What are the best parenting books that can help new parents out there?
Nobody would contradict that parents are not busybodies, but you may be amazed to realize how much time you spend reading parenting books when you are in breastfeeding your baby, waiting outside of toddler ballet class, or in your office pumping.
If you are looking for solutions for the usual parenting challenges like sleep, breastfeeding, potty training, or discipline, well-researched parenting books could help. We have compiled the top twelve parenting books that provide expert advice for moms and dads who need methods, ideas, and strategies that actually work.
‘What to Expect: the First Year’ by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
When What to Expect was published, it was the pioneer mom-to-mom, peer-to-peer— a lot of parenting books before it had been authored by predominantly doctors and were leaning toward a more “top-down” method to giving advice. Now, the What to Expect series maintains selling millions and millions of copies annually and is arguably one of the most meticulously edited and freshest parenting guides out there. With author Heidi Murkoff’s diligent advocacy for improved maternal health care worldwide, you’ll understand why many parents regard this book as the standard benchmark for parenting books and manuals.
‘The Expectant Father’ by Armin Brott
Dads also look for parenting books and guides that can make them better in being dads, and The New Father, a guidebook for dads and dads-to-be, is frank and funny, and chock-full of information without being too formal, preachy, or dry. Mommies and mommies-to-be appreciate the book’s liberal approach to helping dads step up, step in, and also feel empowered as parents.
‘Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right’ by Jamie Glowacki
Hands-down the most recommended book when it comes to potty training among moms worldwide, Oh Crap! is an easy-read guide that puts out a definitive, step-by-step approach for toilet-training accomplishment, and helps explain and clarify the process for newbie parents. Disclaimer: The author’s writing tone could sound a bit forceful to some parents, and she suggests beginning potty training by a particular age, instead of waiting for indications of potty-training readiness.
‘Precious Little Sleep’ by Alexis Dubief
Even more than development or feeding, sleep is probably the first concern for the frazzled modern parents — how to train their baby to sleep at suitable times. A wide variety of baby sleep guide and parenting books suggest a plethora of different methods and approaches, but there’s really no universal sleep remedy that works the same for all families. Well-organized and meticulously-researched, this in-depth parenting guide breaks down various sleep approaches so you can determine which would work best for your child, offering a wide variety of solutions without the guilt.
‘The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding’ from La Leche League International
This comprehensive parenting guide to successful breastfeeding from distinguished breastfeeding advocates, La Leche League, is definitely worth checking out. At more than 500 pages, ‘The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding’ is definitely not an easy read, but it is one of the most in-depth materials available for help with latching and common breastfeeding troubles like sore nipples and mastitis. There’s judgment-free help in the pages of this book, regardless if you want to exclusively breastfeed as long as you can or just for the first few months.
‘The Whole-Brain Child’ by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
If there’s an instant 3-step process to resolving every single one of your child’s tantrums, you would want to know what the trick was, am I right? Well, the key to deciphering why your kid is throwing a fit about wearing his or her pants when it is freezing outside is knowing how your kid’s brain is wired. Authored by a neuroscientist, this guide clearly explains what’s happening in your child’s brain at different stages of development. It also tells how best to interpret that knowledge and turn it into solutions to apply to outbursts and tantrums.
When Partners Become Parents by Carolyn Pape Cowan & Philip A. Cowan
This decade-long longitudinal research of how parenthood impacts romantic partnership is enthusiastically affirming. This parenting guide captures both the ups and downs of relationships during the struggle of new parenthood in an assuring way that only a few parenting books of its kind have achieved.
The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
This parenting guide features a related approach of acceptance for the cynic mom and dad who is unfazed by anecdote. Nevertheless, it taps into basic neuroscience to back itself up — it tells about knowing which parts of your child’s brain are activated mid-outburst, for instance, could change how we tackle one.
The Second Shift by Arlie Hochschild, with Anne Machung
I guess we can all agree that it’s a lot easier to be relaxed when you don’t need to do all the household chores yourself. This trailblazing parenting guide about working moms and dads and how they split domestic labor is several decades old, but unfortunately as relevant as ever.
The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller
This guide can be filed under parenting books to help you pull yourself together before you repeat the vicious drama cycle in spite of actively fearing it. Gifted child or not, the distinct family dynamic encapsulated in this book is one that we see almost all the time: Children usually try to please their folks at the expense of really knowing what they want or like.
Your Baby Week by Week by Simone Cave and Dr. Caroline Fertleman
More on ‘what to expect’ rather than a ‘how to’ guide, a bunch of new parents highly recommend this parenting book. It guides you through the first six months, week by week – from how often you can expect an infant to sleep and nap to how often they tend to want to feed. The book also gives sensible and actually useful tips on troubleshooting early-day issues, including burping, cradle cap, and nappy rash.
The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik
Gopnik’s The Philosophical Baby is a reminder that kids give as much as they can get, and not just because they are adorable. Gopnik tours us through the awakening consciousness of infants and tells us, parents, how much we could learn about the essence of human nature just by looking through the tiny, screaming versions of ourselves we’re trying our very best to understand and to keep alive.
Final Words: Parenting Books
Families could come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Regardless if you are married with a bunch of kids and a puppy, you have stepped up and stepped into a new family complete with a couple of stepchildren, or divorced and gladly co-parenting, there is always comfort in knowing that you are not the only human being in the world striving to stay afloat with the wild ride that is called parenting. We hope these parenting books will offer you grains of knowledge as you go through the battles and victories of raising your children.