My magnificent obsession Kids don't come with instruction manuals, so we parents have to settle for the next best thing -- parenting books. Over the course of my parenting career, I've read entire bookcases of parenting books. In fact, reading them has become somewhat of a passion over the years. I even started collecting vintage parenting books after my grandmother passed away a few years ago and left me some of her own childrearing manuals. I've since found online archives that allow you to download pages from childrearing manuals that date back to the early 1800s. Fascinating stuff! Anyway, for the purpose of this guide, I'm going to focus on the current generation of parenting books -- the types of books that are sold here at Amazon.com.
What's not in this guide I've already written separate guides that talk about how to figure out which pregnancy book to buy, which baby book to buy, and which toddler book to buy, so I'm not going to go over that material again here. (You can always check out one or all of those guides, if you're interested.) What I'm going to zero in on here are parenting books that I've found particularly useful over the years. I'm certainly not going to be able to mention every parenting book on the planet, or even a fraction of the parenting books that I've read. (Amazon.com limits the number of words in your guides and the number of books that you can list, after all).
Another small but important disclaimer I will also be adding to this guide on an going basis, so don't just read it once. It will probably take me months to get it right. I have about 10 more books I want to add to it tonight -- but I don't have time! (The story of my life.) So come back again soon, okay?
Down-to-earth experts
If there's one thing I hate, it's experts who pretend to have all the answers, but have little to offer parents but overly simplistic solutions that simply don't stand up in the real world. Fortunately, there are a lot of really great parenting books that sidestep that trap. Here are a few books that I'm really thrilled to be able to recommend.
My own two cents on the subject In case you're wondering about my own parenting book, it's called The Mother of All Parenting Books: The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Happy, Healthy Child from Preschool through the Preteens (Mother of All). It covers the preschool years through the preteens. The book is the follow up to The Mother of All Toddler Books (Mother of All), which came out earlier this year. (As you might expect, The Mother of All Toddler Books covers the highs and lows of the toddler years -- everything from temper tantums to toilet training to the wonderful excitement of hearing your child weave his or her first sentences together. Are the toddler years a rollercoaster ride or what? But how wise of Mother Nature to give us that great pre-training for the teen rollercoaster ride to come.)
I have a passion for writing about pregnancy and parenting, and I'm not finished yet, even though I've easily written more than a million words on the subject to date. Becoming a mother has been the most exciting and dramatic experience of my life (and a major challenge, to say the least). I guess it's hardly surprising that I find myself with so much to say on the subject. It's quite literally my life's work.
The savvy parent's quick guide to online reviews When you're shopping for products at Amazon.com, be wary of products with a huge number of reviews written by "drive-by reviewers" (reviewers who create accounts to post a single review that promotes or slams a particular product and/or that tell you what other product you should have purchased instead). These dubious reviews undermine the effectiveness of what has the power to be a really powerful tool: reviews from other customers who have had experience with the product you are thinking about purchasing. Less-than-authentic reviews can cause you to waste your hard-earned money on a product that isn't what you thought it was -- or to pass over an item that would have met your needs perfectly. Either way, you lose. - Ann Douglas
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