Riding home in a taxi at 9:30 on a Wednesday night, I knew I was in trouble when I heard a voicemail message from Emily saying she'd forgotten her keys and would be waiting for me at the Starbucks near our apartment. What I didn't know was how much trouble.Sweeping into the coffee shop, I offered the breeziest of apologies. Emily was not charmed. I've been waiting here for two hours, she fumed.

Babies cry. That's a fact of life. How much we let them cry, that's a fact of parenting, and it's easily one of the most confusing, emotional, and even divisive issues new parents face. One parent may insist it's a no-brainer: If baby is crying, you do what you can to comfort and console. Another may argue that if you are always at baby's beck and call, life will never get back to "normal."

IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY...We drive long distances, we live in busy cities, we walk around at night, we fly all over the world...

The reality is that we do not live in a particularly safe world. I always knew that, but (possibly due to my naïveté and belief that we were all invincible) I never gave much thought to how the whole safety issue. That said, I am much more safety conscious now that I am a parent.

Most guys tend to think that they will be able to handle parenthood without too much stress or aggravation. It's the wife that has to go through all of the discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth, right? But once the realities of being awakened every hour and a half by a crying baby, the endless visits from family and friends, the easy slippage into exhausted bickering with your partner, and the very real and very intense anxiety about not doing anything terribly wrong to your newborn all set in, your tune will change.

My wife had a clarifying phrase she began to use early on in her pregnancy when she was hit exceptionally hard with morning sickness: All bets are off. The phrase was shorthand for a more complicated sentiment she was beginning to feel at the time.