Customer Reviews

Keeping the Baby Alive till Your Wife Gets Home, Special Edition

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My husband liked the original so much, I gave him this new edition as a personal gift for our co-ed shower. New baby on the way equals new challenges! Chapter one on pregnancy is cute and true-to-life, but the short chapter on the Ten Commandments of Infant Care (also new) is worth the cost of the book. What a riot!

This was my husband's favorite book of the three I gave him, the first as a shower gift, the other two later in pregnancy. I wanted him to have something fun and lighthearted to read since we had a stack of serious baby care guides. Keeping the Baby Alive was the last gift, and by far the best. He especially liked the pre-birth chapter and the ones on feeding and first words-first steps. I enjoyed listening to him laugh out loud!

I liked the original so much, my wife gave me this Special Edition when we celebrated a new baby on the way. Not only is it a pretty clever satire, it's also true to life and very funny. He didn't come to the shower, but my dad (the doting grandfather) got the companion book Keeping Your Grandkids Alive till Their Ungrateful Parents Arrive: The Guide for Fun-Loving Granddads. He said it tickled his granddad funny bone. I asked him, you mean it's a hoot for old coots? He said yeah, but don't call me old.

Like a Monty Python skit, this book may not please folks who are prone to take themselves too seriously, but it sure is funny. And while it makes fun of every ridiculous situation that pops up with your growing infant, I think the author does so in a good natured way. To see what I'm talking about, read a few passages from the Toy chapter or the Walking-Talking chapter. To my mind, the satire is always honest and up to date, never mean spirited. Anyway, I laughed my head off, even though this is our second baby, and all of the challenges weren't exactly new.
--a Tickled Dad's two cents
P.S. I thought the sequel about toddlers was at least as good. Keeping Your Toddler on Track till Mommy Gets Back: The Toddler Survival Guide for 21st-Century Dads

This book is a favorite of mine for the very reason that is not a serious parenting guide. If you want doctor-approved, serious care tips, there are plenty of titles to choose from. I can't understand why some folks expect detailed father-infant care tips from Keeping the Baby Alive. The cover screams satire. Personally, I love it. If you're expecting something besides belly laughs, look for another book.

I expected this to be a fun book with information helpful for my husband, who has never been around babies. Because there is nothing practical in it, the humor is wince-inducing. The book seems very dated -- something that might have been funny back in the day when it was cute that grown men were scared of dirty diapers. I found "The New Father" by Armin Brott to be much more what I was looking for. It's not a humor book, but then, this one isn't either.

This book is a humorous treatment of caring for a baby. That much is clear from the other reviews. What is not clear, though, is that this book does not present facts which are useful in the course of attempting to be funny.

Let me be clear: This is a comedy, there is no useful information in this book. I would not recommend this to anyone who actually would like some tips on caring for a baby, but presented in a light-hearted manner. There is an excellent book which I would describe as just that: Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads by Gary Greenberg and Jeannie Hayden.

I would not recommend Keeping The Baby Alive to anyone, it's not that funny and it's got zilch for information.