What’s Your Parenting Style? My Go-To Book List to Inform Your Parenting Philosophy
The decision fatigue of parenting is so very real. As exhaustion, self-doubt and comparison creep in, it can be hard to know what choices to make for your kids. Getting on the same page as your partner or co-parent can be another challenge in finding your footing. Maybe you’re new to this, or maybe you’re feeling the overwhelm of having been in the trenches for years without a clear vision of your mission.
Sometimes, people ask me about my parenting philosophy, what “model” of parenting I subscribe to. And my answer is always that I take bits and pieces to combine it all into what feels right to me. So no worries if you’re tripped up “gentle parenting,” “attachment parenting,” “authoritative parenting,” and everything in between.” Every parent has a right to see what is out there and make intentional decisions in how to parent their children. But by doing this up-front work to intentionally choose, parents will benefit from less anxiety and overwhelm, and kids’ will feel more secure (causing myriad benefits) with more consistency from their adults.
Here are some great books I recommend as you consider your parenting philosophy!
Free to Learn - Peter Gray
The Danish Way of Parenting - Jessica Joelle Alexander & Iben Dissing Sandahl
Cribsheet - Emily Oster
Bringing up Bébé - Pamela Druckerman
Hunt, Gather, Parent - Michaeleen Doucleff
Raising a Secure Child - Kent Hoffman, Glen Cooper, & Bert Powell
Never Enough - Jennifer Breheny Wallace
Free Range Kids - Lenore Skenazy
Check back for new recs as I regularly update my book lists as I learn and read more!
