As patterns of family and work have changed over the last few decades, the decision to have children has often been delayed. Recent Census data show that more and more men in their forties and fifties are having children - either for the first time or in second families. In Fathers of a Certain Age, father and son Martin and David Carnoy interview dozens of these fathers, exploring how they feel about parenting small children in late middle age. As they talk with fathers from all over the country, and with their wives and children as well, the Carnoys ask questions at the heart of the issues. Do older fathers, secure in their careers and ready to make time for family, make better fathers? Or is parenting, with the energy and stamina it requires, best left to the young? Is the threat of an older father dying earlier in a child's life more or less valid than the threat that a younger father will be divorced from the child's mother and leave the family? Is an older father, more stable financially, better able to provide for a child? Or does he risk trying to finance his retirement and a college education at the same time? The answers to these questions - searching, honest, and sometimes surprising - are combined here with an examination of the social and economic pressures facing older fathers, and the personal adjustments that they and their families must make. The result is an evenhanded assessment of the challenges and rewards of older fathering that will reassure anyone contemplating or coping with having children in late middle age.

Lost and Found shares the stories of several young men becoming parents in an era where family is being re-defined-while our understanding of what it means to be a father, in particular, is in flux. It offers a model of the "good-enough father" to counter the all-or-nothing stereotypes of the deadbeat or absentee dad versus the ideal father figure popularized in old sitcoms. The authors also offer detailed descriptions of what can be done to help young fathers and mothers create stable home environments for their children, whether the parents are together or not.

A philosophical memoir about becoming a father in an increasingly terrible world – can I hope the child growing in my partner's womb will have a good-enough life? For Kant, philosophy boiled down to three key questions: “What can I know?”, “What ought I do?”, and “What can I hope for?” In philosophy departments, that third question has largely been neglected at the expense of the first two – even though it is crucial for understanding why anyone might ask them in the first place. In Infinitely Full of Hope, as he prepares to become a father for the first time, the philosopher Tom Whyman attempts to answer Kant’s third question, trying to make sense of it in the context of a world that increasingly seems like it is on the verge of collapse. Part memoir, part theory, and part reflection on fatherhood, Infinitely Full of Hope asks how we can cling to hope in a world marked by crisis and disaster.

"In Do Fathers Matter? the award-winning journalist and father of five Paul Raeburn overturns the many myths and stereotypes of fatherhood as he examines the latest scientific findings on the parent we've often overlooked. Drawing on research from neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, geneticists, and developmental psychologists, among others, Raeburn takes us through the various stages of fatherhood, revealing the profound physiological connections between children and fathers, from conception through adolescence and into adulthood--and the importance of the relationship between mothers and fathers. In the process, he challenges the legacy of Freud and mainstream views of parental attachment, and also explains how we can become better parents ourselves."--www.Amazon.com.

The period between World War I and World War II was an important time in the history of gender relations, and of American fatherhood. Revealing the surprising extent to which some of yesterday's fathers were involved with their children, The Modernization of Fatherhood recounts how fatherhood was reshaped during the Machine Age into the configuration we know today. LaRossa explains that during the interwar period the image of the father as economic provider, pal, and male role model, all in one, became institutionalized. Using personal letters and popular magazine and newspaper sources, he explores how the social and economic conditions of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression—a period of technical innovation as well as economic hardship—fused these expectations into a cultural ideal. With chapters on the U.S. Children's Bureau, the fathercraft movement, the magazine industry and the development of Parent's Magazine, and the creation of Father's Day, this book is a major addition to the growing literature on masculinity and fatherhood.

After three decades of being a father, Clyde Edgerton-with four kids ranging in age from six to 30-is supremely qualified to give tips to dads of all ages. His fathering advice, pre-birth through schooling, involves plenty of his trademark humor, but also sound guidance enhanced by his training and experience as an educator. Papa Edgerton suggests that on occasion a father might forego reading and just point to the pictures of dogs and cats in baby books, and also that he might place a blanket on the lawn, lie on his back with the whole family, and watch Sky Television. Edgerton's humorous and helpful counsel will guide new parents on interacting with in-laws and coping with sleep deprivation, while also providing strategies for recovery after you've cursed in front of a mimicking baby. "If you don't feel apprehensive just before your first child is to arrive, you are abnormal," writes Edgerton. Yet by way of his experience, observation, and imagination, he provides caution and pure joy in equal measure. "Edgerton is so, so funny. He captures the rainbows, cheap thrills, and irritating potholes of parenting with splendid understatement."-Library Journal

Examines the long-term ramifications for adult women who, as adolescent girls, lost their fathers to death, divorce, or addiction; helps them understand how their behaviors were shaped by that loss at a pivotal developmental stage; and provides some interactive exercises to help them heal. Original.