Parenting or child-rearing facilitates and shapes the physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. For parenting, a biological relationship with a child is not a must. Typical caregivers in parenting are the biological parents, an older sibling, a step-parent, a grandparent, a legal guardian, an aunt, an uncle, other family members, or a family friend. Orphaned or abandoned children may receive parenting from non-blood relations. Often there are numerous challenges associated with parenting, good parenting skills are necessary to navigate difficult situations. There are different parenting styles prevalent in society based on the historical period, race/ethnicity, social class, preference, and a few other social features. In this article, we share the 50 best parenting books that describe the different stages of parenting and provide practical advice and tools for overcoming difficulties related to their development and growth.
The 50 Best Parenting Books That You Must Have
Below we shared the list of 50 best books on parenting. The list consists of books that talk about numerous aspects of parenting such as brain development in babies and toddlers, toddler discipline, anxiety control in children, maintaining relationships with adult children, and many more. We hope you will find this list extremely helpful in your search for a good book on this topic.
1. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind By Daniel J. Siegel
This pioneering book explains how a child’s brain is structured and how it matures. It offers 12 key strategies that nurture healthy brain development which results in calmer and happier children. The emotional right brain is more active for children than the logical left one. That is why children exhibit tantrums, fight or sulk in silence. By applying the discoveries in the book, it is possible to integrate a child’s brain to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
2. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (The How To Talk Series)
This bestselling book has fresh insights and suggestions about communication between parents and children. It also offers methods to solve common problems and build lasting relationships. The book helps you ease your children’s negative feelings, make them cooperate with you, set boundaries and maintain goodwill, and resolve family conflicts peacefully. The approach in this book will provide you with a more rewarding and less stressful relationship with your children.
3. 1-2-3 Magic: Gentle 3-Step Child & Toddler Discipline for Calm, Effective, and Happy Parenting (Positive Parenting Guide for Raising Happy Kids) By Thomas Phelan PhD
This book comes with the signature counting method of Dr. Thomas Phelan, which helps parents to overcome obnoxious behaviors of their children like tantrums and meltdowns, whining and pouting, talking back, sibling rivalry, and more. The method in this book teaches children to regulate their emotions in a way that makes them calm and happy. This will instill early self-esteem in children and make them disciplined. The method will encourage good behavior in your children and build a lasting relationship.
4. Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be A-Holes: Unfiltered Advice on How to Raise Awesome Kids By Karen Alpert
This book might be for you if you think that you are failing in parenting. The author is a regular mom and has two kids who were once a bit a-holes. But she is slowly turning them into good human beings. So this is an honest parenting guide that has some answers to your questions about parenting which is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
5. The Connected Parent: Real-Life Strategies for Building Trust and Attachment By Karyn Purvis PhD
The techniques of parenting that worked for your child may not work for an adopted or foster child. In this book, reputed child development expert Dr. Karyn Purvis shares practical advice and powerful tools that encourage secure attachment in the family. The book also demonstrates how these strategies can be implemented at home. It comes with usable scripts and helps your children develop valuable characteristics.
6. Father to Daughter, Revised Edition: Life Lessons on Raising a Girl By Harry H. Harrison Jr
Father is the first man in the life of a daughter. This book teaches how to make your daughter courageous, fearless, and confident in any situation. Full of wisdom, this book discloses many truths about raising a daughter. It teaches every father how to be joyous and responsible with their daughter.
7. The Baby Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance (Owner’s and Instruction Manual) By Louis Borgenicht M.D.
A newborn baby is the biggest technological marvel in the world. This book by pediatrician Dr. Louis Borgenicht provides step-by-step instructions, helpful schematic diagrams, and answers to hundreds of frequently asked questions. You will learn how to make a newborn sleep, when to see a doctor, how to swaddle them properly, etc. In general, the book shares all the basics of childcare.
8. The Simplest Baby Book in the World: The Illustrated, Grab-and-Do Guide for a Healthy, Happy Baby By Stephen Gross
This illustrated guide helps parents gain confidence in raising children. It provides essential advice on sleep training, feeding, and safety from doctors, nurses, parents, and nannies. The book is full of simple solutions and proven techniques. Forget other books and grab this one to raise your baby happy and healthy.
9. Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool (The ParentData Series) By Emily Oster
This book by economist Emily Oster helps parents in decision-making in the early years of parenting. In the case of parenting, we often get conflicting advice from doctors, family, friends, and strangers on the internet. It is hard to make choices on feeding, sleep, schedule, etc.
