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    Honoring My Father’s Wishes for a Beautiful Beginning

    — July 30, 2023 — I stepped into my father’s hospital room knowing it would be the last time I’d see him alive. Thin and frail at 92, he was hospitalized eight days earlier with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. These ailments were the last things his battered body needed. For more than a decade, it...

    Honoring My Father’s Wishes for a Beautiful BeginningJohnathon E. Briggs

    Daughter’s Triumph Overshadows Neighbor’s Nasty-Gram

    — December 3, 2022 — It’s undeniably true that hell is other people. I was upstairs working from our home office on Tuesday, November 29 when I heard my wife open the front door. The familiar squeak and slam of our metal mailbox signaled she’d stepped out on the front porch to check the mail. Moments...

    Daughter’s Triumph Overshadows Neighbor’s Nasty-GramJohnathon E. Briggs

    A Family Portrait 46 Years In Making

    — November 15, 2021 — Seated at a table this past spring in the courtyard of a nursing home, I squeezed into the frame of my iPhone camera and snapped a selfie with my parents. In this fifth decade of my life, it’s the only photo I have of the three of us together. It’s...

    A Family Portrait 46 Years In MakingJohnathon E. Briggs

    Finding My Father While Preparing to Lose Him

    Editor's note: This post was inspired by Modern Love, the New York Times column that explores "relationships, feelings, betrayals, and revelations." It contains passages from previously published posts. — March 27, 2021 — Over the past 15 years, I've lost and found my father several times. I first found him in 2006, when I arrived in the...

    Finding My Father While Preparing to Lose HimJohnathon E. Briggs

    The Death I Expected Wasn’t the Death that Found Me

    — December 29, 2020 — Thin and frail at 89, my father, Edward, lost his balance and fell on the grounds of his apartment complex in Inglewood, Calif. He spent ten days in a hospital before being discharged to a nursing home. This was October. My aunt (his sister), Linda, and I concluded that Edward could...

    The Death I Expected Wasn’t the Death that Found MeJohnathon E. Briggs

    The Weight of It All: Reflections of a Black Father on the Killing of George Floyd

    — June 4, 2020 — The first time I saw the bystander video of George Floyd, handcuffed, lying face down in the street, pleading for air as a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck—for eight minutes and 46 seconds—until he suffocated, a sense of horror overcame me. The televised shock of it...

    The Weight of It All: Reflections of a Black Father on the Killing of George FloydJohnathon E. Briggs

    An Open Letter to Pixar: Diversity and Inclusion in Animation Affirms Us All

      — December 9, 2019 — Dear Pixar Animation Studios, When I heard your parent company, Walt Disney Studios, was set to launch a streaming service called Disney+, I had no idea the plus sign would stand for inclusion. I’d missed the media coverage that explained how your new series of short animated films, SparkShorts, was designed to...

    An Open Letter to Pixar: Diversity and Inclusion in Animation Affirms Us AllJohnathon E. Briggs

    Inside the Bubble of Childhood

    — August 5, 2019 — Editor’s Note: On this blog, I refer to my daughter as “Dear Daughter” (DD) and my wife as “Dear Wife” (DW).   There she is, my Dear Daughter, under the warm haze of a summer night, chasing flickering fireflies with wild abandon across the expanse of our backyard, pigtails bouncing, sprinkling Black Girl...

    Inside the Bubble of ChildhoodJohnathon E. Briggs

    Learning to Accept My Daughter’s Autism Diagnosis

    — September 24, 2017 — Editor’s Note: On this blog, I refer to my daughter as “Dear Daughter” (DD) and my wife as “Dear Wife” (DW).   My whole life has been filled with words—big, bold, beautiful words. Enchanting words from children’s stories my mother read to me; explosive words from comic books I collected as a teen;...

    Learning to Accept My Daughter’s Autism DiagnosisJohnathon E. Briggs

    Three Things I Learned From Doing My Daughter’s Hair

    — June 25, 2017 — Editor’s Note: On this blog, I refer to my daughter as "Dear Daughter" (DD) and my wife as "Dear Wife" (DW).   I probably know more about Black women’s hair than the typical guy. Growing up, I was often enlisted by my mother to help her with the upkeep of (or switch...

