Great Books on Parenting

One of the fringe benefits of SheHeroes is all the reading — necessary to understand tweens and our target market — makes for better parenting. Half the people I meet with say “Hey, I have a book you have to read.”

When the people you talk with are leaders in the fields of psychology and child development, you feel compelled to take it.   Even if it means replacing that quick and relaxing novel with something requiring concentration.

All parents who are Type A should read a couple of books.  They made me step back and rethink our entire approach to parenting, bringing them to Jamie to read – they are from Dr. Cathy Cohn, our amazing advisor.

• The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, by Wendy Mogel
• The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids, by Madeleine Levin

Check them out or buy them for a friend who has questions about raising a school age child.  They don’t seem as relevant for raising children in a low income situation, although the former has some good points.

(Does anybody have suggestions for books more targeted to raising a children in low income environments?)

Another really helpful thing I’ve been reading about lately is temperament, because one my children has pretty much the opposite temperament from me, and it’s really hard to be a good parent if you don’t understand and acknowledge which traits are inborn and not changeable.  (That last sentence makes a lot of unpleasant conflict sound more benign than it has been.)

I’m still on that journey, but a good starting point is Temperament Tools:  Working with Your Child’s Inborn Traits, by Dave Garbot.