The Game Theorists Guide to Parenting
How the Science of Strategic Thinking Can Help You Deal with the Toughest Negotiators You KnowYour Kids

The tools you need to master the toughest negotiations youll ever facethose with your kids As every parent knows, kids are surprisingly clever negotiators. But how can we avoid those all-too-familiar wails, Thats not fair! and You cant make me!? In The Game Theorists Guide to Parenting, journalist Paul Raeburn and game theorist Kevin Zollman pair up to highlight tactics from the worlds of economics and business that can help parents break the endless cycle of quarrels and ineffective solutions. They show that some of the same strategies successfully applied to big business deals and politicssuch as the Prisoners Dilemma and the Ultimatum Gamecan be used to solve such titanic, age-old parenting problems as dividing up toys, putting down those screens, and sticking to a bedtime. Raeburn and Zollman open each chapter with a common parenting dilemma, such as determining who started a fight or who gets a bedtime story first. Then they show how carefully concocted schemes involving bargains and fair incentives can save the day. Through smart case studies of game theory in action, Raeburn and Zollman reveal how parents and children devise strategies, where those strategies go wrong, and what we can do to help raise happy and savvy kids while keeping the rest of the family happy too. Delightfully witty, refreshingly irreverent, and just a bit Machiavellian, The Game Theorists Guide to Parenting looks past the fads to offer advice you can put into action today.