With data-driven research, Emily debunks myths around breastfeeding, sleep training, potty training, language acquisition, and many other topics. She also answers questions about going back to work, toddler discipline, and maintaining a relationship while having children.
10. The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful, and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old: Revised Edition By Harvey Karp
This national best-selling book helps reduce tantrums in kids and boost their patience, cooperation, and self-confidence. It even makes the parenting of two or more children easier. Toddlers often act like uncivilized little cavemen, with a primitive way of thinking and communication. Dr. Karp divides toddler behavior into green light (good), yellow light (annoying), and red light (unacceptable). This book teaches parents how to soothe toddlers in each of the situations. It also comes with a thirty-step glossary that will help you instantly calm an out-of-control child. The result is happy kids with fewer tantrums and yelling.
11. Parenting Toolbox: 125 Activities Therapists Use to Reduce Meltdowns, Increase Positive Behaviors & Manage Emotions By Dr. Lisa Phifer
This book is an all-in-one resource to deal with problematic children’s behavior. It is filled with easy strategies that can help overcome challenges and strengthen parent-child interaction. The CBT-based methods in this book help kids cope with stressful moments and anxious thoughts, improve social skills, and reduce tantrums and meltdowns.
12. The Whole-Brain Child Workbook: Practical Exercises, Worksheets, and Activities to Nurture Developing Minds By Daniel J Siegel
The workbook provides parents with a deeper understanding of the whole brain principles and how to apply them to their own parenting. The book has dozens of clear, practical, and age-specific exercises and activities, and is also filled with applications for clinicians, parents, educators, grandparents, and caregivers!
13. Anxiety Relief for Kids: On-the-Spot Strategies to Help Your Child Overcome Worry, Panic, and Avoidance By Bridget Flynn Walker PhD
This book provides effective solutions for child anxiety with evidence-based CBT and exposure therapy. It describes different types of anxiety disorders and helps you identify your child’s avoidant and safety behaviors, and anxiety triggers that set your child off. Regardless of the type of anxiety symptoms or diagnosis, you will find tailored interventions that can help your child thrive. The practical solutions in this book will help you overcome your child’s anxiety, and restore balance in both of your lives.
14. Parenting by The Book: Biblical Wisdom for Raising Your Child By John Rosemond
This book by the top family psychologist John Rosemond teaches childrearing based on biblical principles. It will help you make your children respectful, responsible, and obedient with impeccable manners. There will be no longer anxiety, stress, and frustration in parenting if you follow this Bible-based advice for parenting.
15. Moms on Call | Basic Baby Care 0-6 Months | Parenting Book 1 of 3 By Laura Hunter LPN
This book covers everything that parents need to know to care for their babies in the first 6 months of life. It talks about how to get babies on a routine, hour-by-hour schedule, symptoms that warrant a trip to the emergency room, and feeding instructions for breast, bottle, and both! Most importantly the book teaches how to make your babies sleep all night. The book also comes with an online course where you can take help from.
16. Dad’s Journal: What I Want You to Know About Me and My Life By Jennifer Basye Sander
Dad’s Journal is the best place where dads of any age can recount their memories and wisdom. It has carefully curated questions for dads to share their stories, life lessons, and beliefs with their children and grandchildren. The journal covers dad’s own childhood and teenage years, his life before children, and of course his journey through fatherhood. It has simple and more thought-provoking questions such as about life and death. Now dads can easily share their beliefs, values, and opinions with their children and future generations.
17. Wisdom On Step-Parenting: How to Succeed Where Others Fail By Diana Weiss-Wisdom Ph.D
This book by psychologist and stepmother, Diana Weiss-Wisdom Ph.D. is a guide for stepparents. Stepparenting can either be fulfilling or frustrating as it comes with many challenges. In this book, the author shares her own experiences as a stepmother and stories she drew from clients she counseled. The book offers hope, encouragement, and realistic coping strategies for stepparents who are struggling. It also provides proven techniques for stepparents that can help build a caring relationship with stepchildren, improve emotional life, and succeed in the new marriage.
18. Sidelined By your Adult Children?: How to Take Charge and Be Happy By Rosanne Rosen
Throughout your life, you have spent an enormous amount of time caring for your children and pleasing them. But suddenly you find that they sidelined you or no longer care for you as much. You would feel angry, diminished, disrespected, or disappointed. This book helps you understand the reality of sidelining, confront the sidelining with an open mind, and take charge of the situation. It helps you overcome feeling miserable and dejected, and develop a stronger and healthier relationship with your children.
