More couple's therapy than adapting with new baby.

I expected this book to be about how to adjust to a new family member and the stresses that come with new babies. While the book did give insight as to a new mom's feelings of not being cared for and new dad's feelings of being left out, this book was mostly about how to fight better, listen and respond to your partners needs and concerns, and resolve conflict in a healthy way. Anyone could use these techniques. The book did discuss the impact healthy conflict resolution has on unborn babies and infants and how a couples relationship affects a babies understanding of his world. Very helpful and I look forward to listening with my partner and actually completing the questionnaires together to help us grow and become more unified.

4 people found this helpful

This book really needs an accompanying PDF!

Fantastic advice and very practical steps to go through but this being an audible version really makes it difficult to reference those lists and exercises present in the book. Please add a summary pdf to this book. I had to go online and buy a used copy of this book so I could use as reference/workbook

2 people found this helpful

Excludes non-heterosexual relationships

Needs updating to include all types of families, partnerships, and upbringings. If updates were made it was at the beginning of the book and not throughout.

2 people found this helpful

Not as helpful as I expected

The examples of couples were good. The writers unfortunately talk down to the readers as if we are children ourselves when we are actually adults with capable brains. The authors also include an overwhelming number of surveys. In the written version i may have just glossed over these, however in the audiobook that impossible because who knows when they will end. There multiple surveys with hundreds of questions for the listener (Ie very boring). On a side note, if you need a good night's sleep buy this book and put it on).

2 people found this helpful

Helps explain a lot of what has happened.

Explains a lot of whay has happened in my marriage. Particularly as being a father and the divide that grew between my wife and I. Also provide excellent exercises to build a stronger than before relationship.

2 people found this helpful

I Expected More..

This book did not meet my expectations. If this is your first book reading as a married couple, then it could be beneficial. It reads very much like a marriage-basics book. However, it felt almost exclusively like a marriage book and less like a "how marriage is affected by children book." I'm pregnant with our first child and really want to be prepared for how it will affect my marriage. After reading it, I'm not sure I'm any closer to knowing how things will change. In my audiobook version it didn't give the chapter names so it was difficult to tell where each chapter was going. The most helpful part of the book was towards the end when it gave a lot of discussion questions to use with your partner. They led to a lot of great conversations, but it was nothing I couldn't have found on Google.

Overall, if this is your first marriage book, then absolutely read it! If you have read several marriage books as a couple and are looking for a book that REALLY prepares you for the changes after a child, I would personally look elsewhere.

Awful Narrator

I really want to like this book and I really want to like it, but I just can't. Not in audible form anyways. The narrator reads ridiculously fast and makes it difficult to be able to pay attention and follow along. I also don't think it was as well written as it could have been because the way it's going so far it's difficult to connect some of the stories with the lessons they're trying to implement.

Remarkable

I enjoyed listening to this book and learning more about what it takes to have a healthy partnership after having a baby, but it's hard to follow as an audiobook. I definitely recommend buying the paper copy to any couple who is having a baby!

Not what I was expecting

It focused a lot more on the relationship (and how to effectively argue) than it did about baby. The book is set up as a series of “exercises” to do with your partner with tons of questions. Audiobook isn’t the best format for following along a series of questions that are supposed to lead to conversations. I found it boring.

Dated and redundant information

I like the Gottman's work, overall, but found this book has quite a bit of similar information to some of their other works. Also, some of the gender discussions are dated and only applicable to heterosexuals.