The authors of the New York Times bestseller Whale Done! offer five simple and effective principles for coping with any parenting challenge. Most parents feel frustrated with their children from time to time, but killer whale trainer-in-training Amy Sheldrake has a unique perspective. She marvels at the complex behaviors her superiors are able to coax out of these enormous beasts, while she and her husband struggle to make their beloved—and much smaller—son Josh obey what seem like the simplest rules.
What does training killer whales have to do with raising children? As this engrossing and unique parenting fable shows, more than you’d think. In their
New York Times bestseller
Whale Done!, Ken Blanchard and his coauthors—including two veteran marine mammal trainers—showed how positive training concepts used at places like SeaWorld could be adapted to the workplace. In this new book they apply these same principles to parenting. Once Amy and Matt get the hang of the five Whale Done principles, they see a dramatic difference in overcoming challenges like following bedtime routines, dealing with tantrums, introducing new foods, sharing, avoiding overuse of the word no, learning to care for a pet, and instituting time-outs.
Whale Done is much more than a set of techniques; it is a way of looking at people and seeing the best that is in them. Great leaders, saints, and sages have developed this skill. Since most of us are less advanced than those paragons, this book can serve as a guide for how to bring out the best in our children.
"How is it they can get a killer whale to urinate on cue, and we can't get our son to pee into the toilet?"
Amy Sheldrake, young mother and killer whale trainer-in-training, marvels at the complex behaviors her superiors at SeaWorld are able to coax out of these enormous beasts, while she and her husband struggle to make their beloved-and much smaller-son Josh obey the simplest rules. Using the story approach popularized by Ken Blanchard in his many bestsellers, this unique parenting book draws on the experiences of two of the coauthors-as both pioneering marine mammal trainers and as parents-to show how the same principles that induce killer whales to leap into the air can persuade young children to go quietly to bed.
Like Amy and her husband Matt, once you get the hang of the three Whale Done principles, you'll see a dramatic difference in overcoming challenges like following bedtime routines, dealing with tantrums, introducing new foods, sharing, avoiding overuse of the word no, learning to care for a pet, and instituting time-outs.
“When we instituted a Whale Done-based program at Schaeffer Elementary we saw suspensions go down 95 percent, and math and reading proficiency improved dramatically. These principles work—kids really respond!”
—Cynthia Zurchin, Principal, Schaeffer Elementary School, Pittsburgh
“We long to be better parents who, with our kids, make a better world, and
Whale Done Parenting helps us do just that. If you want to raise good kids and see more smiling and less scolding in your household, read this book!”
—Naomi Cramer Overton, President, Mothers of Preschoolers International
