Older fathers have 'geekier sons'

Sure seems like correlation to me.<p>Older fathers are more likely to have established careers, establishing higher socioeconomic status, affording a lifestyle that engenders &quot;geekiness&quot;.

I&#x27;m seriously confused on this.<p>First, the article throws out some very reasonable sounding things, like older dads are more established and stable parents. This seems totally legit.<p>Then they start talking of a &#x27;geek gene&#x27; that gets passed down by dads as they get older? That seems ridiculous to me. We don&#x27;t even know how general intelligence works on a genetic level.<p>Overall, I feel like we put way too much stock in genetics over how children are raised. The world children live in today (screens, different types of processed food, flashy movies and cartoons) is so different than hundreds or thousands of years ago. Early childhood years are also hugely important for brain development and social skills yet we give little kids screens to keep them quiet, hooking them early.<p>Just seems like any excuse to not involve parenting is in vogue now.

I read an article a couple of months ago about autism being linked to delayed fatherhood: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;fathers-bequeath-more-mutations-as-they-age-1.11247" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;fathers-bequeath-more-mutations-a...</a>. Being different was something that touched near and dear to my heart like many self-conscious geeks and my old man didn&#x27;t have me until he was 41.<p>I know N=1... but when you&#x27;re debating with your friends whether or not this (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;m52Wo4a" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;m52Wo4a</a>) can be classified as a sandwich or if it warrants a new nomenclature entirely and realizing that these are the people you are associating with it&#x27;s difficult to not look for answers.

Older fathers correlate with an increased risk of autism.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.autismspeaks.org&#x2F;science&#x2F;science-news&#x2F;study-ties-dad’s-age-risk-autism-other-mental-disorders-kids" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.autismspeaks.org&#x2F;science&#x2F;science-news&#x2F;study-ties...</a>

I don&#x27;t see a link to this actual study, only the TEDS study (was it actually parts of the TEDS study, or just using the same data?) But my first question is if they&#x27;ve considered if really the correlation is coming from closely related variables other than just age:<p>- Father&#x27;s who start a family later vs father&#x27;s who start a family early but have additional children later.<p>- Children who are more likely to have multiple older siblings.

I&#x27;ve also read that older fathers see increased odds of a child with mental illness.<p>Example: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;02&#x2F;27&#x2F;health&#x2F;mental-illness-risk-higher-for-children-of-older-parents-study-finds.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;02&#x2F;27&#x2F;health&#x2F;mental-illness-ris...</a><p>I guess the article here also says it:<p>&gt; Repeated studies have shown that older sperm is more prone to genetic errors and children are more likely to develop autism and schizophrenia.

Seems obvious that geekier men start families and have children later.<p>Example: Bill Gates.

This is kind of alluded to in the article, but isn&#x27;t their definition of &#x27;geekiness&#x27; just a definition of the difference between older fathers and younger fathers? As you age your ability to focus on a single task increase, your become more aloof, etc.

What about epigenetic factors in low stress environments? We already know this is proven to be a huge factor in gene expression. That is probably the &quot;stable&quot; part they mentioned.

Maybe its not so much the Dad; its having older siblings by the time you&#x27;re Dad is old? My youngest grew up very mature, trying to keep up with his older brothers.<p>My first son is a soldier. The 2nd and 3rd are software developers and musicians. Works for me.

The findings seem a little off to me. My father was 26 when I was born and he was a leather cutter, so our family wasn&#x27;t advantaged in any way. He was also a hopeless parent and played very little part in my personal development, despite being physically present throughout my childhood.<p>The really key environmental factors that led me to being a geek can firmly be put down to: My Mother taking me to the library every week; having plenty of books at home and school; and good quality teaching at school. I can&#x27;t imagine that having an older&#x2F;wealthier father would have that much additional impact on top of these factors.

Or is it that geekier fathers have children later in life?

I think it would&#x27;ve been more convincing, if the study was able to show the splits down non-&#x2F;geekie parents (or by parent&#x27;s occupation). My dad&#x27;s an engineer and he&#x27;s very geekie for his generation, growing up I always wanted to be like my dad. When I was 12, I&#x27;m sure I would&#x27;ve scored high on the geekiness index.

My sons are both geeky (love science, minecraft and math) and like to skateboard, BMX, BayBlade, shoot each other with nerf guns, fight all the time and just play whenever they can get to it.<p>I was 36 when I got my oldest and 39 when i got my second son.<p>Just anecdotal but so does this seems to be.

Without mentioning the size of the effect, this is meaningless. Are they 1% geekier? 10% geekier? 0.1% geekier?<p>They provide a link to the data the study was based on, but not the actual study, so it&#x27;s not obvious how to check this.

Interesting, but this article doesn&#x27;t say actual numbers for how old an &quot;older father&quot; is defined in the study, and I&#x27;m too lazy to dive deeper. Anyone else find out?

Perhaps. My dad was 36 when he had me and was deep into ham radio, and computers. I was influenced by all of that.

Perhaps older fathers are themselves geekier!<p>On the other hand, is there correlation between myopia and intelligence?

How old do I need to become before my children become geekier?

Makes sense, older fathers would be more aware of how technology changes the word and how necessary having at least an understanding of tech is to their offspring&#x27;s future success.

&quot;Geeky fathers have children older&quot;.

I am geeky, my dad was pretty young (23) when he had me.

In other news, if you want to be tall, play basketball.

Reminds me of the movie &quot;Idiocracy&quot;

My dad had me at 23. I am relatively geeky. I don&#x27;t think it makes much of a difference.