A Dude's Guide to Babies: The New Dad's Playbook - Softcover

Hey, dudes! Glad you took the chance on our book. Barry and I are really excited to have it finally published and getting into your hot little hands. Or big hands. Don't want to judge.     The odds are, you dudes didn't buy the book for yourself. Most likely, you were gifted this Tome of Wisdom by a wonderful lady. Maybe at a baby shower, where, other than this book, you sat there, wearing cast-off bows on your shirt and wishing you were anywhere else other than there.     That's all right. Really. We've been there. Barry and I each raised a passel of kids and we lived to tell the tale. Well, a lot of tales, rather than just one. And let's not forget that it's for certain values of lived, considering we're not trying to take into account quality of life or anything like that. We're here. We're breathing. That's all that counts in this one.     However you got the book, you'll be glad you did. We poured our hearts and souls into this book. Metaphorically, you understand, as I'm pretty sure no one wants ground up cardiac muscle or carbonized soul mixe in with the ink used to print the book. Ugh. Bad visual there. Sorry.     Anyway.     The book is the distillation of every single funny story, every single sad object lesson, every single poopy diaper not changed correctly, every single withering look from either of our wives that asked us -- silently -- how it was possible we lived as long as we had and were still that stupid. . . It's everything you need to know about getting involved in taking care of a baby without too much collateral damage.     Notice we didn't say no collateral damage. We're realists.     When we were first starting out with our little dudes and dudettes, neither Barry nor I could find a book we liked that helped us understand what we were supposed to be doing. Not that there weren't books out there, but we couldn't sit still long enough to figure out all the big words in tiny type or stay awake long enough to read them. This is the book we wish we'd had when we were rookie dads.     Here's the good thing about the book. It's not trying to tell you what to do. We're sure you get enough of that in your household on a rather regular basis. Instead, this book is all about how we did things. We're trying to give you a baseline skill set that you'll use to build your own method of baby raising.     Think of the book as a playbook. We came up with the plays, but that's it. You're the one who has to study the plays, then walk up to the line of scrimmage, look over the defense, possibly audible, and then run the play. We are here only to help you know when it's a good time to call what play and where you need to go to hand off the ball.     And we've got plenty of jokes. Not all of which involve poop. Some of them are about pee, so we're pretty diverse.     So quit reading this stuff here and start reading the stuff in the book. Even if you don't want to do what we did, at least you'll have the knowledge that you know at least one thing that doesn't work for you and you can go from there.     Once you get through the book, drop us a line and let us know how it worked for you. We're really interested in feedback. We want to hear from dads like you.     Thanks for reading our book. 

As an award-winning reporter and PR specialist, Richard Jones began the Dude's Guide weblog (adudesguide.com) with Barry Ozer in 2006. He has written numerous short stories and an award-winning YA story. Jones lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and three sons. A financial adviser who was an award-winning salesperson with IBM, Barry Robert Ozer has a mind for finance and an entrepreneurial spirit. Barry, his wife and their children -- two boys and two girls -- are roaming the golf courses of South Charlotte, looking for the perfect fairway. Barry keeps looking for the best 19th Hole. They currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina.