Pacify Me

Recently, I was provided with a review copy of Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked-Out New Dad by Chris Mancini. The back cover of the book promises guidance and answers for soon-to-be fathers who are nervous, scared, or apprehensive about their impending fatherhood.

Admittedly, the author is pretty much the anti-SciFi Dad. Whereas his revelation of his wife's pregnancy was met with trips to the therapist and prescription medication (initially), I was quite the opposite. (True story: at the first session of one of our prenatal classes, the instructor went around the room and asked the dads how they felt. The answers went like this: stressed, stressed, stressed, stressed, stoked, stressed, stressed, stressed. Guess which one I was?) In fact, he even admits up front that dads like me should "give this book to one of their friends and go to Babies R Us right now and fill out your registry".

However, since I already have two kids, registering would be a little weird (although, now that I think about it, technically Babies R Us allows you to add things from Toys R Us, which means I could register for a whole whack of Star Wars action figures and maybe that massive Lego Star Wars Death Star, which would have been cool). Plus there was that whole review thing I had promised, so I soldiered on past page seven all the way to page nine.

The book reads like a mixture of personal anecdotes and advice/opinion with a side order of humour. Since the intended audience is men, I won't dwell on the caveat that the humour is "man humour", meaning lots of pop culture references (he has a table comparing Dr. Spock to Mr. Spock) and pot shots at people (like French Canadians and their famous singing brethren). If I had to say something critical, I would mention that some topics are merely glossed over because the author didn't feel they were important.

That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was entertaining and light-hearted, and would likely be a source of comfort for more nervous dads to be. The fact that I had almost no connection to the feelings he was describing, yet was somehow able to relate to them, is a testament to how well the book was written. I would definitely recommend this book to any dad: "to be" or otherwise. It takes an honest look at parenting from the dad's perspective, not from the "male mother's" perspective most books of this genre take.