Here are my Top 10 favorite parenting books I have read in the last decade.
- Why Do They Act That Way?
- Parenting With Love And Logic
- How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
- The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
- No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
- UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
- 10 Gifts of Wisdom: What Every Child Must Know Before They Leave Home
- The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively
- The Hurried Child
1. Why Do They Act That Way?
This book explains the scientific, brain based reasons, behind teen’s impulsive behavior, lack of focus, self-consciousness, territoriality, fatigue and their quickness to anger and take risks to name just a few common teen problems. All these behaviors are linked to physical changes and growth in the adolescent brain. Ten years ago there was no Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. Now every kid has a smartphone and a Twitter account. Dr Walsh offers the best advice to help adolescents thrive and parents survive.
2. Parenting With Love And Logic
This book shows you how to raise self-confident, motivated children who are ready for the real world. Learn how to parent effectively while teaching your children responsibility and growing their character.
Establish healthy control through easy-to-implement steps without anger, threats, nagging, or power struggles.
3. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
This bestselling classic includes fresh insights and suggestions as well as the author’s time-tested methods to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships, including innovative ways to:
• Cope with your child’s negative feelings, such as frustration, anger, and disappointment
• Express your strong feelings without being hurtful
• Engage your child’s willing cooperation
• Set firm limits and maintain goodwill
• Use alternatives to punishment that promote self-discipline
• Understand the difference between helpful and unhelpful praise
• Resolve family conflicts peacefully
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
This book presents a practical and philosophical guide to solving the problems–large and small, mundane and extraordinary–that confront all families and strong communities. By offering revealing anecdotes about ordinary people as well as helpful suggestions about changing everyday behavior, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families shows how and why to have family meetings, the importance of keeping promises, how to balance individual and family needs, and how to move from dependence to interdependence. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families is an invaluable guidebook to the welfare of families everywhere.
5. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
This book offers a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth.
Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
6. No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
Highlighting the fascinating link between a child’s neurological development and the way a parent reacts to misbehavior; No-Drama Discipline provides an effective, compassionate road map for dealing with tantrums, tensions, and tears—without causing a scene.
• strategies that help parents identify their own discipline philosophy—and master the best methods to communicate the lessons they are trying to impart
• facts on child brain development—and what kind of discipline is most appropriate and constructive at all ages and stages
• the way to calmly and lovingly connect with a child—no matter how extreme the behavior—while still setting clear and consistent limits
• tips for navigating your child through a tantrum to achieve insight, empathy, and repair
• twenty discipline mistakes even the best parents make—and how to stay focused on the principles of whole-brain parenting and discipline techniques
7. UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
This book explains what parents and educators can do to combat the growing empathy crisis among children today—including a 9-step empathy-building program with tips to guide kids from birth through college, and beyond.
8. 10 Gifts of Wisdom: What Every Child Must Know Before They Leave Home
In this book you will find ten gifts of character and wisdom that you, as a loving and involved parent, can give to your children before they leave home. You will be inspired, instructed, and empowered to give your children the foundation they need to build a life of strength and meaning. As a hands-on guide to character formation, 10 Gifts of Wisdom is crammed with practical suggestions, personal stories, and pointed encouragement for moms in the thick of child training. But this is also a book of vision, offering you the inspiration and comfort you need as you seek to raise your children with excellent character, strong minds, and loving hearts. 10 Gifts of Wisdom explores the gifts of Faith, Friendship, Character, Manners, Service, Work, Gratitude, Hospitality, Initiative, and Patience, and considers the power of Reading in forming a child’s life.
9. The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively
This book shows you how to speak your child’s love language in a way that he or she understands. Discover your child’s primary language—then speak it—and you will be well on your way to a stronger relationship with your flourishing child.
10. The Hurried Child
With the first edition of The Hurried Child, David Elkind emerged as the voice of parenting reason, calling our attention to the crippling effects of hurrying our children through life. He showed that by blurring the boundaries of what is age appropriate, by expecting–or imposing–too much too soon, we force our kids to grow up too fast, to mimic adult sophistication while secretly yearning for innocence. In the more than two decades since this book first appeared, new generations of parents have inadvertently stepped up the assault on childhood, in the media, in schools, and at home. In the third edition of this classic (2001), Dr. Elkind provided a detailed, up-to-the-minute look at the Internet, classroom culture, school violence, movies, television, and a growing societal incivility to show parents and teachers where hurrying occurs and why. And as before, he offered parents and teachers insight, advice, and hope for encouraging healthy development while protecting the joy and freedom of childhood. In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the book, Dr. Elkind delivers important new commentary to put a quarter century of trends and change into perspective for parents today.
