Preface

• What You Already Know and What’s New

• What’s to Come

Step 1 – Cracking the Negotiations Code

Chapter 1 – Learning Negotiation Skills

• What Is Negotiation?

• Why Is This So Much Harder at Home Than at Work?

• Negotiating by the Numbers

• The Limits of Learning from Experience

• The Paradoxes of Parenting

• The Problem of Analogical Transfer

• The Five Big Ideas about Learning Negotiation Skills

Chapter 2 - The Single Best Predictor of Success: Preparation

• Start With a Goal

• The Nitty-Gritty of Preparing: The Three-Question Checklist, Asked Twice

• Why are “Whys” Hard in This Setting? The Two Levels: Immediate and Perpetual

• First Things First: Getting Your Ducks in a Row

• Sharing Your “Why”

• What About Your Child’s Perspective? The Second Time Through the Three Questions

• An Example of the Three-Question Checklist (Asked Twice) in Action

• The Five Big Ideas on Preparation

Chapter 3 - Choosing a Strategy: Power, Rules, and Insight

• Power: The Ace Up Your Sleeve

• Establishing Rules

• What Is “Fair”?

• The Go-To Fair Solution: “Let’s Just Split It”

• Insight

• The Five Big Ideas About Choosing a Strategy

Step 2 – Becoming A Master of the Moment

Chapter 4 - Psychological Warfare: The Common Tactics Kids Use for Getting What They Want

• The Go-To List that Comes Pre-Installed in Most Children

• Tactic #1: The Buck Stops Where? Conformity Pressures in Parenting

• Tactic #2: It’s Not as Bad as What I Could Have Asked for! And its Twin: While You’re Saying Yes, How About Just This One Extra Little Thing? The Use of Contrasts

• Tactic #3: What If I Just Keep Asking? Really, I Could Do This All Day … The Exhaustion Tactic

• Tactic #4: Lying

• The Five Big Ideas About Tactics

Chapter 5 - Predictable Pitfalls

• The Science of Decision Making

• Misremembering the Origins: Getting Stuck on Blame

• Escalation of Commitment: Getting Stuck with Our Previous Decisions

• Artificially High Stakes: Getting Stuck on Fears for the Future

• The Winner’s Curse: Getting Stuck on What Might Have Been

• Anchoring and Concessions: Getting Stuck on the First Thing You Hear

• The Five Big Ideas About Pitfalls

Chapter 6 - Multiple Roles at the Table: Teammate, Coach, and Judge

• Teammate: The Two-Headed Monster

• Sure, We’re On the Same Page! (Aren’t We?)

• Which One Are You, The Strict One or The Nice One?

• Tell It to the Judge

• Coaching for Future Success

• The Five Big Ideas on Your Multiple Roles in Negotiations (Teammate, Judge, and Coach)

Chapter 7 - Negotiating via Text

• Short but Not Always Sweet

• The Magic of Speech

• Words and Symbols

• The Third Wheel of Technology

• We’re Not Ourselves Online

• The Five Big Ideas About Texting

Step 3 – Bringing the Best of Yourself

Chapter 8 - Negotiating While Hopping Mad: Managing Emotions in Negotiations

• Why Is it So Hard to Think Straight when Mad, Sad, or Glad?

• Catch It, Share It, and Judge it: Contagion, Congruence, and First Impressions

• The Emotional You vs. The Rational You: Fight of the Century!

• Kids’ Emotions: A Work in Progress

• The Life Raft of Active Listening

• The Five Big Ideas about Emotions

Chapter 9 - Managing Everyday Conflict

• Monkey See, Monkey Do

• “My Way or the Highway” versus “I Need to Do What My Child Needs Me to Do”

• One Problem, Five Solutions

• Can You Hear Me Now? Strategies for Communicating Well

• The Five Big Ideas About Conflict and Communication

Chapter 10 - The Tools at Work: The Test Drives

• What’s Different About a Negotiation at Home?

• The Value of Planning

• Which Strategy and When?

• Being Battle Ready for The Every Day, Every Kid Tactics

• We Are All (Parents and Children) Predictably Irrational

• The Part You Play

• To Text or Not to Text?

• Don’t Get Derailed by Emotions

• Moving Beyond Your Defaults in Resolving Conflicts and Communicating

• Conclusion

Appendix - The Five Rules Your Kids Need to Think Like a Master Negotiator

• Rule #1: Decide: Should I or Shouldn’t I?

• Rule #2: Before You Even Open Your Mouth, Spend a Minute Thinking

• Rule #3: Ask a Lot of Questions (Before You Start Talking About Your Own Ideas)

• Rule #4: Explain Yourself

• Rule #5: Brainstorm

• Summary Checklist