Anyway, Mark's latest post is called Shawn's lies. It's about a co-worker who is happily feeding Mark bunk about baby care. This raised the question of where a new dad can find decent information about what to expect the first year.
I'm going to open the discussion by tossing out the following book for consideration. It's by the same folks as What to Expect When You're Expecting.
What to Expect the First Year
But this is not my area of expertise by a long shot. Ladies? Gentlemen? What have you found to be good resources for new parents? I'd especially like to hear what books/websites/magazines/whatever you Dads out there found useful. Leave a comment here and/or at Mark's blog, please. Thanks.
3 comments:
I would never recommend the What to Expect book because it made me so neurotic I couldn't stand myself -- but maybe that's just me. It's organized into things that should happen, things that might happen, things the shouldn't happen, things that could possibly but won't happen, etc. I began watching my child obsessively, seeking information regarding every itch or twitch (or lack thereof). Aside from that, I can't think of anything, since it was the only book I had and I regretted how it stifled my common sense. Common sense, coupled with talking to mothers (and mother's in laws), neighbors, your pediatrician, etc. -- those should all suffice.
Ironically, most people who have had more than one discover that, by the time they get to the second, they go on autopilot and, in fact, ignore or go against much of what's in the books. Keep in mind, too, that the books keep changing. When my daughter was born, they said you had to wake a newborn every two hours to nurse it during the night. That nearly killed me (it's tough to wake a newborn, and I got no sleep at all) and it taught my child, who was naturally a good sleeper, not to sleep. It then took me another four years to teach her to sleep again. Now, of course, they say you should feed a newborn when it wakes up hungry!
Common sense! If you have a specific question, check out the internet, and pick and chose from what seems most sensible.
I have a LARGE variety of hand selected parenting books listed on my site, ReadingParents.com - You are invited to join my new forum!
I love ALL the what to expect books, there are several out there to choose from. As a former retired preschool owner, I used the what to expect books at the center. I just retired last year after the birth of my fourth child, but the girls at the center still use the books for reference. In fact I had a hard time getting them back after the sell of the centers!!
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