The only advantage to being a middle-aged man is that when you put on a jacket and tie, you're the Scary Dad. Never mind that no one has had an actually scary dad since 1966. The visceral fear remains.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it.
I think being a dad is scary. I mean, I'm not that grown-up myself.
One of the scary things is that, when you're a kid, you look at your dad as the man who has no fear. When you're an adult, you realize your father had fear, and that you have it, too.
There's no point living at my age with many ingrained great fears.
My dad said, 'The thing that I was told that was really helpful was that I mustn't be afraid of the things I was afraid of when I was five years old'. The shock of his childhood had put him in this defensive crouch against the world, and he needed to know that he had a nice wife and kids and it wasn't the same any more.
It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.
We all have inherited so many types of fears, whether they're race-based, culture-based, gender-based, age-based, family-based. And then we get comfortable with these fears.
Ageing is something that both men and women are utterly terrified about.
Women were quite terrifying until I was older. I think that's partly down to confidence.
I think I was a bit frightened of having to be a grownup and tried to put that off for as long as I could.
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