What's your favorite parenting book?

I'm looking for some suggestions of books to buy. A couple of titles I'm interested in that I heard about on here are Love & Logic and Siblings Without Rivalry. What's your favorite parenting book and why do you like it? It can be serious or funny, any philosophy, and doesn't necessarily have to be specific to preschoolers.

 

Ready or Not Here We Go an advice book written by a mother with toddler twins. I liked it because it kind of told me what to expect behavior wise. I also had 1-2-3 Magic which worked for the kids when they were 2 and I think now, natural consequences work much better.

 

Positive parenting, siblings without rivalry r my two favs right now.

 

Raising Your Spirited Child! Love this book. I love how it helped me recognize that I was not necessarily going to change some of the characteristics in my girls (nor did I really want to), but framed them in a more positive light. All of the things that drive me crazy right now, are all qualities (minus the occasional screaming hysterics ) that are typically embraced and encouraged in adults.

 

"Siblings without Rivalry" and "How to Listen So Kids Will Talk" are my two favorites right now. They're very similar (I can't remember if they're written by the same authors) and the general gist is to accept children, and their feelings, as they come. The goal is to build stronger connections within the family so that you can resolve problems together (or, with siblings, so they can eventually resolve them on their own).

I also like the "Your 3-Year-Old," etc. series by Ames & Ilg. They are dated, but usually right on target about what each developmental stage is like.

When the kids were younger, I liked the "Girlfriend's Guide" series, but I don't know if there is one for older kids. With those, I found that they made me nervous before my kids reached that stage, but made me laugh when we were actually in it. I didn't actually follow her advice (if she gives any), though.

I tried "Positive Discipline" and found some useful things in it, but it was a little intense for me. She basically thinks all punishment/consequences (unless truly natural -- not "logical") are bad, and all problems can/should be resolved by family meetings and joint problem-solving. I thought it was a lovely idea but way too complicated for our family, at least at this stage. Sometimes you just need to send them to time-out!

 

I do agree. Positive discipline was a bit much but I did like a few of the ideas from it, for instance we still use timeouts for violent behavior and they don't advocate that. But then after TO I do validate their feelings as usually they hit if they r frustrated jealous or angry, so that part I do follow from the book.

 

For those of you who have read Positive Discipline, did you read the general book or the one geared for preschoolers?

 

I love this one as much as Siblings Without Rivalry...called Parenting from the Inside Out - really makes you think about how you were raised and what attributes you bring to your parenting, like it or not, and how to deal through that with your desire to be the parent you want to be, not one with the habits you cannot help perpetuating from your upbringing. Powerful book. Here is a link to it.