Dad’s world with Jonathan deBurca Butler

THE best piece of advice I got before we had our first born, Fionn, was given to me by a well-known DJ as we sat over coffee.

“Listen man,” he said in his inimitable laconic style, “just know how stuff works. Practise how to change a nappy. Put up and dismantle the buggy a few times. Know how to put a bottle together and definitely figure out how the car seat works. They’re tricky and the last thing you want, is to be coming out of Holles St figuring out how to put the damn thing in with the Mrs hovering over you and a newborn baby.”

At the time, I laughed it off but I did exactly what he said. It was without doubt the best of all the streams of advice that was given to me leading up to the little fella’s birth. What my friend couldn’t give me advice on was how to deal with the emotional stuff.