30 Must-Read Parenting Books to Gift this Christmas (2023)

11 min readOct 24, 2023

When we talk about 30 Must-Read Parenting Books to Gift this Christmas (2023), There are a lot of books out there that are available for you to read.

Parenting is a wonderful experience for a new parent who wants to give everything they have to their child. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to remember that even the best parents sometimes need a book to figure out what’s best for their child.

Parents are often the top priority of children’s education, but for many new parents, children’s education seems a little at a loss. There are also many friends who are already moms and dads.

Every time they go out to a party, they will always talk about the education of their babies, consciously or unconsciously. Especially dear mothers, the troubles are really one after another.

Related Topics: Best Parenting Books

It’s OK Not to Share

It’s OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids by Heather Shumaker

So first I have “It’s Okay Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules” by Heather Shoemaker my husband and I often call this the renegade rules book when we’re talking about it because it’s easier this is a book for parents of kids between the ages of 2 and 6 she also has a book called it’s okay to go up the slide which goes up to age 10 but I haven’t read that one yet.

I’m sure it’s just as good as this one and I’m looking forward to reading that one I’m just waiting until my kids are a little bit older so one of the things I absolutely love about this book is all of the rules that she shares for parenting are based on the rights of children and the rights of parents and she lists out the rights of parents and children half.

for example one of the rights of children is children have the right to uninterrupted free play one of the rights of parents is that parents have the right not to go insane I love that right my husband and I use it all the time when you know like one with the car and the kids are screaming or something no but that really is one of the rights that she talks out in here so some of the examples of rules that she shows in here long turn kids how kids can take long turns.

If a child is playing with something and another child wants it the second child can wait for the first child to be done and the first child can decide how long they want to play with that toy and then you know and then share and I really like that rule.

another example of a rule is that all feelings are okay all actions aren’t and that’s a really important rule as a parent you know it’s okay for your child to be sad or mad at you it’s not okay for your child to hit you.

one of the things that I really love about this book is that each rule gives examples of phrases that a parent can use along with the rule and phrases that the parent could avoid so one of the phrases that we use a lot is I can’t let you hit me or I can’t let you hit.

Ashton hitting hurts people and those are just some phrases that we use you know when our kids are you know when my two-year-olds hitting me because she’s mad at me I can’t let you hit me and I grabbed her hand so that she can’t hit me and it’s just it gives me a reaction so instead of just getting really mad at her I have something to a way to react.

and I love that they give a lot of examples like that here in very specific phrases that you can use to cover a lot of things everything from you know how to deal with kids’ emotions to how to deal with sharing and kids interacting with each other and dealing with conflict between kids to things like how to handle death and s*x and those kinds of topics with your kids and it even covers things like art and dressing up and it covers so much in this book.

one of the things that I really really love is their golden rule which is if it’s not hurting people or property it’s okay I use that golden rule all the time because I am a type one kind of controlling type persimmons though it really helps for me to stick it take a breath and step back and say it’s not hurting anything they can do that.

another thing I love that they have in here is they have little boxes throughout the book that say to take off your adult lenses and it kind of goes along with the golden rule where if it’s not hurting anyone sometimes we as adults think that things need to be done in a certain way but really it’s fine kids do it a different way.

one other thing that I really love about this book is how it focuses on teaching kids how to deal with conflict and keeps giving them the tools to deal with conflict and then stepping back as they learn those tools and letting them work it out between themselves but also giving you as the parent tools to help mediate to help teach your kids to deal with the conflict.

the last thing in this book that I wanted to mention that I really really like is at the end of every section they have out-and-about tips which are just tips for how to deal with other parents or when you’re with other families or you’re at the park or you in situations where these rules might be harder to apply because you’re with other people and I love it gives really specific examples and specific things that you can say and I found those really really helpful this is a really great parenting book if you have a child under the age of 6 or 7 I would definitely recommend picking it up.

How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk

How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber

Next, how to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk by Adele Faber. Adele Faber actually published this book in the 80s I believe and it talks about a lot of the same principles. but it’s not for specifically little kids it has a lot of examples from little you know toddlers all the way through teenagers and talks about kids just in general.

this book is based on other parents and shares a lot of other parents’ experiences but it doesn’t have the same narrative feel it’s much more self-help just chapter by chapter feel and so some people might like that better.

