Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads

Dealing with the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Make-or Break-Your Child's Future

By: Rosalind Wiseman, Elizabeth Rapoport

Narrated by: Rosalind Wiseman

What happens to Queen Bees and Wannabes when they grow up?

Even the most well-adjusted moms and dads can experience peer pressure and conflicts with other adults that make them act like they're back in seventh grade. In Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads, Rosalind Wiseman gives us the tools to handle difficult situations involving teachers and other parents with grace. Reassuring, funny, and unfailingly honest, Wiseman reveals:

Why PTA meetings and Back-to-School nights tap into parents' deepest insecurities

How to recognize the archetypal moms and dads, from Caveman Dad to Hovercraft Mom

How and when to step in and step out of your child's conflicts with other children, parents, teachers, or coaches

How to interpret the code phrases other parents use to avoid (or provoke) confrontation

Why too many well-meaning dads sit on the sidelines, and how vital it is that they step up to the plate

What to do and say when the playing field becomes an arena for people to bully and dominate other kids and adults

How to have respectful yet honest conversations with other parents about sex and drugs when your values are in conflict

How the way you handle parties, risky behavior, and academic performance affects your child

How unspoken assumptions about race, religion, and other hot-button subjects sabotage parents' ability to work together

Wiseman also offers practical advice on avoiding the most common parenting "land mines" and useful scripts to help you navigate difficult but necessary conversations.

Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads is essential listening for parents today. It offers us the tools to become wiser, more relaxed parents, and the inspiration to speak out, act according to our values, show humility, and set the kind of example that will make a real difference in our children's lives.

©2006 Rosalind Wiseman (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"If Wiseman was bold in her best-selling Queen Bees and Wannabes by telling the truth about entitled girls and their excesses, she's even more daring here." (Publishers Weekly)

Horrible

This book represents the authors' attempts to stereotype Mothers and Fathers into convenient little buckets, while largely ignoring both sociology and pyschology. Their point of reference lies, as I'm sure it always has, strictly within themselves. Their classification of males is misguided at best, and their taxonomy of mothers and school-age girls is sophomoric and nearly mean-spirited. They have a clear bias for us to be passive with educators. If you consider yourself a "Queen Bee who thinks she needs to lighten up" then I'm sure you're the intended audience. All others should avoid this book.