Review: Pacify Me
I'm not expecting a baby, and I don't have a penis. Regardless, I jumped at the chance to read and review Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked-Out New Dad by Chris Mancini, just because I think he's a pretty funny dude.
When I was pregnant, Gabriel's dad was very I-don't-need-to-read-anything-because-I-already-know-everything about the whole situation. So he didn't express to me any particular anxiety about the whole fatherhood thing, and instead stuck with making me feel stupid and crazy for being anxious.
ANYWAYS.
Pacify Me? Is overall pretty awesome. I was right there with the geeky cultural references. Although at times some of the humor seemed forced and/or contrived, I think that Mancini has a nice light and humorous writing style.
Reading this book I started to keep a mental list of people I think would benefit from reading it. A couple soon to be or new fathers, moms who just don't get why their husband JUST DOESN'T GET IT, men who are starting to get The Talk from their partners about baby having.
It was helpful to read the "man" point of view, even when I found myself rolling my eyes at just what that point of view was. I think that's kind of the point. A book that validates the feelings that you're not sure if you should have, because your wife just rolls her eyes.
This is an honest and funny book about how men feel about this whole BABY MAKING business. Not the making part, I think I KNOW how they feel about that, but y'know, the decisions and the pregnancy and the tiny squalling child. It's not, however, a true guidebook for the many tiny practicalities of being responsible for another human life. If you're looking for that, I recommend Dr. Sears (Mancini recommends Dr. Spock, but I'm hear to tell you that he's wrong; Dr. Sears is much better).
Mancini seems like more of a traditionalist parent than me, and I in fact I disagree with some of his advice. I took a bit of issue with his standpoint on attachment parenting (and I would recommend just sort of skimming over that section if you want to avoid a little bit of jaw grinding). That said, I've yet to read a parenting book or even to meet a parent that I agree with 100%, and this is a funny, calm-your-ass-down book if you know an expectant father, or a husband who is trying to avoid becoming an expectant father. I think Mancini has written a piece of work that fills a void in the realm of Parenting Advice You Can Read. Dudes need guide books too. They need the kind that they want to read. I think this is one.
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Disclosure: The book was free, but I'm not paid. I'm very professional with this whole disclosure bit, aren't I?