How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen

How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber & Julie King

The next parenting book I wanted to share is How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Johanna Faver and Julie King this is one that I found pretty recently but I have absolutely loved it it’s also for ages between 2 and 7.

personally, right now because of my kids’ ages, I actually prefer this one simply because their ages as they get older I’m sure that I will reference the other one more because it will be more applicable to me at the time so the first half of this book focuses on like general principles and tools and parenting techniques and then the second half of the book actually has different chapters with specific situations like if your kid is lying or and things like that and how to specifically apply the tools that they introduced before to those situations which I think is really useful for reference.

one thing I loved is just the focus on parenting in a very loving kind and respectful way while still setting limits but really being respectful and kind one of my favorite phrases that they use a lot in the book is take action without insult and that just means if you’ve tried all of your tools and techniques and everything and that your child just isn’t listening and you have to you know their child’s throwing vodka other people at the park and you’ve tried everything and they won’t stop and you have to leave the park to leave but not insult or disrespect your child while doing it you don’t have to be mad you don’t have to blame your child or shame child you can just simply take them and say it looks like we’re having a hard time listening.

today we’ll have to come back another time or I don’t like to see Bart being thrown at kids will come back and try playing at the park another time and you can do it in a very kind way rather than being rude or angry about it and I love that’s the way that I want to parent personally and so I really really love that focus in this book.

one thing it really talks about is it compares how we talk to our kids to how we talk to other adults or even our spouse or ourselves and I think that’s a really good thing to keep in mind as you are talking to your kids like what I say this to another adult or in it is this really degrading one thing this book as well as the other book by Adele Faver they both do this is they use comics to show the difference between how we would normally react or discipline our children versus the new technique and the differences between what the children are thinking and what the children the results that you get from them and different things like that.

and I think it’s a very useful way to write a parenting book two things that I really really loved about this book first. it gives you a lot of tools for how to get your children to cooperate without actually telling them what to do because it talks about how the less you tell a child what to do the more likely they are to listen when you do tell them what to do and what other adults tell them what to do and so it gives you a lot of tools for that and it works really well.

the other thing that I really like about this book is it talks about problem-solving in place of punishment or even consequences and I really really love their method and why they do it they go way into depths of the benefits and why they do problem-solving and how to do how to specifically use problem-solving in place of punishments for certain situations and why it’s better for both the child and parent and certain steps that you can or need to take with it and everything so it’s I love that part of the book this is a really really fabulous book I would definitely recommend picking up this book or how to talk so kids will listen and listen it’s okay the kids will talk if your child is older.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

my next book is “Mindset A New Psychology” by Carol Estwick this is technically not a painting book it does have a section specifically for parents and it has other sections for others like coaches and teachers and things but the overall principle of the mindset.

I think is just such an important concept especially for kids because she talks about a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is where you think that your traits like personality or IQ or talents or whatever it is that they’re fixed that there is set in stone and there’s not much that you can do to change them.

and then she talks about the growth mindset which is believing that your traits that they through three things through your efforts using different strategies and through asking for help through those three things you can grow as a person and improve all of your different qualities whether that’s personality or your IQ or a talent or whatever it is reading the book.

I was surprised at how much of a fixed mindset I had in so many different areas and it made me really want to improve but it really opened my mind to how important is as parents that we try and help cultivate a growth mindset for kids because the growth mindset is like one of the number one telling points of whether you’re successful in life or not basically.

if you have a growth mindset you’re more likely to be successful and if you have a fixed mindset you’re probably not going to be as successful in life in all areas of life whether that’s relationships or jobs or whatever it is and it’s really important as parents because a lot of the studies they’ve done they’ve actually found that kids even as young as three or four years old can already have a fixed mindset when it comes to certain things.

and so as parents, there are things that we can do and the book talks about a lot of those things there are things that we can do that can really help cultivate that mindset in our kids and there’s also a lot of information online a lot of parenting blogs that talk about this concept as well if you wanted to go read those to get a more condensed specific to parenting information.

The Whole-Brain Child

The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

the next book I chose was “The Whole Brain Child” by Daniel J Siegel and Tina Paine Bryson. this is such a fabulous book it basically looks at behavior children’s behavior from a neurological standpoint and how we as parents can help them to better their behavior to develop their minds better through the different situations that come up in life whether it’s them misbehaving or just situations that are out of our control the premise basically is that there are four parts of our brain there’s the right side and the left side in the upper hemisphere in the lower hemisphere.

and our goal as parents are to integrate all four of those parts and help the kids integrate those four parts because as they integrate all four parts of their brain they become more mature and better able to handle things in life and just work towards being a better person, in general, it really goes into the science but in a very useful way which I loved, they also have a lot of very specific things that parents can do and say to help the children do that in very specific situations.

and I just was grateful for this book because it just gave me a way to respond and feel like I was helping my child when she had an experience like that and I just I’ve had a lot of experiences like that from this book.

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