Dads in their sixties

A dad in his 60s this year was born between 1957 and 1966, which puts his teenage years across the 1970s and the 1980s. That is the useful part: a ten-year bracket does not sit inside one decade, so the list below is drawn from both.

This bracket sits across the line where accumulating turns into reducing. Early in it he is often still working and still buying; late in it the boxes have started going the other way, to the op shop and the kerb.

Which half he is in matters more than his exact age, and you can usually tell by looking at the garage. If it is filling, an object is fine. If it is emptying, buy something that gets used up, something that happens, or a replacement for a daily object rather than an addition to the collection.

The most common miss. Assuming Dad has retired. Plenty of men in their sixties are years from stopping, some by choice and some not, and a card about endless golf can land on somebody who has just been restructured.

If it is his 60th specifically, that is a different problem · a birthday has a date, and the date changes what works