In a world of double standards, many older fathers such as George Clooney and David Letterman are celebrated, while older mothers are bombarded with statistics about health complications and declining fertility. In fact, studies show increased health risks in pregnancies and babies of older parents, male and female.
Despite this, the number of older fathers in our country is increasing as Americans tend toward delaying marriage and starting families. The number of older fathers has doubled since the 1970s and it’s now estimated that almost 1 in every 10 babies born today has a father who is more than 40 years old.
Tim O’Brien, who chronicled Vietnam in his acclaimed novel “The Things They Carried,” was 58 when his first son was born. Both of his boys are happy, healthy teenagers now, but O’Brien says older fathers worry more about their own mortality. As he enters his 70s, he fears he won’t live to see his sons launched as fully grown adults. HIs new “Dad’s Maybe Book” is a love letter to his sons that encompasses everything from his own struggles as a young boy to his harrowing experiences in Vietnam to his memories of his sons’ earliest years. Becoming a parent at any age makes you look at the world differently, O’Brien says, but there is a particular wisdom and fear that accompanies the joy of being a parent when you’re older.
Published on Nov 14,2019