So *that's* what we are

Welcome to what I believe is the first blog dedicated to recycled fathers.

This blog was created because I couldn't find any Web sites focused on dads with multiple generations of kids. I had to search for a while just to find a handful of relevant threads in one forum on a site called (ironically) Brand New Dad.

I'm not saying there is no other site for recycled dads. I'm just saying I haven't been able to find it.

First-time dads, divorced dads, single dads, older dads, and stepdads are all extremely well represented on the Web. But try to find more than a few articles, let alone a whole site, for "guys who became dads a long time ago and have become dads again under new circumstances." You can't. Know why? Because that's the way you would have to say it -- the  long way. Not very conducive to web searching.

"Recycled dad" is a short way of saying it, and in my opinion it's a pretty good one. I'm not bragging, because I didn't invent the term*. I just read it in an article a long time ago, and it stuck with me.

Earlier this year -- three years into my own recycled dad journey -- I started looking for an online community of us and realized that, as far as I could tell, there was no such thing. So I decided to start one.

Having a name for what we are is a step in the right direction.

(Read more about this blog in -- that's right! -- "About This Blog.")

* The term "recycled dad" and its more proper form, "recycled father," were used by Kathryn Weil Simon in her 1982 master's thesis. She defined recycled fathers as "older men who became fathers for the first time between the ages of 20 and 24 and again became fathers between the ages of 45 and 60." Click here to view an article about Mrs. Simon's research.