Remember Alec Greven? He's the kid who wrote How To Talk To Girls last year. This time when I say "kid", I don't mean someone under 25. I mean kid. Because he's 10 years old.
Now Alec has written two more books. How to Talk to Moms and How to Talk to Dads.
In this interview with The Today Show, the young Mr. Greven tells us that "Dad is more lenient." There is an "80% chance that dad will say yes to little stuff when mom might say no."
What else?
"Moms love hugs and nice notes." They especially like it when you "admit [that] you make a mistake [and] write a note that says I'm sorry." Helping out around the house is also a way to make mom happy.
His advice about dads could be taken the wrong way. Alec says that "dads have a good side and a bad side," and that "staying on dad's good side depends on your mood and attitude...If you have good behavior, you stay on dad's good side." This sounds a little bit like what an abused child might say on an episode of "Law & Order." Not saying there's anything weird going on, but it sounded funny to me. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Examples of "bad behavior" that will get you on dad's "bad side" include: "tattletaling" on dad to mom (Alec says that he caught dad drinking out of the milk carton, told mom, and dad was not pleased), and also "fighting with your brother."
For their part, "moms don't like it when you bring snakes and spiders into the house." Alec says that he doesn't do this sort of thing, but his brother (the one he fights with, I suppose) does; he says that his mother often finds "rolly pollys" in his brother's coat pocket. (I had to look up what rolly-pollys are, apparently they're pill bugs. My wife and I would be equally annoyed if either kid brought those into our house.)
Under intense questioning from Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera, Alec admits that his advice is based on personal experience, but he did do some research because "parents have their own little tricks and stuff so I had to make sure other families did it to."
On the one hand, I'm happy for the kid. He seems nice enough, and says that he has donated some of the money he's earned to a cancer charity. He also started a school writing contest, and hopes that he has inspired a lot of other kids to write. "Without writers we can't have books to read," he says. "Without books, we can't learn."
Alec isn't resting on his laurels. For the holidays, he will give us "How To Talk To Santa," and he might do "How To Talk To Teachers."
On the other hand, WHERE'S MY BOOK DEAL? Or more to the point, why aren't my children writing books, earning money so I can relax? Huh? HUH?
OK, I think I'm mostly happy for him. Although I may have a little chat with my kids tonight. Perhaps they'd like to pen "How To Talk -- All The Time." Could be a bestseller.
Source: MSNBC (click the link if the embedded video doesn't work), Amazon.com
Image: Nerve.com
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