19. Raising Emotionally Strong Boys: Tools Your Son Can Build On for Life By David Thomas
This book help boys cope with emotional struggles such as anger, anxiety, and depression. Parents can make their boys resourceful, aware, resilient, and empathetic. Boys learn how to work through their emotions, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. This book helps build a strong emotional foundation that leads to a better life for boys.
20. What’s Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life By Lise Eliot
This book explains how a baby’s brain is formed, and how it develops in the first five years of life. Children’s brain development depends both on the genes they acquire from birth and the environment they are growing up. This book explores many aspects of brain development such as the evolution of the senses, motor skills, social and emotional behaviors, and mental functions such as attention, language, memory, reasoning, and intelligence. From this book, parents can learn their role in the development process of a child’s brain. It also covers how prenatal factors and the birthing process affect brain development in children.
21. The Explosive Child By Ross Greene
An explosive child responds to regular problems with extreme frustration such as crying, screaming, swearing, kicking, hitting, biting, spitting, destroying property, and worse. Parents often feel frustrated, scared, worried, and desperate for help in such situations. What works for other kids does not work for these kids. Rewarding and punishing are not enough here. Dr. Ross Greene, a distinguished clinician, and pioneer in the treatment of explosive kids states that these kids lack some crucial skills in the domains of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving, and they require a different approach to parenting. He proposes a collaborative problem-solving model to work with explosive kids, solve their problems, and teach them the skills they lack.
22. Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents By Jane Isay
Once children become independent, adults, and lead fulfilling lives, they often get disconnected from their parents. At this stage, they want to be treated as grown-ups. This makes parents frustrated. This book offers groundbreaking insights and deeply moving stories that can help parents navigate this painful and confusing situation, and make communication between parents and adult children work.
23. Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood By Lisa Damour Ph.D.
The behavior of teenage girls can be confusing as they pass through the seven developmental transitions that turn them into grown-ups. These transitions can be Parting with Childhood, Contending with Adult Authority, Entering the Romantic World, and Caring for Herself. This book provides realistic advice on how to engage with daughters in constructive ways and how to solve their common problems. It helps parents understand, connect, and grow with their daughters, and makes them healthy and happy young women.
24. The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively By Gary Chapman
Once you understand the love languages of your children, it will be easier for you to make your children feel loved. If you speak your child’s love language, you can discipline and correct them more lovingly and effectively. This way you will build a solid foundation for their trust and make them flourish in life.
25. The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting: Raising Children with Courage, Compassion, and Connection By Brené Brown
Imperfection in parenting is completely normal. Dr. Brené Brown based on her 12 years of research on vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame presents ten guideposts to creating wholehearted families where everyone learns to their full potential. If we can accept our imperfections, we can teach our children to be authentic and compassionate so that they can understand the true purpose and meaning of life.
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26. Just Between Us: Mother & Daughter: A No-Stress, No-Rules Journal (Activity Journal for Teen Girls and Moms, Diary for Tween Girls) By Meredith Jacobs
This beautiful guided journal will make communication between mothers and daughters easier and more fun. This can create a special bond that can last forever. The journal comprises writing prompts, mini quizzes, pages for drawing and making lists, and plenty of free space. The mother and daughter can use these spaces to share between them. This journal is perfectly suited for daughters 10 years old and up.
27. Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility By Foster Cline
This book is suitable for preschool children and beyond. The psychology-based parenting method teaches children healthy responsibility and facilitates their character-building from a young age. The book talks about important aspects such as tantrums, peer pressure, cyberbullying, etc. It will help you reestablish a calm, healthy relationship and positive communication with your child.
28. No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame By Janet Lansbury
Janet Lansbury has twenty years of hands-on experience guiding hundreds of parents and their toddlers. This book is a collection of her most-read articles pertaining to common toddler behaviors. It shows how respectful parenting practices can benefit both parents and children. At this developmental stage, toddlers may test the limits of our patience and love, but with the right tools, parents can build unbreakable bonds of trust and respect.
29. The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children By Dr. Shefali Tsabary
Parents can pass psychological pain and emotional shallowness to their children. This book shows how children can function as ushers in the development of parents. Instead of control and quick fixes for dysfunction, the book offers a conscious approach to parenting. The children serve as a mirror where parents can find their forgotten selves. This book helps parents let go of their egos and understand their children better.
