A lot of mommy bloggers are pretty up in arms about this recent piece on the front of the New York Times Sunday Style section. In general, they feel the piece belittles them, and makes them out to be shallow and ambitious at the expense of their parenting. What are your thoughts about this tempest in a tea pot? Do you have any general thoughts about Mommy Bloggers? Do you have some that you read regularly? Are dad blogs really any different? And where does all this put DadLabs?

We would love your suggestions and ideas for DadLabs episodes. We've made over 500 episodes at this point, so we really could use some help. So what haven't we covered? Let us know and we'll pull in our experts and get some ideas and answers for you. Thanks!

That's taking on a lot. One thing I would warn against: if college comes at the expense of spending time with your new baby, I would rethink. Make sure that you get to be with that baby!

The crazy thing: I became a gamer AFTER I had kids. I never really had time for games -- I think it may be a generational thing (I'm older than you people). When my oldest started taking an interest, I decided I better figure this stuff out. I've always felt that there is no excuse for parents not fully understanding the technology that their kids use (computer,social, gaming) so that they can monitor and regulate use.

So I started gaming. My son has a PS2. We have a Wii that we all really enjoy playing together (even my wife). I took up Spore, which my youngest then really got into. I masted Plants V Zombies. I'm now playing BioShock, in spite of Troy's disappointment, in order to understand 1st person shooters.

I think parents MUST be gamers, at least to some extent.

Welcome Jinky! Love having folks from down under. Just proves how universal this experience is.

Brad has a hilarious story about introducing the baby to his Rottie.

I think a really important thing about getting dad involved with the baby: let him do things his way. If he dresses the baby funny, don't say anything. If he diapers a different way, keep your mouth closed. Allow him to find a sense of confidence about caring for the baby. He will feel awkward at first, and needs encouragement (and/or silence) to hit his stride.

Welcome back, Dat Lem Guy (2),

Great to have you back. My oldest was a preemie. Born at 31 weeks, so I've been there. I hope that your NICU nurses and docs are as amazing as ours were. Take care of yourself.

And just before your baby is ready to come home, take a weekend and get away with your wife! This is the best advice we ever got. The baby was is good hands, we had run shifts for three weeks, and we needed to re-connect before taking on the challenge of a new (preemie) baby at home.

@JustJustin

Sounds like you are on the right track. I was on to my second kid before I started working on this stuff. Nice work and keep it up!

In the black is white world we live in, I guess the She-nis was just a matter of time.

As a result, I only demand that we get couches in all of *our* bathrooms.

Hope she remembers to life the seat.

You don't come off as a particularly crazy, first-time parent (all of them are at least a *little* crazy, IMHO). You come off as someone that listens to their pediatrician. Which you should. And ignore me.

Because our preemie experience was different.

Ours was also a "big" preemie, born at 31 weeks and about 4.5 lbs. He was about that size when we brought him home from the NICU three weeks later. Our doc prescribed synagis to prevent RSV, but did not suggest that we needed to curtail visitation. I have clear memories of putting his tiny self in a sling and taking him to a faculty party within days of bringing him home.

Now it sounds like we should have neither brought him out *or* used a sling. Things evolve, I guess.

It's actually much, much, much easier to go out and do things with an infant than it will be later on. Take advantage of it and treat yourself to a little fun. Eating out is still relatively easy, which will not be true again for a really, really long time.

I agree with Ben that you want to do something to mitigate the sound at the movie.

Have fun!

Ben- You must have a battery of freezers in the basement. Right next to the brewing equipment and keggerator. Dude. What the hell else you got down there? A particle accelerator? You're like the Phineas and Ferb of fatherhood.

A half a pig?!

Dick Chop is an Austin legend. The name has got to rank up there with the pediatric office that I went to as a child (Dr. Hurt and Dr. Payne), and my teen years dermatologist (Dr. Cheek).

I wouldn't dismiss the iPod yet. The multi-purpose nature of the device makes it really appealing for what you are going to use it for. I just haven't used mine for video yet, mostly because I use my iPhone. I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.

Noe it looks like the Consumer Product Safety Commission is going to issue a warning about baby slings. Sound like there have been some suffocations. We used one of these when we brought home Bubba because he was only 4 pounds and not big enough for any other kind of carrier, but I had that concern then -- he could almost disappear down in that thing.

So I guess they are going to print warning labels?

I guess i should disclose that BabyBjorn is a sponsor of this site, so I am obviously biased.

I have a Graco Nautilus in my car currently. As a matter of fact, I even went so far as to BUY A BIGGER CAR in order to accommodate the Nautilus. It was too big for my pre-schooler to sit comfortably in the back seat of a Mazda 3. So I upgraded to a 6 (in my defense, I had other safety concerns as well).