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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Casts pall over what should be happily anticipated, June 19, 2000
The book is a collection of tips, one to a page, with pictures intended to lighten the tone. As mentioned in another review, the focus is primarily on helping your wife; the baby is secondary.Two problems: the tips aren't all that enlightening, and they seem slanted toward shaming or intimidating the new father. A good example is (paraphrased) "If you say 'I'll be back in five minutes,' what she'll hear is 'I consider my activities more important than yours and am abandoning you.'" I protest that the poor guy could be simply picking up dinner for them, or going to the bathroom! Perhaps the author's husband took off when the baby needed changing, and that episode was generalized into the above tip? Unfortunately, the tone is too Oxygen/'You just don't get it'/patronizing/bitter to be constructive. The book could be boiled down to two pages: "whatever you do is never enough" and "you're not doing it right anyway." I'm glad I know my wife well, we've talked about what we need to do, and she's not like the author at all. Otherwise I would dread fatherhood after reading this book. There are some truths buried in the pages: Having a baby changes everything, your old priorities are put behind you, you will both be under a lot of stress, you will need to both give of yourself above and beyond what you ever have, and give your partner as much support and understanding as possible. But other books have treated this with more detail and a more professional tone.
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by Jeanne Murphy
by Jeanne Murphy
by Jeanne Murphy