30. Parenting: The 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family By Paul David Tripp
Many parents forget their ultimate purpose and look for practical tips and guaranteed formulas for parenting. In this book, Paul Tripp outlines fourteen foundational principles based on the gospel that can help obtain God’s grace in parenting. Parents can follow these principles so that they can rear children with vision, purpose, and joy.
31. The Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be (The New Father, 18) By Jennifer Ash Rudick
This New York Times best-seller is a great companion for fathers-to-be and their partners. It provides a month-by-month overview of the baby’s development and advises on supporting your partner and getting ready for the future. The book comes with valuable information such as fertility, prenatal care, delivery, work-life balance, financial planning, and so on.
32. Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know By Meg Meeker
Father’s role is the most important factor in the development of a young woman. This book shows how a father can both be a counsel and protector for a daughter making her strong both spiritually and mentally. It explains how to become a strong father, why to be your daughter’s hero, the most common mistakes fathers make, how a father’s faith influences a daughter’s spiritual development, and many more. The book will help you grow, strengthen, or rebuild your relationship with your daughter to better both your life and hers.
33. Raising Worry-Free Girls: Helping Your Daughter Feel Braver, Stronger, and Smarter in an Anxious World By Sissy Goff
Our daughters often struggle with anxiety and worry–either in short episodes or for longer periods. The childhood anxiety rate is increasing among girls. This book shows how you can instill bravery and strength in your daughter. It addresses common age-specific issues and provides you and your daughter with the tools needed for overcoming anxiety. The book helps your daughter find God’s love and the confidence she needs to thrive in an anxious world.
34. Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting (The Peaceful Parent Series) By Dr. Laura Markham
This book shares a simple but effective approach to parenting. The emotional connection between parents and child is vital for raising a self-disciplined child. The book teaches you how to control your own emotions so that you can parent with healthy limits, empathy, and clear communication. In this book, you will find the practical tools you need to transform your parenting in a positive, proven way.
35. 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 By Thomas W. Phelan
The program in this book helps you manage troublesome behavior in children ages 2 through 12 without arguing, yelling, or spanking. Parents and teachers need to encourage and respect children’s growing independence and teach them self-esteem. This book can be used at home, in the classroom, or in mental health agencies. It teaches children self-discipline and helps build their social skills. The book talks about important topics such as homework arguments, mealtimes, family meetings, household chores, etc.
36. Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive: 10th Anniversary Edition By Daniel J. Siegel
Our childhood experiences have an impact on the way we parent. As per new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, interpersonal relationships and communication directly impact the development of the brain in children. This book helps parents understand their own life stories deeper so that they can raise compassionate and resilient children. It also guides parents in creating the necessary foundations for loving and secure relationships with their children.
37. How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success By Julie Lythcott-Haims
Overparenting can harm children, parents, and society at the same time. Instead of overhelping, parents should allow children to make their own mistakes and develop the resilience, resourcefulness, and inner determination necessary for success. This book is applicable to toddlers, twentysomethings, and teens and helps the next generations take charge of their own lives with competence and confidence.
38. How To Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons to Help Your Child Become Self-Driven, Respectful, and Resilient By Esther Wojcicki
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The Godmother of Silicon Valley Esther Wojcicki in her book shares the secret to raising successful people: (TRICK) Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness. By allowing your child to lead their own life, you can overcome parental anxiety. This book offers essential lessons for raising, educating, and managing people to their highest potential.
39. No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind By Daniel J. J. Siegel
Making your child disciplined can be the ultimate challenge of parenting. This book provides an effective, compassionate road map for dealing with tantrums, tensions, and tears – without creating a scene. Instead of reprimanding, you can reach your child, redirect emotions, and turn a meltdown into an opportunity for growth. This way the cycle of negative behavior can be eliminated. The book talks about what kind of discipline is most appropriate and constructive at all ages and stages, and twenty discipline mistakes that even the best parents make. It shows you how to work with your child’s developing mind to make them resilient and happy in life.
40. Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers By Gordon Neufeld
Children today learn more from their peers than they do from their parents. Their values, identity, and codes of behavior are shaped by their peers. This “peer orientation” weakens family cohesion, interferes with healthy development, and fosters a hostile and sexualized youth culture. This book explains the causes of diminishing parental influence and demonstrates ways to regain the connection between parents and children. It also addresses the challenges to parenting posed by social media and gadgets. The book will empower parents to earn back their children’s love and loyalty.
