Mother of 10 Shares Top 5 Time-Tested Books For Parenting

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My 5 Time Tested Books For Parents

Some of these books, I have reread over and over again. Many I have shared with other parents. Several, are my favorite gifts for new parents. All of them, I offer now to you, in  hopes that they are helpful to you and as always I would love to hear your time tested favorites.

Bringing Up Boys By James Dobson

This book was the most helpful in allowing me to understand, that I will never understand. Boys. Men. Their world. The way they think and are. I love the freedom to not get it. I loved the peace that it afforded me. If you have boys it should be required reading. If you are having trouble with an active boy, this was a great way to reframe your mindset about him.

Shepherding a Child’s Heart By Tedd Tripp

How do you respect a child and still be the disciplining authority figure in their life. Mr. Tripp explains it in the best terms ever and the underlying theme is respect. Respect of your role as a parent and also respect for you child as a person created by God, with unique purposes and gifts. Tedd is a writer that still speaks with so much authority and wisdom, I just saw him at a the Homeschool Iowa conference last year and everything he shared about respecting your teens was so completely convicting. His teachings have remained relevant over the last 20 years and he remains one of my greatest influencers in parenting.

The Heart of Anger By Lou Priolo

If you have had an anger problem in your house, if you have had trouble with anger in the past or if you do not respond well to conflict, then this book is one that should be on your shelf. It helped me get the root of destructive behaviors faster than any other tool in our tool box. This book is full of practice exercises to help you work through things that trigger angered responses in your children. Getting to the heart of anger is the fastest way to get the the root of the problem and start the process of healing and Spiritual renewal.

Don’t Make Me Count to Three By Ginger Plowman

This book is like the “love child” of all of the previous three. Where Priolo offer much detailed advice and Tripp much biblical input, Plowman gives a practical application, a picture of the process. She guides you through exactly how to use everything you read and covers many clear examples with her own little ones. He voice is clear and warm. If you have been put off from other parenting books because you felt they were harsh or cold, you will love Ginger for writing this book just for you. Ginger also helps use the correct words to identify behaviors that should be “put off” such as lying, complaining or unkindness. In this biblical application of God’s words, we are correcting behaviors while loving our child. We stop saying naughty or brat and learn to name and identify behaviors we are working on. This helped me be more intentional about disciplining  with clarity, which is something I really wanted to develop in my family life.She offers many ready scripture references to talk about character qualities we should all desire to have.

Proverbs For Parenting by Barbra Decker

If you would like to apply scripture to your kids lives, this book was a great resource. We had a ready tool that taught us how to respond with the truth of the Word of Gods without being threatening or oppressive. No one had to write a scripture 1,000 times. We had great talks about what a fool looks like according the the word of God and how a fool succeed in life. (spoiler alert: he did not) We discussed what the character of a wise person looks like and the success that comes from acting wisely. Those scriptures are seed sown, all of us benefit from them even today.

I am an affiliate for ChristianBook.com and they are happy to provide you with easy and convenient links to these products. They are great people and they will pay me some change if you make a purchase, but they don’t charge you. It is how advertising works. It is a good thing because they carry all of these great books in one place.

Bringing Up Boys, Hardcover Edition
By Dr. James Dobson / Tyndale House

“>Bringing Up Boys

Shepherding a Child’s Heart: Parents Handbook
By Shepherd Press

“>Shepherding a Child’s Heart

The Heart of Anger
By Lou Priolo / Grace & Truth Books

“>The Heart of Anger

Don’t Make Me Count to Three!
By Ginger Plowman / Shepherd Press

“>Don’t Make Me Count to Three

Proverbs for Parenting: A Topical Guide for Child Raising from the Book of Proverbs, KJV Edition
By Barbara Decker / AB Publishing

“>Proverbs For Parenting

All of these books were a great comfort to me when I wanted to grow into parenthood. This is a small sample of the books I have read, but these are my top 5. I would love to hear your favorites as I am working on a list for our class. I will share your top responses with them too.