In this eye-opening, witty book, an award-winning scientist offers his unorthodox but highly engaged approach to childrearinge"and reveals groundbreaking research and strategies to produce creative and confident children. If youe(tm)re like many parents, you might ask family and friends for advice when faced with important decisions about how to raise your kids. You might even turn to parenting books or simply rely on timeworn religious or cultural traditions. But when Dalton Conley, a dual-discipline scientist and full-blown nerd, needed childrearing advice, he turned to scientific research to make the big decisions. A frequent contributor to The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , Salon , and Fortune , Conley found that as long as you maintain a high level of involvement with your children, they will end up happy, confident, and resilient. Emboldened by his keen understanding of cutting-edge research, Conley made a series of unorthodox parenting moves. Just to name a few: He bribed his kids to do math because a study in Mexico indicated that conditional cash transfers improved kidse(tm) educational achievement. He gave his children weird names to teach them impulse control because evidence shows that kids with unusual names learn not to react when their peers tease them.

Conley tries a placebo on his son when the school wants to medicate him for ADHD because evidence shows placebo effects are almost as big as those of the actual drugs. Parentology hilariously reports the results of Conleye(tm)s experiments as a father, showing that ultimately, what matters most is love and engagement. He teaches you everything you need to know about the latest literature on parentinge"with lessons that go down easy. Youe(tm)ll be laughing and learning at the same time.