BOOK: Caveman’s Guide to Baby’s First Year
GIMMICK: Men evolve from Cro Magnums to Homo Sapiens by parenting; luckily they don’t hit this idea too hard.
BEST ADVICE: Start enforcing new rules for pets long before the baby is born so that your pet is more likely to adhere to them and more accepting of your baby.
WORST ADVICE: "Thou Shalt Remain True to Thy Inner Troglodyte."
RATING: A  Lots of valuable information presented in a straightforward way (if you can get past occasionally being referred to as a "knuckledragger").

BOOK: Good Dad, Bad Dad: Do’s and Don’ts from the Trenches
GIMMICK: Quick shots of practical advice for the dad who has little time to read
BEST ADVICE: “DON'T criticize your wife’s parenting skills.”
WORST ADVICE: "DO Learn how to belch the alphabet."
RATING: D Fun to flip through but most of the advice is obvious.

BOOK: How to Feel Manly in a Minivan
GIMMICK: Don't panic; you can enjoy being a dad and still be an awesome dude.
BEST ADVICE: “Start saving old cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players.” This way, your baby will play with them instead of your brand new iPhone.”
WORST ADVICE: ” Your baby is like a pet and a college roommate.”
RATING: C Make sure to separate the real advice from the joke advice or you could be in trouble.

BOOK: Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” Macdougall’s Guide to Parenting
GIMMICK: A pirate makes a good parent because he can manage a ship's crew.  A dubious premise
BEST ADVICE: “Avoid repeating commands but, if a command isn’t followed, repeat it once along with the consequence of not following the command.”
WORST ADVICE: On preparing for parenthood: “Visit your local fish market and purchase a fresh, whole squid and take care of it as if it was a real baby.”
RATING: F for advice that’s fishy at best.

BOOK: Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Children
GIMMICK: Anecdotes and sports metaphors to help dads navigate parenting older kids
BEST ADVICE: The John Elway Rule: "Whenever you are going to be in a crowd, make sure that you child is easy to spot by dressing him in the jersey of your favorite NFL player. An NFL jersey is meant to be seen from the top row of an enormous stadium in the middle of a rainstorm."
WORST ADVICE: "When your daughter calls out to you, answer her…by saying 'Yes?' or 'Yes, my love?' or 'Yes, my darling?'….Never answer 'What?' in response to your daughter calling you."
RATING: B "Never answer your child by saying 'What?'!" Could anyone be this perfect a parent? This is a great book about raising older children, but does not really address babies.

 Photo: Parenthood.com

Now one of my closest friends is about to have a baby any day now (on her own, too — she got tired of waiting for a suitable life partner and knew she wanted kids) and I thought I'd again ask people I don't know for something helpful. Here's the best advice I got. Then you offer what worked for you, and we can share it with my friend.

1. It gets easier. When my baby was six weeks old and I was almost googling orphanages, I made a bleary trek to the grocery store. I must have looked like holy crap, because a woman I'd never met whispered to me: "It gets easier." "When?" I asked desperately, my eyes filling with tears. She thought for a moment, and said, "Two months. Then again at six months. Then again at a year…" She was right.

2. Along those lines, new parents should cry as much as they want. Now is not the time for stoicism. Basically the job of the new parent is to keep the baby and themselves alive, and that means you sleep whenever you can, you eat whatever you want, you drink tons of water, you live in a messy house, and you cry as much as you like. All of these work best when you have sympathetic people around, and the weeping thing lets people know you need help. I got this gem when I was in the emergency room three days post childbirth with a horrible bladder infection. I began sobbing, and the nurse told me not to cry. From the curtained bed next to mine, a woman yelled, "Don't you tell her that! Honey, cry as much as you want. When I had a newborn I wept constantly." I don't even know what she looks like, but that woman was an angel. 

3. Kids behave badly when they are going through a developmental phase. I tell everyone this, and I don't even know where I got it, but it's the best thing I know. Just when my child has been the devil for a month and a half and I'm sure I have really screwed up because I am raising a monster, she abruptly changes back into her sweet self and has some new skill to show for it. Crawling, walking, talking, social skills, reading…All were preceded by hell.

4. You probably won't know what to do until it happens. Plan all you want for how you'll teach your child to stand up to bullies, and then watch as your kid turns out to be more likely to pick on others. Choose a preschool when your kid is an infant, then realise your particular child is probably going to do better in a small home-based daycare. Vow to never use a dummy. End up using a dummy. Hey, most of what we do is on the fly, so it's best to just be flexible. 

5.  Lead by example, especially when you screw up. Because you will, you'll probably yell or realise you have been ignoring your kid or say something unkind and wish you could take it back. But think of this: Your kid is on a sports team. They are a sucky player, they refuse to pracice, and then they drop the ball during a key moment. Do you tell them, "You stink, you aren't fit to be a player, you are screwing up baseball forever"? I sure hope not. Instead, you tell them to just do their best, to move on and have fun. Some of my finest moments have come after I messed up royally and lost it with my kid. I say I'm sorry, I practice doing it differently, I learn from it, and I just move on and do my best.

That last one I learned from my kid. Hey, now please, hit me with your best stuff.  

There comes a point when your child is 6-8 months old when you can’t remember if they’ve had broccoli, or combined foods, or how long is was since they’d had eggs so you could check for allergies.

Parent Hacks has an excellent suggestion: record new food introductions on a kitchen calendar. D’oh! So easy! Why didn’t we think of that?