Category: Uncategorized

  • How to out-negotiate the car dealer: Cultivating your alternatives

    My last post discussed one of the toughest negotiations—convincing a toddler to comply. This post considers one of the most feared—dealing with a car dealer. Most people would rather extract their teeth through their eyeballs than talk to a car dealer. How can we hope for a decent deal when the guy across the table…

  • Why won’t they eat (sleep, use the potty)? Making the first offer to a toddler

    Why not start with one of the toughest problems of all—convincing a toddler to do what you want them to do? If you have kids, you know that this problem often seems insurmountable. From eating, to sleeping, to using the potty, your priorities for toddlers only occasionally correspond to their priorities for themselves. Not that…

  • Life’s negotiable: Research-based strategies for solving life’s problems

    Negotiable (Merriam-Webster):  Capable of being traversed, dealt with, or accomplished Open to discussion or dispute I’ll be the first to admit it: Life doesn’t always seem negotiable. On a given day, children refuse to eat, coworkers refuse to cooperate, and the cable company refuses to remove that annoying charge. But let me also insist that…