Customer Reviews

The Perfect Baby Handbook: A Guide for Excessively Motivated Parents

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Dale Hrabi is one of the funniest former babies ever. Though imperfect himself, he has penned a hilarious, truthful, perfect gift for the expectant or annoying parent. This brilliant parody of parenting books will help you laugh at OTHER PARENTS' mishegas, whether you're semi-self-aware about your own private-school-driven child-rearing competitiveness or whether you're self-congratulatory in your homeschooling and allow Phoenix and Amon-Ra to play only with sustainable hardwood marionettes they self-carve. Seriously, I could look at this book's baby name loser/winner matrix chart for hours (I'm slow) and laugh and laugh and laugh. (Girl loser names include Feebee, Wadine, and Poofia; Boy loser names include Testosteronald and Fudd; Girl winner names include Conquistadora and Elizabetter; boy winner names include Exacliburt and Overlord. Of course, gender-neutral winner and loser names are there too.) This book is really, really, really funny.

If there's one thing I need in my arsenal as a mama-to-two, it would be laughter (and comic relief) which Dale Hrabi delivers so perfectly. Witty, clever, funny - made even funnier by the (frightening) fact that underneath it all, there's a teeny, tiny grain of truth to the content (aren't we all striving for perfection?).
all in, a wonderful commentary on competitive child-raising and a must-read for all parents, because don't we all need to laugh a little, even if it is at ourselves.

My brother sent me a copy of this book because he knows I enjoy well written, intelligent, funny books. This one made me laugh out loud. I even found myself reading excerpts to my friends.

"This book is so funny my sides hurt from laughing so hard. I love it when an author takes to humor when it comes to the topic of raising kids. It turns one of the hardest things to do and sheds new light on it allowing one to see situations from a different perspective. My favorite chapter in the book is Advanced Mobility and I don't want to share too much with you but let me just say that the Imbalance Awareness Drill within is f-u-n-n-y!!!!!!!"

I wish that I had a copy of "The Perfect Baby Handbook: A Guide for Excessively Motivated Parents" when I was on bed rest during my pregnancy back in 2005. Dale Hrabi has a unique and hilarious way of instructing expectant parents on the proper way to raise a perfect child. "The Perfect Baby Handbook: A Guide for Excessively Motivated Parents" follows the same format as that of the overly-popular "What to Expect When Expecting" book given to every expectant mom. However, The Perfect Baby is not filled with the mundane psychobabble from highly-decorated academics. Nope, the advice written here comes from a "flawed adult" who, unfortunately, "began life as an eerily non-verbal baby."

Parents tired of the air of hushed sanctity that pervades all things child-related will adore this book. Dale Hrabi brilliantly mocks the madness of the world of high-end strollers and perfectly calibrated developmental toys. An entry rating teething toys includes "Your Cousin Valerie's Designer Sunglasses" which, in the strengths column, the author notes are "quite prestigious and valuable...lend teething process a note of glamour." The Cons: "As it turns out, can be 'totally #&#&$-ing' ruined rather easily, requiring a visit to small claims court." The jokes are funny, the design is gorgeous, the whole thing for grownups with a sense of humor about their predicament as parents. In a world where all is pale pink or light blue, this book is chartreuse!

Can I just tell you how much I love The Perfect Baby Handbook? Seriously, it's hilarious and had me laughing from the start. This book is a comic relief for anxious new parents and it makes you laugh at the pressures you may feel when trying to become the "perfect parents" and trying to raise the "perfect children."

The Perfect Baby Handbook is definitely a book to have if you have become overly obsessed with what your child has or how they are developing, which all of us do at some point. It will force you to relax a bit. And when you are pregnant you seriously need to be relaxing. The point of this book is that nobody is perfect. Whether or not your child has the most expensive stroller isn't going to determine what kind of person they will grow up to be. All your child needs is your unconditional love and he will be just fine.

Whether you are a parent of little ones now, or have grandchildren, you will find this book quite hilarious. If you've got a pregnant friend, this is the MUST HAVE parenting book of the year! I know when I opened it up I was laughing within in seconds. It really gives you a good laugh about today's society and how uptight and obsessive our society has become about "perfecting" parenthood

As an adult without kids, I'm frequently on the receiving end of the excessively motivated parent's excessive-ness, not to mention the one who bends over backward to reshuffle schedules for the sake of the children. Don't get me wrong, I love kids (and their parents!), but do have trouble going through all of that in good humor every once in a while. Hrabi's book is a gift to childless people as well -- and is truly, laugh-out-loud witty. He's a gifted humorist, and no parent of friend-of-parent should miss out.