"Parenting Over 40"

Which of These Books Would You Buy?

[Editor's Note: This post originally ran last September. I'm updating and re-running it now because Google search no longer retrieves it, even though a number of visitors to this blog have queried "parenting over 40." Not enough tags, perhaps??]

For years, I've been threatening to write a book -- not about selling real estate ("What the Pro's Know . . . and You Don't"); cleaning up Wall Street ("Fixing Wall Street," "Separation of Business and State," "The Wall Street Dividend"); or accounting for economic production in a more organic and accurate way ("Accounting for Earth").

Rather, it would be a book about parenting children past the age of 40.

As in the parents being over 40, not the children (although the latter could very well be another book -- for my parents to write).

My stock line is that such a book doesn't exist, because no one who's qualified to write it has the time.

Even if they did, there'd be no point, because no one in the intended audience has time to read it.

But as a friend pointed out recently, maybe that's, well, besides the point.

"Of course people won't read it," she said. "But maybe they'll buy it, anyways" (as gifts, for summer reading they'll never get to, etc.).

Hmmm . . .

P.S.: While having 3 kids past the age of 40 has aged my wife, Laura, and I -- no, that's neither us nor our kids in the photo at the upper right. Phew!