My Favorite Books for Confident Parenting

Parenting can be a tough task, but it’s worth it! If you’re a parent and need a little help with your growing kids, here are my favorite books for confident parenting

Hi, friends! I’m going to change gears today and post something outside my usual health, fitness, and recipes theme. Today I’m going to share a few good books I have found for faith-based parenting. I shared on Facebook about the book that I had just read with my kids called Good Pictures, Bad Pictures and had a lot of people asking about it, so I decided to share a bit about that book and a couple others today.

I usually don’t talk much about parenting since I don’t really consider myself a “mommy” blogger or parenting blogger, even though I am a mom of 2. Not too much of our parenting life goes on the blog since I am very cautious about how much info about my family goes online and forever on the internet. Plus, I don’t consider myself anything close to a parenting guru or expert, so there’s that 😉

But, parenting is tough, and when I find good things that help I certainly don’t mind sharing! There are plenty of great books out there to read with your kids on the tricky topics of puberty or dealing with pornography, but these are my experiences with the following books that I have actually read that help. These books can take the awkwardness out of difficult discussions with your kids, and the book Changes that Heal can make a big difference in parenting with confidence.

Changes that Heal

This is one of my favorite books and isn’t really a parenting book at all, but a life book. This book was written for adults, but it has a some sections on parent/child relationships. The principles throughout the book can be applied to any life situations and relationships, and there are great things in here for parenting. Dr. Cloud has a phenomenal way of phrasing things in a way that are not only easy to understand, but also in a way that applies these lessons to real life situations.

I read through this book a couple years ago and went through the weekend Changes that Heal condensed study at our church, and this book has a made a huge difference for me in my life and relationships. It has helped me be a better parent by exploring bonding and boundaries, both necessities for healthy relationships.

Dr. Cloud touches briefly on child development and psychology so we can prepare our children for being out on their own, strong and independent, beginning in their teen years, but laying the foundation since childhood. This is a fantastic book that I recommend for anyone, even if you aren’t a parent.

The Body Book for girls

If your daughter is in those pre-teen years nearing puberty, then this is a good book to read together. A few years ago I would have had a mild panic attack thinking about having this conversation with my daughter, but now I have gotten a bit more comfortable with the idea, but I still needed a little bit of guidance. I wanted to get a book similar to The Care and Keeping of You, but from a Christian perspective, so I found and bought the digital version of The Body Book (The Lily Series) for me to read with my daughter.

She has been enjoying the book so far! We read several chapters together, along with the book period.: A Girls Guide, the book that I read as a girl. After reading a few chapters together that I felt were really important, she continued reading on her own and talked to me about what she read. This gave her a chance to do some reading on her own and have a sense of ownership in learning more with our supervision. I’m sure that there are some other great books out there like this, but this is the one we decided to go with.

We’ll be needing to talk to our son about body changes and puberty soon, so we’ll be looking for some good resources for him, too, but we haven’t really been looking yet for a boy’s book similar to The Body Book. When we find one I’ll share it with you, or if you have good recommendations, let me know!

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures

This book is a gem for parents! I found out about the book Good Pictures, Bad Pictures on Monica Swanson’s blog a little while ago. Monica also has a bunch of great posts about parenting and raising boys, so there is plenty to read there! Since this book isn’t necessarily faith-based, Good Pictures, Bad Pictures is great for just about any family regardless of faith. I highly recommend talking to your kids about what to do if they find pornography, since it is so accessible in today’s world with internet, smart phones, and social media.

This book is written for kids about 8 years old, so if your kids are a bit older, you can use this as a guide towards deeper discussions with your kids about the dangers of porn and addictions. During our time reading we stopped to talk more about things like different kinds of addictions (food, drugs, etc.), other bad pictures on the internet we should avoid (like gruesome horror images), and answered the questions they had. The book does a great job of addressing the important issues without getting into too many details. We love the CAN DO action plan for kids if they stumble on pornography.

Here’s another book we’re enjoying:

Jesus Calling devotions for kids