David Foster Says It's a 'Little Bit Different' Raising a Toddler at 73: 'I Can Offer Him Wisdom'

Katharine McPhee/Instagram

David Foster is still adjusting to being the father of a baby boy.

Foster, 73, welcomed son Rennie, 23 months, in 2021 with wife Katharine McPhee, 38, having already raised six adult daughters from previous relationships: Allison, 52, Amy, 49, Sara, 41, Erin, 40, and Jordan, 36.

"I had all daughters until my son and I love all my daughters immeasurably, but having a son is a little bit different," Foster tells PEOPLE.

The music producer is also having to get to grips with the idea of parenting in later life.

"At this point in my life, it's different again," says Foster at the Music Center in Los Angeles during an event to honor Jerry Moss on Saturday. "Not better or worse, just different. I still work, I'm still gone a lot, but maybe the time is a little more precious to me because I got more runway behind me than I have ahead of me now."

Despite this, Foster says it requires "patience" to be the father of a toddler at 73 — a skill he admits he did not have when he was raising his five daughters. "I was not patient when I was young," he says. "I was arrogant and just on the move."

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Jemal Countess/WireImage

When Foster and McPhee first announced they were expecting a child together, the news was met with mixed reactions given their age gap. The songwriter is aware of the "naysayers" who questioned their decision, he says, adding that it's "a valid question," but he has his own perspective on it.

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"I think that I can offer one thing to Rennie even though I won't be around when he's 50 or 40 even, or 30 maybe," explains Foster. "I think I can offer him wisdom from my 72 years on the planet. And maybe that's not a bad trade-off. I hope so."

Katharine McPhee Foster/Instagram

RELATED: Katharine McPhee Admits Feeling 'Mom Guilt' as David Foster's Daughter Takes Rennie to See Santa

Foster has been vocal about his joy at being a dad again in the nearly two years since he and McPhee welcomed Rennie. "It's just great being a dad. It's too cliché to say 'Now I have more time,' but I do: I have more time," he told PEOPLE ahead of his sold-out Las Vegas show last year.

He also admits that having another baby was "not something" he foresaw happening in his 70s, but he has no regrets.

"I've loved every single day," he told PEOPLE in October. "It's the standard thing of like, 'Oh, well you were so young when you had your children and you were working day and night, you never saw them.' And there is some truth to that, sadly, for my [older] kids. I was just working a lot. Even though I'm working a lot now, I'll cancel anything just to hang with him. It's just different."

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The Grammy Award-winner first met McPhee on American Idol in 2006, where he was her guest mentor. They built a friendship first — Foster played the piano at McPhee's first wedding — and were later seen attending events together throughout 2016 and 2017.

The couple confirmed their relationship at the Met Gala in 2018 by appearing on the red carpet together and were engaged just a few months later. They wed in London in 2019.