transitions

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

On Hiatus: Pursuing a New Dream in 2022

— December 31, 2021—   I launched this blog four and half years ago on Father’s Day. At the time, my daughter was two months shy of her third birthday and I was finding my way as a father. Since then Fatherhood@Forty has chronicled my journey as a husband, ausome dad, and wingtip shoe enthusiast; connected me to a...

On Hiatus: Pursuing a New Dream in 2022Johnathon 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

When Coronavirus Comes to Daycare

— May 27, 2020 — Three days before Memorial Day weekend, the coronavirus pandemic touched our daycare. With more than 1.7 million people in the U.S. infected and 100,000 deaths, I guess you could say (to echo Effie Trinket from "The Hunger Games") the odds were ever NOT in our favor. The email last Wednesday from the...

When Coronavirus Comes to DaycareJohnathon E. Briggs

Making Our Way Through the Boxes

— April 5, 2020 — Among the list of tracks on Lauryn Hill’s 2002 MTV Unplugged album is a song titled “I Get Out” where the chorus begins: I get out, I’ll get out of all your boxes… But if you’re fortunate enough to have a roof over your head, internet access, good health, and a...

Making Our Way Through the BoxesJohnathon E. Briggs

Why I’m Delaying Talking to My Daughter About Coronavirus—For Now

— March 27, 2020 — Days after a global pandemic upended life as we know it, my inbox filled with tips from parenting websites and my daughter's school on how to talk to children about coronavirus. They were well-meaning of course, but here’s the thing: I’m not ready to talk to my five-year-old daughter about...

Why I’m Delaying Talking to My Daughter About Coronavirus—For NowJohnathon E. Briggs

Living Life Among the Adjustments

— March 8, 2020 — In a few months, my wife and I will mark 11 years of marriage. That’s 4,015 days. A lot of living has happened in that span of time. We completed our educational journeys (I finished grad school; my wife, law school.) We survived our Landlord Years, discovering all too late we...

Living Life Among the AdjustmentsJohnathon 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

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

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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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Honoring My Father’s Wishes for a Beautiful Beginning

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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?

A Family Portrait 46 Years In Making

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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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