Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads Paperback – June 1, 2004

I am pregnant with my first child and I purchased this book for my husband as a Christmas gift. He is not the "reading" type at all, but from the reviews, I thought this book would capture his interest. Well, I just received the book in the mail and thought I would just thumb through it before wrapping it, but as it turns out, after the first couple pages I was hooked and actually read the entire book myself in a few hours! It is HIGHLY entertaining and I really did laugh out loud many times. Since I'm as clueless about babies as my husband is, I really feel like I learned alot about what we can both expect when our baby arrives (and maybe because the book was written with a lot of humor, I don't feel intimidated or overwhelmed after reading it). I'm so excited for my husband to read this book! Highly, Highly recommended!UPDATE!!! It's several months later and this book was indeed a huge hit with my husband! I've never seen him so interested in a book before and I've found him literally cracking up laughing while reading it. There is so much bonding time between mother and infant early on that I think Dad's may sometimes feel left out. However, this book makes many suggestions about lots of "manly" jobs that dads can take charge of, including very funny and creative ways to take baby pictures, handling all the audio visual equipment, babyproofing the hotel room in record time, creating a fake out drawer of old remote controls/cell phones to keep baby amused, etc. After reading these suggestions, I think my husband feels like he too is needed in the care of the infant and will play just as important of a role in baby's life as I will! He has read comical excerpts of the book to family and friends and has even taken the book to our centering group to show all the other first time dads! You wont' be disappointed! I plan to purchase this book for many new Dad's to come! It would make a great baby shower gift for new Dad's too!

As an MD who has delivered many babies, I appreciate how incredibly practical while engagingly funny this for first time dad----have given many away to pending dads at baby showers!

I've been a new dad for approximately 2 months of writing this review. Prior to my baby being born, I invested in several dad books to read to prep myself for this new chapter in my life. The books I purchased/received were:Be Prepared (The Book I'm Reviewing)Dad's Guide to Pregnancy For DummiesThe Expectant Father: Facts, Tips, and Advice for Dads-to-Be (New Father Series)The Everything Father's First Year Book: A survival guide for the first 12 months of being a dadOut of all those books, I think I liked "Be Prepared" the best. It was the most entertaining and "hands-on" helpful compared to the others. While all books did overlap in childcare-material, I'm a visual learner. When they described the different techniques on how to do stuff (like burping, shortcuts to changing diapers, etc), "Be Prepared" was the only one with illustrations to help define what I was supposed to do.It's not to say the other books where not good, they were. But those books are more serious and tend to get into deep/serious issues, such as financials, things to help your wife, identifying certain symptoms, complications, etc."Be Prepared" on the other hand, was more on how to take care of your child and presented in a visual, yet humorous manner. I would consider it a good supplement to other fatherhood books. Recommended.

One of the best I got before becoming a dad and one I've since given to friends as they prepare for fatherhood. Where many of the parenting and baby books that piled up in our house seemed only to add to my general sense of stress about what was to come -- too many experts, too many by-moms-for-moms takes, too much advice, too many details about developmental milestones and what to do whens that just made my head spin, this one was a very easy, very funny read, complete with cartoons and many tongue-in-cheek takes on what's to come - like the guy saluting farewell to a pair of suddenly more magnificent than ever breasts, now answering a higher calling. You get the idea. Thanks to this book, I was even the one to teach my wife how to handle a few of the new baby tactics. Though for me, even more so than learning the techniques, to really get into the head space of a dad, and to finally feel ready what helped me most was hearing stories from other dads about becoming and being. Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year helped, even if it was from the moms point of view. Maybe the only one I got entirely through before our son was born. Here's one from the dad's The Faith of a Child

This book is the absolute perfect gift for a new dad! It has so much helpful information. New dads struggle with how to help and this books has lots of ideas of how to help mom as well as baby! My husband gave to it our son when his first baby was coming.