Becoming a Father: How to Nurture & Enjoy Your Family

Both my husband and I read this book before our first child was born. We both found it to be very practical, hands-on, and informative. Many parenting books give the same information over and over and it tends to be "common knowledge" if you are halfway educated. This book provided new ideas for bonding and involving the father in the child's relationship. As a breastfeeding mother, I especially appreciated his detailed advice and guidance for the father on how to support a nursing mom and baby. I am a licensed parent educator and I will reference this book for infant parenting classes. In regards to the "A Customer" review that felt the book was sexist and unsupportive of homosexuality - I disgree. Perhaps the quotes are taken out of context, because I am very liberal and open-minded and I NEVER got that feeling after reading the book many times now.

Now in a newly revised edition, Becoming A Father: How To Nurture And Enjoy Your Family by physician and author William Sears is an informational guide and a practical "what to do" manual written especially for fathers, and concerns everything from what a man should do during his wife's labor and childbirth; to proper discipline of young ones ranging from toddler through teens; coping with the demands children place on upon a marriage; balancing family and career needs; being a role model, and more. Becoming A Father is enthusiastically recommended reading for new and "about to be" fathers, and has much to recommended it to veteran fathers (and even grandfathers!).

Yes indeed. Why? I do not know. But, my husband read this book cover to cover. It was the ONLY book he read to prepare for the birth of our daughter.His issue, and mine, has a lot to do with Dr. Sears' consistently characterizing Dad as "helper", someone secondary in importance to Mom and incapable of being motherly.His writing style is kind of folksy if you like that.If you are really liberal and politically correct,you will not appreciate this book or this man for that reason and for the way you may perceive his views on gender identity and development in children. If words like conservative, traditional are anathema to you, leave the book on the shelf.

I enjoyed reading the book. I have used many of the ideas from Dr. Sears book to raise my two children. I own five other fathering books but this is by far the best and most practical one.Lets face it, there is little support or literature for fathering. I think society expects men to raise their children just like our dads did. Most of the available fathering literature is written by men with one or two children and psychology degrees. Dr. Sears has six kids and is a busy pediatrician. Especially if you are a first time father, do your child a favor. Buy and read this book.

This book provides a non-nonsense look at what a man can expect (and how he can contribute most effectively) during pregnancy and as a father. There is a particular focus on the first few months of fatherhood - which are frankly the months that worry me the most as my wife enters month nine!Sears' presents a straightforward philosophy based on nurturing the child (often by taking care of the mother). He presents nurture as fundamental to (1) providing a structured, trusting environment so that the child may develop and learn, (2) building a solid foundation for a well-disciplined child, and (3) establishing a relationship that allows your child to assume values that the parents want rather than those from other role models.As I reflect on the book, most of it seems to be common sense, but it certainly was not obvious before my reading. I would recommend this book to all men about to have a child.