    Three Things I Learned From Doing My Daughter’s HairJohnathon E. Briggs

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    Copyright © 2023 — Blank Canvas Studio, LLC | No use without permission

    About

    Few may know this, but twice as many dads of newborns today are now in the 40-plus age group, compared to the 1970s. Six weeks before my 40th birthday, I became a first-time father, hence the title of this blog.

    This life-changing moment made me think about my own dad, who became a father at 43. As my parenthood journey unfolded, I noticed that most of my friends had become parents earlier in life yet, here I was, changing diapers and battling sleep deprivation at (nearly) 40. I told my wife, “Parenting is definitely a young man’s game.” But is it really?

    Where most of my friends were preparing for their children’s middle and high school graduations, I was mastering the art of the swaddle, perfecting the one-hand baby wipe, and learning to decipher my daughter’s gurgles and whimpers. It occurred to me that I had so much more to offer my daughter at the sure-footed age of 40 than I did at, say, 28, when I was still coming into my own.

    Fatherhood@Forty: Memoirs of a Gen X Suburban Dad™ is a creative outlet to share my experiences and connect with other (relatively) late-in-life dads.

    Here are a few factoids about me, Johnathon Briggs, the editor behind this blog:

    • I’m a former journalist (Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune).
    • I love exploring Chicago and the Midwest with my family.
    • I remain on a constant quest to stay fit.
    • I support charities that fight HIV, uplift families affected by incarceration, and ensure African American boys graduate from college.
    • I’m a comic book geek (mostly Marvel, but a bit of DC and Image Comics).
    • I’m a child of the ‘80s, so please expect occasional references to the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.

    As a reporter for daily newspapers, I had the opportunity to interview fascinating people and to test out great products and brands for my readers. I hope to do the same for you as I blog about the moments that make up this adventure called fatherhood.

    Feel free to tweet (@fatherhoodforty) or email ([email protected]) me if you’d like to collaborate or have ideas for a blog post.

    Father on,

    P.S. Check out The Art of Conversation podcast interview I did with Art Eddy from Life of Dad.

     

    Disclaimer: Fatherhood@Forty may contain affiliate marketing links, which may result in commission on sales of products or services I write about. My editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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    About

    Few may know this, but twice as many dads of newborns today are now in the 40-plus age group, compared to the 1970s. Six weeks before my 40th birthday, I became a first-time father, hence the title of this blog.

    This life-changing moment made me think about my own dad, who became a father at 43. As my parenthood journey unfolded, I noticed that most of my friends had become parents earlier in life yet, here I was, changing diapers and battling sleep deprivation at (nearly) 40. I told my wife, “Parenting is definitely a young man’s game.” But is it really?

    Where most of my friends were preparing for their children’s middle and high school graduations, I was mastering the art of the swaddle, perfecting the one-hand baby wipe, and learning to decipher my daughter’s gurgles and whimpers. It occurred to me that I had so much more to offer my daughter at the sure-footed age of 40 than I did at, say, 28, when I was still coming into my own.

    Fatherhood@Forty: Memoirs of a Gen X Suburban Dad™ is a creative outlet to share my experiences and connect with other (relatively) late-in-life dads.

    Here are a few factoids about me, Johnathon Briggs, the editor behind this blog:

    • I’m a former journalist (Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune).
    • I love exploring Chicago and the Midwest with my family.
    • I remain on a constant quest to stay fit.
    • I support charities that fight HIV, uplift families affected by incarceration, and ensure African American boys graduate from college.
    • I’m a comic book geek (mostly Marvel, but a bit of DC and Image Comics).
    • I’m a child of the ‘80s, so please expect occasional references to the Golden Age of Hip-Hop.

    As a reporter for daily newspapers, I had the opportunity to interview fascinating people and to test out great products and brands for my readers. I hope to do the same for you as I blog about the moments that make up this adventure called fatherhood.

    Feel free to tweet (@fatherhoodforty) or email ([email protected]) me if you’d like to collaborate or have ideas for a blog post.

    Father on,

    P.S. Check out The Art of Conversation podcast interview I did with Art Eddy from Life of Dad.

     

    Disclaimer: Fatherhood@Forty may contain affiliate marketing links, which may result in commission on sales of products or services I write about. My editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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