The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year (New Father Series) - Hardcover

Armin A. Brott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789211769 ISBN 13: 9780789211767

Publisher: Abbeville Press, 2015

Synopsis

An indispensable handbook on all aspects of fatherhood during the first 12 months.

The essential handbook for all things first-year father is now fully updated and revised. Not only will new dads get a month-by-month guide to their baby's development, men reading The New Father will learn how they change, grow, and develop over the first twelve months of fatherhood.

In each chapter, Brott focuses on What's Going On with the Baby; What You're Going Through; What's Going On with Your Partner; You and Your Baby; Family Matters; and more. The latest research, as well as time-honored wisdom--and humor, thanks to New Yorker cartoons and Brott's light touch--make The New Father indispensible for the modern father who doesn't want to miss a moment of his child's first year.

What's new?
     How technology is changing fatherhood
     Changing definitions of fatherhood
     Changes in the way society deals with dads from changing tables in public men's rooms to workplace flexibility
     Research proving that a father's love is just as important as a mother's
     How being an involved dad rewires a man's brain
     How changes in women's roles in the family affect dads and their roles
     Special concerns for: young dads, older dads, at-home dads, unmarried dads, dads in same-sex couples, dads in blended families, dads of kids with special needs, and men who became dads with the help of technology
     The special impact dads have on girls and boys
     Specific strategies dads can use to get - and stay - involved in their children's lives
     Updated resources for new fathers

Not to mention new research and information on:
     How to understand what your baby is telling you
     Babies' amazing abilities
     Baby massage--they love it!
     The latest on vaccinations and healthcare
     And much, much more

About this title

About the Author

Armin A. Brott has devoted the last 15 years to providing men with the tools, support, and knowledge to help them become the fathers they want to be - and their families need them to be. His seven critically acclaimed books for fathers have sold well over a million copies. Titles include The Expectant Father: Facts, Tips, and Advice for Dads-to-Be and The Military Father: A Hands-on-Guide for Deployed Dads. He has written on fatherhood for hundreds of newspapers and magazines and is a frequent guest on such television programs as the Today Show. He also writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column (Ask Mr. Dad), and hosts a syndicated radio show (Positive Parenting). He lives with his family in Oakland, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Nobody really knows how or when it started, but one of the most widespread—and most cherished—myths about child rearing is that women are naturally more nurturing than men, that they are instinctively better at the parenting thing, and that men are nearly incompetent.

The facts, however, tell a very different story. A significant amount of research has proven that men are inherently just as nurturing and responsive to their children's needs as women. What too many men (and women) don't realize is that to the extent that women are "better" parents, it's simply because they've had more practice. In fact, the single most important factor in determining the depth of long-term father-child relationships is opportunity.

Basically, it's come down to this: "Having children makes you no more a parent than owning a piano makes you a pianist," writes author Michael Levine in Lessons at the halfway point.

Men and women parent differently, in a wide variety of ways:

Dads tend to play more with their children than mothers do, and that play tends to be more rough-and-tumble and more unpredictable than mothers'. In other words, dads are more likely than moms to become human jungle gyms.
Dads tend to emphasize independence more than moms and give children more freedom to explore. If a baby is struggling to grab a toy that's just out of reach, mothers are more likely to move the toy closer, while dads are more likely to wait a little longer, seeing whether the baby will be able to get it. Moms are more likely to pick up a baby who's fallen, while dads are more likely to encourage the child to get up on his own.
Dads tend to use more complex speech patterns than mothers, who tend to simplify what they're saying and slow it down.
Dads tend to ask their babies more open-ended questions (who, what, where, when, why) than moms, an approach that helps to expand their vocabulary.
Dads tend to think more about how a child will fare in the world as he or she grows; moms tend to think more about the child's emotional development. When reacting to a test score, for example, a dad might be more concerned about how the score will affect the child's future plans and ability to be self-sufficient while ay mom is more likely to be concerned about how the score makes the child field.
Dads tend to represent the outside world while mothers represent the home. You can see this almost anyplace where the parents are out with their babies: dads tend to hold their children face out while mothers hold them face in.

Please keep in mind that I am talking about general tendencies. Plenty of moms wrestle with their kids and use big words, and many dads rush to pick up fallen toddlers and hold their babies facing inward. The point is that they parent differently—not better or worse, just differently. And children benefit greatly from having plenty of exposure to both styles.

It shouldn't come as any surprise, then, that fathers have very different needs from mothers when it comes to parenting information and resources. But more than a decade into the twenty-first century the vast majority of books, videos, seminars and magazine articles on raising kids are still aimed primarily at women and focus and helping them acquire the skills they need to be better parents. Fathers have been essentially ignored—until now.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abbeville Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789211769
• ISBN 13: 9780789211767
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 336