Parenting is often regarded as the absolute best and most challenging job ever. While the “absolute best” part is awesome on every level, it is the “challenging” part that oftentimes causes angst and frustration for parents. Fortunately, many parenting experts have stepped up and made it their mission to share research-based suggestions and support to address challenges by writing books for parents to use as resources. By drawing on information from parenting books like those shared below, the parenting years can be filled with more of the “best” and far less of the “challenging!”

Favorite Parenting Books

Click the book titles below to go to the book on Amazon.

1-2-3- Magic: Gentle 3-Step Child and Toddler Discipline for Calm, Effective and Happy Parenting (Positive Parenting Guide for Raising Happy Kids) by Thomas W. Phelan, PhD

Meltdowns, bedtime battles, sibling rivalry and other challenging behavior may be common in the parenting realm, but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating. If you are looking for techniques to encourage good behavior, help create positive bedtime and other routines, and strengthen your relationship with your child overall, then Phelan’s book may be a great resource to check out. In 1-2-3-Magic, the author introduces readers to an abundance of techniques and research-based solutions and tools that will put you on your way to living in a calm, peaceful home.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

In the early 2010s, the mental health of adolescents across the globe took an alarming nosedive. After experiencing more than ten years of improvement, the rates of suicide, anxiety, self-harm, and depression greatly rose, in many cases doubling. Knowing this, social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt wrote The Anxious Generation to address these areas of concern that affected so many countries. A few topics of his investigation include the topic of play and independent exploration and why they are pivotal for success in life, and why the “phone-based childhood” of the early 2010s replaced the play-based childhood, causing a shift towards loneliness, sleep deprivation, social comparison, and attention fragmentation. Haidt’s book has been called a must-read for all parents who desire a greater understanding of the collapse of mental health in the smartphone, big tech and social media era, and helps lay out a roadmap for greater health and freedom for our children overall.

Parenting Re-de-fined: Finding the Confidence to Parent Your Teen by Britney Dent

If you are the parent of a teenager who is seeking advice on how to be a great parent with a strong parent-teen relationship, then look no further. In Parenting Re-de-dined, author, coach, and TMOM Team Member Britney Dent shares strategies to help you enjoy your teenager more and offer him/her a roadmap to success. As an established coach, Britney builds on the same principles she uses with her clients to help them make the best life choices, improve academics, health, and relationships. This book will help you redefine your parenting role so you can thrive as a parent. www.teenchoicecoach.com/book

The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable and Compassionate Adolescents by Lisa Damour, PhD

It is a well-known face that teenagers are complex, emotional beings. Between developing brains and bodies, a powerful mix of emotions gets added to the equation, along with worry about the future, social media and academic pressures, mental health concerns, and more. In her book, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers, Dr. Lisa Damour, the author of Untangled and Under as well as an expert collaborator on the popular Pixar movie, Inside Out 2, offers insight into the lives of teenagers to help parents glean a greater understanding of what teens experience and advice on how to guide and support them through this season of life. Parents who read this book will learn how to support their teens who feel led by their emotions, strategies for addressing adolescent challenges, how to best stay connected to their teen, and much more.

Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour, PhD

The author of this New York Times bestseller coined this book “an urgently needed guide to the alarming increase in anxiety and stress experienced by girls from elementary school through college.” While anxiety is a growing concern in young people overall, research shows it even more prevalent in girls. Dr. Damour uses a reassuring, engaging tone while explaining the facts about psychological pressure. She also shares ways stress and anxiety can be valuable and believes that taking the approach of emphasizing the benefits of stress and anxiety actually help girls to better take them in stride. Parents will also appreciate learning about steps to shield their daughters from toxic cultural pressures to which girls are subjected.

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

Getting kids to listen to parents and listen so kids will talk to parents seems to be an age-old challenge. In this classic, bestselling book, globally acclaimed experts on parent-child communications offer fresh suggestions and insights as well as problem-solving methods to address this challenge. Parents who read this “ultimate ‘parenting bible,’” as called by the Boston Globe, will feel empowered to establish mutually respectful communication channels with children, set firm limits, cope with children’s difficult feelings, understand the difference between helpful and unhelpful praise, and strategies to peacefully resolve family conflicts.

