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    In memoriam: Tracy Airrion Pruitt

    — April 14, 2024 — There are some people who feel permanent. You just can’t imagine your world without them. They are fixtures, mooring posts of love and encouragement. A rock. Tracy Airrion Pruitt was one of those people. He was my fraternity brother, he was family. When we first met in college 30 years ago,...

    In memoriam: Tracy Airrion PruittJohnathon E. Briggs

    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

    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

    How Parental “Time Pressure” Helps Me Prioritize

    — February 9, 2020 — Somewhere along the way you reach the age when you have no more fucks to give. I think it hits sometime in your 40s. If you’re lucky or just an old soul, the epiphany will come sooner. You used to care what people thought about you, but realized they’re not paying your...

    How Parental “Time Pressure” Helps Me PrioritizeJohnathon E. Briggs

    What Kobe Bryant’s Death Reminds Me About Life

    — February 2, 2020 — As part of the ritual to become the Black Panther, T’Challa, king and protector of Wakanda, takes the heart-shaped herb that gives him his heroic powers and experiences a spiritual vision in which he meets his deceased father, T’Chaka. “I am not ready to be without you,” T-Challa says, to...

    What Kobe Bryant’s Death Reminds Me About LifeJohnathon E. Briggs

    Three Spook-takular Reasons Why Date Nights Rule

    — October 31, 2017 — Editor’s Note: On this blog, I refer to my wife as “Dear Wife” (DW).   Date night. It's a ritual that has become an institution in the Briggs household, established years before my Dear Wife and I became parents, consistently observed before we married, and eagerly anticipated when we were dating. When I tell people...

    Three Spook-takular Reasons Why Date Nights RuleJohnathon E. Briggs

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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.

    Tags

    In memoriam: Tracy Airrion Pruitt

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    Is AI-Generated Art Biased Against Fathers of Color?

    Resistant Eater Makes Meals a Challenge

    Daughter’s Triumph Overshadows Neighbor’s Nasty-Gram

    On Hiatus: Pursuing a New Dream in 2022

    Vitiligo After COVID-19 Vaccination: Is My Daughter an Early Case?

    View More

    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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