"When faced with first-time fatherhood at the age of 49, I didn't know whether to celebrate with champagne... or hemlock."

--Len Filppu from his book
PRIME TIME DADS: 45 Reasons to Embrace Midlife Fatherhood

Frankly, I was frightened of becoming a father at age 49. Would I have enough energy? How could I trade my leisurely latte freedom for dirty diapers? Would I live long enough to make a proper go of it? Would younger parents mistake me for grandpa? Would I sit on bleachers at Little League games dozing and drooling and dreaming of Woodstock?

As it’s turned out, those fears proved to be the unfounded, paranoid phantoms of a mind skewed by our society’s irrational rush to celebrate youth over wisdom. What I discovered through midlife fatherhood was a deeper, richer reality lived daily at a profoundly more exciting and satisfying level.

I found out that my 40s and 50s were actually my best time, in fact my prime time, to appreciate and accept my role as a new father. As a mature man in midlife, I have an enormous reservoir of unique skills, talents, and life experiences that can be tapped to help me not just survive but thrive in fatherhood.
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PRIME TIME DADS: 45 Reasons to Embrace Midlife Fatherhood
is a series of unabashedly optimistic, humorous, stereotype-smashing, personal point-of-view essays from the heart. The material is based upon Len Filppu’s real life experiences, offbeat observations, and Visine-eyed views from the foxhole of midlife fatherhood. The book is intended to give men who are in their prime years – between the ages of 40 and 60 or so, a laugh or two, something to think …Read More

Larry King on
PRIME TIME DADS

“The best thing that ever happened to me in life is being able to be a later in life dad. I'm 77 years old, I have three grown children, and the lights of my life are my 11 and 10 year old boys. Later life fatherhood keeps me young, keeps me vital, and makes me feel relevant each and every day. I urge you to read PRIME TIME DADS. Its point of view is young and vital and relevant each and every page.”

CNN broadcast legend Larry King

I Already Got My Ya-Yas Out!

Kids thrive in a stable, predictable, safe world of order, love and boundaries. As a more mature midlife male, I was infinitely more capable of providing such an environment. Why? Because I’ve acted out and have grown past most of my wild rascal shenanigans. I’ve already traveled around, played around, dabbled around, and wandered around the block a few times. Been to the rodeo… used the T-shirt to wipe up the mess. And since I’ve been there and done some of that, the gnawing sense that I Read More