My Favorite Parenting Books

The Discipline Book: How to Have a Better-Behaved Child From Birth to Age Ten by William and Martha Sears.

To me this is the classic book that gives a solid foundation for discipline.  It gave me a framework to think about what discipline really is and what I want it to look like in my home along with practical tips. I love it because it starts with the idea that discipline flows from connection.  To me this style reflects the heart of God and resonates with my own heart.

Other Dr. Sears books worth mentioning:

The Complete Book of Christian Parenting and Child Care: A Medical and Moral Guide to Raising Happy Healthy Children

The Successful Child: What Parents Can Do to Help Kids Turn Out Well

Playful Parentingby Lawrence J. CohenI’ve posted a lot about this book already, but I’ll mention it again here. This book really gave me so many new ides and revolutionized my parenting in a lot of ways.  As the title suggests, it does talk about adding playfulness and fun into our parenting and even discipline.  But beyond that it covers much more about dealing with strong emotions, tantrums, and all problem behaviors you may face.  He talks about how to translate behaviors into needs and about filling “love cups.”  These concepts have been really helpful to me.

Connection Parenting: Parenting Through Connection Instead of Coercion, Through Love Instead of Fear,by Pam Leo I really appreciated this book because it seemed to take a lot of different parenting books and mesh them together into a simple, easy-to-read, easy to understand book. (So helpful for busy moms who often have to read on the fly!)    It’s almost written in bullet points, where each sentence packs a punch. Again, it just really made sense to me and lined up with my understanding of God’s heart and child development.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

This book is practical.  It literally has cartoons of typical scenarios we have with our kids showing our normal reactions, and then what the authors suggest to be a better way.  It’s hilarious because it’s so accurate!  This is stuff that you can apply immediately with your kids and experience results right away.  A lot of it is using some basic active listening skills, which is so powerful with kids.  I liked the follow-up book as well, Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too.  It focuses more on conflict resolution and giving your kids the skills they need to resolve their own conflicts and problem solve.  Essential for life with four boys!  (I posted about it here).

These are books that sit well with me.   When I apply the principles from these books I can lay down at the end of the day exhausted, yet feeling good about my interactions with my kids. It’s not the easy way.  It’s the hard way because it requires a lot more work on my end to be kind, compassionate and respectful – especially when I feel the opposite.  But it’s worth it because I feel good and my kids feel good too.  I can’t help but think that’s how God intended it to be.