Weird Parenting Wins is a book full of unconventional — yet effective — parenting strategies invented by real parents in moments of sheer desperation genius.
About the book
The most effective parenting strategies often don’t come from gurus but from real parents getting creative in moments of desperation. One mother threatens to sing in public anytime her daughters argue; another allows her daughter to play with tampons to get a few minutes on the toilet alone. For parents and caregivers with kids of all ages, the unconventional “wins” in this book have helped children to diversify their appetites, stop sibling rivalry, cultivate independence, develop manners, and open up—as well as parents themselves to find imaginative ways of salvaging time, money, intimacy, and their sanity.
Share your own #WeirdParentingWins on Twitter and Instagram!
Featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross
NPR’s Best Books of 2019
Illustrations by Hillary Frank
What People Are Saying
-
“You can treat this one like a favorite cookbook – pulling it down off the shelf for consultation in moments of need. … It’s a laugh-out-loud parenting companion filled with tiny victories. Want your kid to go hiking? Toss ‘em a tube of lipstick and let ‘em keep applying it as long as they keep walking. Want your 2-year-old to eat peas? Load them into a PEZ dispenser!”
Lauren Migaki, NPR Ed
-
“Parenting is a psychological dance, one of the most complicated psychological dances anybody does. How many steps do you know? How quickly can you turn and dance in another direction? Those are good things to know about yourself and I personally feel—that as a general rule—it is better to have more moves than fewer. Most parents are incredibly busy, so Weird Parenting Wins is full of fast hacks. Highly entertaining but also soothing to know that you are not alone in your incompetence. Truly a delight.”
Alix Spiegel, Invisibilia
-
“This is a book for anyone who’s ever told his children that it’s illegal to be too loud in restaurants or played a rousing game of ‘What’s on My Butt’ while lying face-down on the couch, and for anyone who thinks those sound completely crazy—but might have a story of her own. Crazy, dear, empathetic, and anything but guilt-inducing, this is the parenting book that unites us all.”
KJ Dell'Antonia, How to be a Happier Parent and New York Times parenting contributor
-
“From the New Year’s Goat to the Lifesavers Game, this is the most hilarious (as well as practical) parenting book ever!”
Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon