Parenting is not an easy process, creative and multilateral. Any parent seeks to cultivate a comprehensively developed personality, to convey to his child life experience and knowledge, to find a common language with him.
Why are parenting books needed?
As a rule, raising a child, we act intuitively, based on personal experience, but sometimes the advice of a specialist psychologist is still necessary in order to prevent mistakes in this difficult matter. In such cases, books on parenting are indispensable helpers. They gathered the experience of many people, given the advice of professional educators and psychologists.
How to choose the right allowance?
Today, bookstore shelves are literally full of psychology volumes, and popular parenting books can be found anywhere. Having decided to buy a really good manual, you do not pay attention to colorful covers and promising appeals; look first of all at the content. Volumes are both general and dedicated to a specific problem, for example, there are books on the sexual education of children, on the problems of communication with peers, on creative development. Especially for you, we have compiled a list of seven of the most interesting and useful manuals on raising children who have already managed to gain the authority of readers and prove their effectiveness.
Julia Borisovna Gippenreiter - "Communicating with a Child. How?"
The author of this book is a professor of psychology; she works at Moscow State University; she is a very authoritative psychologist. The rating of books on parenting certainly includes this guide. It was first published more than 15 years ago, but still does not lose its relevance and is always in great demand. In 2008, a continuation of the book on parenting was published entitled "We continue to communicate with the child. So?" Both parts are interesting and informative.
An analysis of various deaths of babies in orphanages, conducted after the First World War in Europe and America, which cannot be explained only by medical reasons, led to the conclusion that they were the result of the unmet need of children for attention, care from adults. The importance of caring for the younger generation should never be underestimated.
Yulia Borisovna for the first time drew attention to what words parents use when treating children, and how this affects their development. It does not aim to blame adults, but simply tells how the phrases we utter are perceived by little boys and girls. And they are known to be very impressionable. “Don't be a nurse,” “Look at who you look like!”, “Quickly for the lessons,” “Think about it, a problem!” - these are the usual phrases. Speaking them, we don’t even think that they humiliate our children, make us feel unnecessary, inferior, and doubt our own abilities.
Hippenreiter offers a way out - to learn to follow his speech, replace “bad” words with “good”, and shows with examples how to do this. The book will help you properly educate the child, teach him to express his emotions and feelings, and you - to talk about your feelings so that it does not hurt the baby.
Ross Campbell - "How to Love Kids In Reality"
We continue to describe the best books on parenting and introduce you to the next author. Ross Campbell is a doctor, MD, who worked at the Psychological Clinical Center in Tennessee and, in addition, the father of four children. Upon retiring, he devoted himself to the creation of various works on psychology, as well as lecturing. The winner of the Golden Medallion Award for the manual on the upbringing of adolescents also created a general work on children, which is always included in the top books on parenting.
“How to Actually Love Children” is also a time-tested book, first translated into Russian in 1992. It focuses on love, which, as you know, can work miracles. The foundation of a good relationship with a child is sincere, unconditional love, without which it is impossible to achieve complete trust and mutual understanding, solve emotional problems and teach a child to obey and respect parents.
It is important for your child to know that he is loved unconditionally, otherwise the child becomes closed, insecure, anxious. The manual gives practical advice on how to show your feelings, in particular through physical contact, attention and discipline.
Maria Montessori - "Help me do it myself"
The book by the Italian psychologist Maria Montessori offers unique approaches to parenting, which are very popular all over the world. At the beginning of the last century, this scientist created a special pedagogical system, the followers of which founded thousands of schools around the world by the end of the 20th century. It is aimed at ensuring that the child finds his own way, shows his personality. Maria Montessori is a representative of the ideas of free education, the pedagogical movement that appeared at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. in America and Europe. The main idea of this book is that the child needs to be given freedom of action and self-expression, so it is undesirable for adults to interfere in activities and games.
The author suggests that we observe the child when he is engaged in some business. The duty of parents is to organize the leisure of the baby, to provide him with as many opportunities as possible for a variety of activities. The experience with this approach has been surprisingly positive. Children became not only more developed intellectually, but also more disciplined, obedient, organized. In addition to the work of the author himself, the book contains articles by her followers and students offering practical recommendations and tips on education.
Eda Le Chan - "When Your Child Drive You Crazy"
Ed Le Chan, an American psychologist, is a classic pedagogy. She finds out in her work the causes of poor behavior of children, analyzing all familiar, typical situations, and on the basis of her experience gives advice and practical recommendations. The book by Ada Le Chan provides parents with the opportunity to look at family relationships through the eyes of the child, and also reveals cliches in the behavior of adults who, in an effort to turn their child into a well-educated member of society, deprive him of his personality and infringe on his interests. The manual also describes how the fears of parents can affect the behavior of children, give advice on eliminating negative consequences.
Jean Ledloff - "How to Raise a Child Happy"
Jean Ledloff is an American psychotherapist, a very interesting scientist. Devoting herself to studying the relationship between parents and children, she went to South America and lived there for two and a half years in the tribes of local Indians. Experience gained in practice has shown that if you interact with children the way our ancestors did from time immemorial, and also trust your own intuition, you can grow them happy and obedient.
This book is very interesting, and the facts described in it are sometimes amazing. Jean Ledloff believes that nature itself has given us the ability to raise children, but nowadays, parents try to relieve themselves of responsibility by placing their children at the disposal of teachers, educators, and doctors. It is necessary to listen to intuition, and we will understand what our children need in order to be happy.
Donald Woods Winnicott - "Talking with Parents"
The list of "Best Books on Parenting" would be incomplete without mentioning this book. It is dedicated to babies and proper communication with them. The author of the book is a British psychoanalyst with extensive experience, and she herself has been very popular in our country for more than half a century. It should be noted that the translation of this manual into Russian came out quite late, however, nothing new was discovered in psychoanalysis during this time, and modern books on the psychology of parenting, in fact, do not offer new ideas, so the classic remains relevant.
The author not only analyzes the thoughts and motives of infant behavior, but also describes the psychological state of mothers in the first months after childbirth. At this time, the child still does not know how to communicate, he can not be taught, so she just lies with the baby in an embrace and tries to understand what he is.
Madeleine Denis - "Make Our Children Happy"
Under the name Madeleine Denis hides a number of French scientists who worked together to create five volumes of psychology, combined under the title "Make our children happy." Authors of parenting books share invaluable experience with us. Each volume contains comments by various specialists: psychologists, pediatricians, nutritionists, etc., and they themselves are aimed at different age categories: from 3 to 6 years old, from 6 to 10 years old and from 11 to 16. That is, three books are devoted to the corresponding age categories, and the other two “Your child’s dream ...” and “Whims and tantrums ...” are suitable for raising children of any age. These manuals can answer any of your questions: when a child can watch TV or buy a set-top box, how to put him to bed correctly so that he quickly falls asleep and sleep soundly. In books, in this way, a systematic approach to education is given, and it itself is presented as some lesson that this time parents should learn.
Other books
Nowadays, you can find many other books on parenting, as well as various films, lectures, trainings and seminars on this topic. Many of them cover specific topics. For example, if you have two children, and you want to establish a relationship between them, the book “Brothers and Sisters. How to Help Your Children Live Together,” sponsored by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, will help you. If you are raising a son, you can read Nigel Latt's manual, “Sonology. Mothers Raising Sons.” It indicates the features of the education of boys, their psychology.