Pirate Parenting

“Guide to Pirate Parenting: Why you should raise your kids as Pirates and 101 Tips on How to Do It” is the funniest parenting book I have read in avery long time! I laughed so hard I cried while reading this book. This morning I brought the book with me to the bowling alley while my boys bowled with the Homeschool Bowling League. I read excerpts out loud to the other parents and we were all laughing so loud the kids asked us to be quiet!

“Guide to Pirate Parenting” is written by award winning humor columnist Tim Bette, and his friend Captain William MacDougall a.k.a Cap’n Billy. The book takes a tongue-in-cheek look at raising children today and was recently awarded the 2009 Adding Wisdom Award in the Humor Book category by Parent to Parent. We have had a lot of fun with this book, of course we are kind of “piratey” around here anyway. We live in a Florida near pirate Jose Gaspar’s stomping grounds, our town is the spring training home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, our NFL team is the Buccanneers, we have ridden Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney World at least 60 times and last year we had a pirate themed murder-mystery birthday party for my 15 year old son!

Part 1 of the book is the introduction-How I met Cap’n Billy and Why You Should Raise Your Children to Be Pirates.

Part 2 is the guide to Pirate Parenting which is broken down into seven chapters.

• Baby Pirates-Mapping Out Your Child’s Future
• Belly Timber-Feeding Your Pirate
• Sleeping Like a Seadog and Other Nocturnal Issues
• Quelling Mutinies-Disciplining Your Pirate
• Scurvy and Hook Injuries-Pirate Health and Safety
• Your Pirate’s First Ship- How to Convert Your Minivan into a Pirate Schooner
• As Your Pirate Gets Older-The Teen Years and Beyond

(I haven’t let my boys read the chapter on converting your minivan into a pirate schooner. Though this would make an awesome homeschooling project, I need to keep the minivan intact for a while longer)

Though this is a humor book there is some parenting booty to be pillaged from these pages. ” Cap’n Billy’s tips for disciplining your pirate. Discipline isn’t punishment. Remember, there’s a difference between discipline and punishment. The role of discipline is to teach your pirate the appropriate way to act. The role of punishment is to get prisoners to tell you where their booty is hidden.”

Throughout this treasure trove of parenting advice are pirate nursery rhymes that relate to the topic of the chapter. Here is one about sailing the high seas:

Old Cap’n Rackham (Little Miss Muffet)

Old Cap’n Rackham left port for Siam, sailing the ocean blue.                                                                                                                                        Along came a maelstrom, On an Isle shipwrecked him, And cannibals ate pirate stew.

“Guide to Pirate Parenting: Why you should raise your kids as Pirates and 101 Tips on How to Do It” is a fun read and would make a great gift for the parent-to-be or for Father’s Day. You can purchase the book at http://pirateparenting.com/