Dad's Guide to Pregnancy - from clueless to awesomeness

The team at DIYFather.com is proud to announce the publication "Dad's Guide to Pregnancy For Dummies". The 170-page book contains the latest information, resources and cheats to help new dads master dadhood. This book is the closest to a manual for babies you'll ever get your hands on! It's also the most compact book on pregnancy info for dads - you can easily read the entire book in less than 2h! From clueless to awesomeness in 2h ... it doesn't get much better than that! The book is available in all high street and online book stores from 1 February 2012 for only $19.95 (!)

Ladies - this is the perfect gift for your man! Wouldn't you want an involved father who knows what he's doing look after your child? Yeah - well it's a small gift for dads but a huge gift to mankind! Let's face it ... this book is probably the only credible baby related present you can get away with - so go get one!

For those who want to know more - here's a quick overview

Competition for college students

If you've got a teen aspiring to be a famous blogger or writer check out the monthly competitions at Stageoflife.com.

They run a free national writing contest for college students on various topics like the Gulf Oil Spill, America's relationship to food, education improvement, etc. The writing competition is a non-fiction, memoir, blogging, diary, letter, or essay-style contest for any college student.

Visit Stageoflife.com for more information

Enjoy,

Stef

Farming accident inspires children's book

By Mehpara Khan

A farming accident on a remote high country farm and subsequent rescue by air ambulance services inspired Hayley Pitts’ to write a book for children about her rescue. Her book "Mac - a high country working dog" is based on one of the essential members of her team- Mac the dog who has a “larger than life” personality and plays an important role on the farm. The book is also Hayley’s way of giving something back to rescue servcies and helping others caught in a similar plight.

“Air rescue and air ambulance services could easily be the difference between life and death,” says Hayley. “I’m giving $1 from each book sold to the Lifeflight Trust and I’m hopeful parents will support them by buying the book.”

Volunteering - Spirit of Community Awards

If your children are involved in volunteering work - check out the "Prudential Spirit of Community Awards" and apply online at spirit.prudential.com for a chance to be awarded a cash prize (and potentially a trip to Washington) in recognition of the contributions made by volunteers (details below).

DIYFather on GMTV - Interview with Scott

On Wednesday Scott was invited to talk about our new book "Being a Great Dad for Dummies" on TV One's Good Morning Show. View the whole interview here.

Enjoy,

Stefan

The only child myth - picked up by Time Magazine

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the stereotypes associated with only children (see "only child lonely child?"). Well - someone at Time Magazine is obviously reading DIYFather.com as Lauren Sandler has written an article about "the only child - debunking the myths" which is featured on the cover of Time Magazine this week. Cool ...

Survey finds that moms are more likely to read to their kids than dads - let's change that!

A survey commissioned by The Pearson Foundation and Penguin Group, shows a disparity in how much fathers read to their children daily compared to mothers. The survey found that moms (65%) are 1.4 times more likely than dads (47%) to read to their children every day. Interestingly, 12% of dads aged 18-34 read to their kids daily compared to 52% of dads between ages 35-54.

Of course we all know that us dads care about reading to our kids (79% of dads know that reading will help their kids succeed in school). So what's happening - why are dads less likely to read to kids? Perhaps it's to do with care arrangements or ability to spend time with children at the time when reading is a feasible activity.

Birth announcements

We just received a media release about a new site that allows people to announce deaths, births and marriages. In most countries this is done as a (public) register and generally looked after by a government department. Problem is - the information is often difficult to access and not very "user friendly". So someone had the bright idea to create a separate website to publish this information - www.bdmnz.co.nz. The site is pretty empty at the moment but I thought it was an interesting idea. There may be more sites likes these around the planet ... will be interestg to see if the idea takes off. Perhaps give the site a go when you want to tell the world about the birth of your next baby.

Enjoy

-Stefan

Father’s Day T-Shirt Design Challenge

We've just come across a nice Father's Day competition by fibers.com - design a cool T-Shirt, win and iPad and help the National Fatherhood Initiative.

Here's the blurb, check it out!

Unseat the “#1 Dad” t-shirt as the reigning champ of Father’s Day T-Shirts. Design & create a new champion that celebrates dads and fatherhood. Anything goes! All are welcome to participate! No design skills necessary. Contest begins May 26th and ends June 9th. Vote for your favorite design or submit your own Father’s Day design for a chance to win an iPad and over $150 prizes! Proceeds of winning designs benefit National Fatherhood Initiative.

Check out fibers.com for details.

Enjoy

-Stef

Casting call - hardest working dads and moms

We just received this from a producer of a show in the US who is looking for hard working dads (and mums).

Documentary style show that is going to profile some of the hardest working dads and moms in America, seeks a single dad or mom with more than one child (the more children and the younger the better). We are only looking for families from the East Coast. If you would like to be considered for the show, email us your story, along with contact information, and a family photo to hardestworkingmom@gmail.com

-Stefan