Other books in the Worst-Case Scenario collection tell readers what to do in case of shark attack, or if they have to land an airplane, but for help with truly terrifying situations, there’s The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting. What would you do if you were on an airplane with an infant and ran out of diapers? How do you handle the common childhood fear of monsters hiding in the closet? What about when your precious baby goes on their first date? Yikes!  Authors Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht and Sarah Jordan give readers step-by-step instructions for handling any child-related worst-case scenario.

The book divides “worst case scenarios” into age groups – zero to three (how to give a baby a bath without a bathtub handy, how to babyproof someone else’s house), three to twelve (how to remove an object from your child’s nose, how to put the head back on a doll, how to survive a long car trip), and the teen years (how to survive teen angst, how to survive your child’s first date or their first driving lesson).

One of my favorite scenarios was what to do if you need to make an emergency bottle. It seemed to be assuming that you had formula or milk, just nothing to put it in that was clean. A page of illustrated suggestions include using a gravy boat (can you imagine the mess, pouring formula into a baby’s mouth with a gravy boat??), a turkey baster (well, it would be easier to control the flow that way), and my absolute favorite hilarious and obviously tongue-in-cheek suggestion, one of those bottles that hangs on the side of a HAMSTER CAGE.  Hee hee!

While most of the suggestions are obviously meant to be funny, tips that involve child safety are careful to include important rules like checking to make sure bath water isn’t too hot, or never pretending not to be a child’s real parent to avoid a temper tantrum. If you give this book to new parents, please make sure to tell them to take most of the suggestions with a grain of salt and to look for the true safety tips.  Know someone with a baby learning to eat from a spoon? I’d direct them to this scenario, called “how to avoid unnecessary wetness”. Ha!

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handook: Parenting is available from Chronicle Books, on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and at Borders. Suggested retail price is $14.95.  There’s also a Worst-Case Scenario Series Blog where you can learn about the rest of the books in the series and read more hilarious survival tips!