How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber

Parents have looked to Joanna Faber for guidance on how to build strong, mutual communication with children in elementary years and beyond. As a response to increasing demand, Faber joins her daughter, Julie King, also a parenting expert, to pen this book to help parents effectively communicate with children ages two to seven. Whether you are dealing with a child who screams in his/her car seat, won’t eat dinner, annoys a sibling, or runs wild in public places, this book will offer the guidance you seek. This book will not only address common challenges and conflicts with proven strategies, but put parents on the path to help little kids grow into cooperative, self-reliant big kids with strong connections to parents, siblings, teachers, and peers.

How to Talk When Kids Won’t Listen: Whining, Fighting, Meltdowns, Defiance, and Other Challenges of Childhood by Joanna Faber and Julie King

These popular and well-respected parenting experts, Joanna Faber and Julie King, hit another one out of the park with this all-new addition to their How to Talk series. This title addresses childhood challenges like whining, fighting, defiance, and others that parents cope with while raising children. As with the other books by these authors, readers will learn communication skills to add to their toolboxes as well as answers to specific questions and relatable stories to better illustrate how to address and resolve challenges such as homework hassles, digital struggles, sibling fights, and more as they arise. An additional resource included in this book is a section of “reminder pages” to directly address most any topic of interest. This book is a welcome addition to the series and to the bookshelf of parents, teachers, and anyone else who lives or works with children.

How to Be a Happier Parent: Raising a Family, Having a Life, and Loving (Almost) Every Minute by KJ Dell’Antonia

KJ Dell’Antonia sees the same topic come up again and again in her work as a reporter and writer: parents want to know how to have a great sense of happiness in daily life. In her book, KJ turns the table and asks the question “How can we change our family life so it is full of the joy we’d always hoped for?” The author focuses on nine common problem spots that cause the most grief for parents, and offers manageable steps to make them better. Her upbeat writing style inspires and encourages parents to experience great joy all along the path of parenting.

Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child’s Attitude, Behavior and Character in 5 Days by Dr. Kevin Leman

Would you like to reverse negative behavior in your children, and fast? If the answer is yes, then this book that took the parenting world by storm may be just what you are looking for. The author, Dr. Kevin Leman, shares hope as well as real, practical approaches to regaining control and becoming great parents. With a chapter for each day of the week, a section on advice for common, frustrating actions by kids, and a section with an index of more than 100 specific topics, achieving your goal of reversing your child’s negative behavior is closer than you think!

Siblings without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together so You Can Live Too by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

This dynamic author duo turned their attention to the topic of sibling battles in this New York Times bestselling book. Faber and Mazlish produced a wise, groundbreaking book with practical tools for parents to use to foster cooperation, minimize competition, deal with conflict, and make it possible for siblings to embrace the joys of their special relationship. They also share advice on when to intervene during fights, how to redirect hostility into creative outlets, and how to treat children fairly and equally. This book is a must read to help maintain a calm household.

This is Ridiculous This is Amazing by Jason Good

Without question, laughter is good medicine, and especially helpful on a challenging parenting day. Author Jason Good has written a book with a clear message that all is easier and more fun when it is approached with a sense of humor, especially parenting. With laugh-out-loud passages, Good offers lists that seem to capture every aspect of parenthood while embracing each great and less-than-great moment. This title makes a perfect gift for all the parents in your life who could use a big laugh.

#IMOMSOHARD by Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley

Hensley and Smedley’s #IMOMSOHARD is another great choice to keep the theme of laughter going. Instead of more parenting advice, this New York Times bestselling title offers “best friend banter” about the countless ways moms give every ounce of themselves all day, every day including: I KEEP IT TOGETHER SO HARD, I BODY AFTER BABY SO HARD, I KEEP FOOLS ALIVE SO HARD, AND I HIT THE TOWN (AND AM IN BED BY 9:30 P.M.) SO HARD. Take some time for yourself and curl up with this light-hearted book while enjoying a little comic relief from the hardest, but best job on earth.

By Ellen Bryant Lloyd, TMOM Team Member

Ellen Bryant Lloyd is a writer and mom of two children who have flown from the nest. Drawing on her experiences, she blogs about perspectives on life and parenting at mindfulmom.wordpress.com and tweets at @EllenBLloyd. In addition to being a TMOM Team Member, she is a freelance writer, memoir ghostwriter, and the author of FRECKLES and FRECKLES and The Great Beach Rescue. Ellen lives in Greensboro with her husband and looks forward to seeing her son and daughter, who are now living and working in metropolitan cities, as often as possible.

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