It can take many different forms but at the root of it backup support means looking out for each other. Activities such as leaf drawings and building bug hotels are ideal for younger troopers while tasks such as mowing the lawn and picking bulbs to plant for next spring are good for the older ones.

Commando Dad sets out to offer "a few essential skills, to reduce the stress, and allow you to function". He's engaged, he spends time with his kids, caring for them – and he gets the information he needs to do it.

And home cooked food tastes better, is better for you and your kids and in my experience is also cheaper. As well as this, the phrasing is really entertaining and I found myself laughing a fair bit when I was reading through.

The advice, approved by healthcare professionals, is quick to read, easy to understand and simple to digest, delivered in short, unambiguous bullet points and, no-nonsense rules - and, pretty unarguably, spot on. Neil Sinclair’s narrative is witty and engaging, and the book is written in a military style and uses army terms throughout. The chapter “The Advance Party: Preparing Base Camp” is so helpful for expectant fathers and for me personally, really built my confidence and made me feel that I am doing things right. Sometimes Sinclair seems a little over-optimistic, for example advocating that parents-to-be purchase only six sleepsuits, which would have lasted for literally the first few hours after bringing my babies home. No father could fail to be inspired and refocused by the powerfully positive spirit Sinclair evokes.I may not have a problem eating horse, but do I want to eat a horse that was killed six months ago in a country far, far away? Using a bullet pointed discourse structure makes the text (and the content) really easy to engage with. I am holding that paper in my hands now granddad and I just want to say a sincere thank you to you – and all of those involved on that day.

Six years as an army commando didn't prepare Neil Sinclair for the minefield of bringing up his children.After a long period of radio silence, we have recruited one of our troopers to take the reins as our social media man, trooper Samuel Sinclair! It will teach prospective fathers, in no-nonsense terms, how to survive the first 24 hours; how to Prepare and Plan to Prevent Poor Parental Performance; how to maintain morale in the ranks; how to feed, clothe, transport, and entertain your troops; how to transport the troops successfully on maneuvers; how to increase your "flash to bang" time and "square away" tasks along the way; and much more. It has distilled best practice by simply omitting the crap and using lists instead of heavy paragraphs. These make the whole dad thing so much more accessible for people like me who don’t have the actual experience of having a child yet.

A survey by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) in 2015 found that about one in three dads reported concern about their mental health. When we brought our first child home from the hospital everything we had read and everything we'd been told up until then was about the birth – and now here we were, back at home, with a new baby, and I hadn't the faintest clue what to do. Every night, Canadian trucks would travel to the front lines to recover the dead, and the bodies were brought to where the Pioneers had set up a moving base. I think it’s fair to say that these standards and rules are fabulous guidelines for any parent to live by. As far as I am aware, the guidance for backslaps has not changed and the risk of further harm from this method is minimal.Everything from the moon state, equipment carried by individual patrol members, route plan, timings and commanders intent are covered.