Reviews

Thank you to all those of you who have reviewed this book, especially those I have never met! A really great encouragement!
Duncan

Simone Bienne, Agony Aunt at Asian Woman Magazine, Sky, News of the World
I absolutely LOVE it! It is so easy to read – with great advice and with the way it is presented it is so clear. Exactly what you need so new parents can read it easily. So clever!

Sarah Hrdy, Anthropologist quoted extensively in the book
I admire your ability to convey research findings to a broader audience.

Lorraine Kelly, Agony Aunt, Best magazine
The book is really good.

Cathy Owen, Western Mail
He is a great guy and as the parents of two young children my husband and I both found the book very useful.

Pharmaceutical Physician, September 2010

A realistic, pragmatic and fun book on how to become an effective parent. The book is broken up into easily digestible topics with sensible ideas for you to discss with the other carers in your children’s life. Fisher has created a thoroughly well researched and up to date, passionate book. Baby’s Here! Who Does What? will make an ideal gift for any new parent.

AFF Families Journal (journal of Armed Forces), Autumn 2010

An incredibly easy-to-read book that looks at a new way of parenting – through teamwork – to make parents and babies happier. Bite-size chunks of information and suggestions for ‘kitchen table talk’ with your other half, sprinkled with humour and all illustrated with brilliant cartoon drawings, makes this a funny, practical and supportive guide for every new parent.

Hailey Shearman, thechichesterfamilygrapevine

I have to say I think that it is a fantastic book for new parents – something I wish I had been able to refer to myself 3 ½ years ago when I was expecting my daughter! I found it very thought provoking, and my partner and I had some very useful discussions around the ‘Kitchen Table Talk’ sections.

I will definitely be recommending the book to any expectant mothers that I meet, particularly now as I am expecting my second – I am sure to meet a few! An absolute must have!

Two reviews on Amazon

Recently bought this book after hearing about it at The Family Links conference in Oxford….  I found it extremely user friendly, the design made it easy to read and I could not put it down. I brought it into work and my colleagues are now fighting over it as they all want to read it. The families I support will get a lot from this book including practical information to help them share the parenting of their children. I would highly recommend this book to parents, and workers in the parenting field. (18 August)

A refreshing guide that helps you plan for the future and as a new father this is the first book I have read that makes us feel included. It allows you to review what your doing and look forward as a team tackling some of the more daunting things together. If your having a baby and like me it’s your first this really helps me and my wife have both read it and helps you talk through some of the obvious but also things we might otherwise not have done.(26 April)

Baby London, Baby Surrey and Baby Hampshire all featured 10 top tips for new parents by Duncan Fisher, September 2010.

(Baby London is an amazing resource for parents living in the capital providing a comprehensive advanced directory with real reviews and ratings, a fantastic events section, latest news feeds, interesting articles, product reviews, competitions, chat forums, voucher codes, reader offers and so much more.)

Bel Mooney, Agony Aunt, Daily Mail (full review)

I welcome a recently published book, Baby’s Here! Who Does What? by Duncan Fisher, director of the coalition of charities and advice columnists Kids In The Middle, about which I’ve written in the past. He used to be chief executive of the Fatherhood Institute and now runs Family Info (www.familyinfo.co.uk), a new publishing company for parents.

His lively book’s subtitle is ‘How to split the work without splitting up’, which gives an indication of why it is a ‘must buy’ gift for any expectant or new dad – even though it is aimed at both parents.

Fisher noticed that the media ‘all talk about babies as if they’re only Mum’s business’ – and wanted to put that right. The statistics he gives are quite shocking. Only one in five couples say their relationship gets better after a baby is born and a whopping two in three say it gets worse. One in three children experience their parents’ separation before they reach the age of 16.

Fisher believes that alltoomany couples ‘sleep-walk’ towards disaster because they don’t talk through their problems with child-care and work things out together.

I can’t imagine that any couple could read this terrific book (totally accessible with funky illustrations) and not be able to talk things through as a result. Don’t forget that a survey by the Children’s Society found that the biggest influence on children’s happiness is family relationships.

Netmums (full review)

The book seeks to provide tired and grumpy parents with practical tips on dividing the additional burdens a new baby brings, ensuring their own relationship is safeguarded along the way.

chopsybaby.com (full review)

“The book every mother needs.”

“This handy book is the closest you will get to owning a manual helping you and your partner get through the difficult months in the aftermath of childbirth. It aims to get families working together as a team through improved communication and by dispelling childcare myths and other parenting misconceptions. The book cleverly challenges social conventions and expectations by turning things on their head.”

Marc & Amy Vachon, founders of EquallySharedParenting.com, 20 July 2010 (full review)

A little gem. Inside the pages of Baby’s Here! you will find a solid, tight argument for equally shared parenting in its full depth. This book really lays out the advantages of sharing the home, the children and the breadwinning for both parents, and adds in short, manageable lists of questions to ponder as a couple over your morning coffee. No big task charts or complicated scoresheets (imagine that ) are included.

My favorite just because it is a bit different from what is found in other like books…a whole section devoted to how humans have evolved from sharing paradigms rather than from our more recent divide-and-conquer family structure.

Applause! Applause!

Kay Hammond, Editor of www.familyandparenting.co.uk, 10 July 2010 (full review)

This is the ideal book to read during pregnancy….The book is written from a couple perspective, so no sides are taken.

This book fills the gap in the market which everyone knows about but no one stands up to talk about it for fear of scorn or embarrassment – I mean, is it really manly for the father to want to work less to spend more time with his children? And the mum to share the paid work so the father is able to look after the children and she is able to feel valued in other areas?

Even better, at the end of every chapter there is ‘kitchen table talk’. Questions to ask each other. So even if you’ve read the chapter and still don’t know how to bring what you’ve read into a meaningful discussion then you have ready made questions to ask, and believe me they are so relevant – they almost put the icing on the cake as they are almost guaranteed to match your thoughts (that you cannot put into words!)

@familyparenting @duncanfisher thx for the book, Baby’s here! who does what? brilliant read so far – full of common sense, well recommended to all parents 6 July 2010

Dr Melanie Shearn, researcher on fatherhood, 21 May 2010 (full review)

Don’t be fooled by the book’s packaging in an easy-reading format with colourful comic illustrations. This masks what are difficult (and often taboo) questions. It is really a call to action.

Fisher argues that both parents need courage: courage to think and talk about these issues, courage for mothers to stand aside, courage for fathers to step up and sometimes be a ‘trail-blazer’….

I would recommend to all ante-natal and post-natal care services to make Baby’s Here! Who Does What? available as essential reading for all new parents.