41. Stop Yelling and Love Me More, Please Mom.: Positive Parenting Is Easier than You Think: Happy Mom, Book 1 By Jennifer N. Smith
Screaming at your child will not help if you want to raise a happy child that wants to behave. You need to change the way you think and react to their behavior. Being a positive parent will make your child want to behave and follow your rules. This in turn will create a home full of peace and love for the whole family. This book explains why strict parenting does not work and how easy it is to embrace positive parenting. Through positive parenting, you will also heal yourself along the way.
42. The Montessori Toddler: A Parent’s Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being By Simone Davies
This book helps you turn your life with toddlers into a mutually rich and rewarding time of curiosity, learning, respect, and discovery. It talks about five principles for feeding your child’s natural curiosity and step-by-step ways to cultivate daily routines with ease. The book shares how to stay composed amid tantrums, meltdowns, etc., and how to raise your toddlers as inquisitive learners. It helps create trust in the child and fosters a sense of wonder.
43. The Whole and Healthy Family: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Mind, Body, and Spirit By Jodi Mockabee
This book shares the parenting philosophy that equips each unique child as a whole person making them enter adulthood as physically, spiritually, and mentally healthy individuals. It discusses how to create a wholesome home environment and prioritize spiritual growth. The book facilitates a family culture where every individual flourishes in mind, body, and spirit.
44. The Montessori Baby: A Parent’s Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding By Simone Davies
This book shows how to raise a baby from zero to age one with love, respect, insight, and a surprising sense of calm. It is full of hundreds of practical ideas so that you can understand the learning and development of your babies. The book talks about important aspects such as how to prepare yourself for parenthood, how to create Montessori spaces at home, and setting up activities that facilitate baby’s movement and language development.
45. How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Calmer, Happier Parent By Carla Naumburg
This book offers an insight-packed and tip-filled plan for parenting that makes you stop yelling and feeling ashamed, and helps you become a happier and calmer parent. You can tackle the most frustrating family situations by staying calm and without feeling stressed if you follow this book. By the end of the book, you would gain a sense of self-compassion and a concrete action plan for parenting.
46. Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans By Michaeleen Doucleff
The author Michaeleen Doucleff visited three of the world’s most venerable communities- Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania- to learn and practice their parenting methods. She observed that these families do not face the problems that western parents do. The relationships with children in these families are built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones. Doucleff followed these parenting methods with her own daughter and found remarkable results. This book explains how these parenting strategies can impact children’s mental health and development and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.
47. Raising Men: Lessons Navy SEALs Learned from Their Training and Taught to Their Sons
The author Eric Davis was himself without a father figure in his life since the age of 15. He had to fight so hard to maintain bonds with his children- especially with his son. Ultimately he learned the hard way that quality time doesn’t always show up in quantity time. Based on his training as a SEAL, Eric shows his innovative way- the Navy SEAL way- to connect and reconnect with your sons and learn how to raise real men.
48. The Intentional Father: A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character By Jon Tyson
Our sons are often confused about what the world expects from them and what they should expect of themselves. This book is full of practical steps that help fathers raise sons who know what they believe, know who they are, and will stand up against the negative cultural trends of our day. It provides specific activities, rites of passage, and significant “marking moments” for any kind of family. The book shows how fathers, grandfathers, and other male mentors can lead their sons to become good men.
49. Busy Toddler’s Guide To Actual Parenting: From Their First “No” to Their First Day of School (and Everything In Between) By Susie Allison
This book will help you gain confidence in your parenting. It provides actual parenting advice from actual parents. The book helps you change your perspective and tackle the twists and turns of parenting. It offers practical advice on issues such as tantrums and tattling and teaching the ABCs. You will also find 50+ of the author’s famous activities that can help you immensely. By the end of the book, you will feel much better about parenting.
50. The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Loving Teens Effectively By Gary Chapman
Teenagers often face pressures and stresses socially, mentally, and spiritually. This book equips parents with the tools needed for influencing teenagers. It helps parents understand the world in which teenagers live and their developmental changes. Parents learn to identify teens’ love languages and communicate effectively with them. The book also helps navigate key issues in teen’s life and set healthy boundaries between parents and teens.
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Conclusion
So we have shared our list of 50 best books on parenting that will be immensely helpful to parents in raising their children. These books will reinstate and energize the connection between parents and children, help parents understand the growth and development of their children, and choose the perfect parenting methods that suit their needs. Finally, these books will enable parents to raise socially, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually successful children who will make their parents proud and will be an asset to society.