in the first months can be pretty tough for people not in their prime anymore, for instance.
They're not in their prime, sure, but they have more free time (and experience).
Experience sure helps, but it's not a silver bullet either. We had our grandparents come to help for the first born, just to send them back because they were getting tons of germs and the lack of sleep was killing them. Two years later it was a perfect match and they really enjoyed taking care of the kid.
The end result is likely that they're not your kids in more than a biological and economic sense if you don't go to lengths to be involved in your childs life (more than) daily.
I don't think that is western chauvinism, but rather universal developmental psychology. It will be (for lack of a better word) interesting to see studies on this.