Stages of Development Part One - The Primary Years

Leg Limpets (age 1 - 6)

These early tutorials are for those of you to whom the shock of fatherhood is still cushioned by a warm glow of pride that emanates from the inward recognition that your investment in condoms was worth it after all. If however, you feel totally unprepared and overwhelmed for it, then welcome to the club because pregnancy and parenthood demand depths of psychological and emotional adjustments that nobody ever tells you about or acknowledges in the months and years to come.

Up until now, the most you have known about babies is that they are things that other men have which change them from normal beer-loving, rugby playing mates into pre-occupied, poor, party-poopers, who now seem to automatically gravitate towards other fathers to exchange stories of sleepless nights and houses that smell of pooh. But if that sounds churlish then congratulations as well because you’re going to be a father and, very soon, you too will be regaling the world at large about a whole new universe of emotions and experiences that hitherto you have merely scoffed at.

Enjoy the euphoria for a few moments, because we have to get down to the serious stuff of how you are going to cope with it, what changes you are going to have to make and most importantly, how you’re going to pay for it (Oh boy, how you’re going to pay for it!) Our apologies to those of you for whom this is ‘Old Hat’: you should recognize the truth in these statements, having already transformed in varying degrees of success from carefree DINKY to harassed Dad – but, hopefully, you too will find also the odd gem herein, or at least enough to smile knowingly as a paternal cognoscenti, over to the ‘new boys’ who are still worrying about how to change a nappy or whether he’ll pass muster parade when the Health Visitor arrives for her first inspection.

No matter the longevity of your Daddyhood, you have probably been bought this Handbook by one of the ladies in your life who loves you dearly and whose hope is that you will become one of the best Dads in the world to your children -we hope that these tutorials will also help you accomplish that aim.