The Best Parenting Books for Every Stage - Finds.Life.Church

The Best Parenting Books for Every Stage

by Samantha Lowe

As parents, we all need a little help. Quite frankly, it feels overwhelming when all I’ve got to pull from is my own family’s microcosm of who we are and what we’re going through. (Where’s my stack of the world’s best parenting books when I need it?) I get to the bottom of my bag of tricks quicker than I like, I try them all over again, and then what?

Well, then I ask for advice. And while my friends have handy tips and tricks of their own—or very, um, interesting tips, I find myself searching for something more legit. That’s when I fully grasp how important great parenting books are to have on hand!

But how do you know which books are the best parenting books for every stage? Which will help you parent in a godly way and which won’t? Don’t worry. I’ve got your reading list all lined up!

So, are there books to help your kid find friends, deal with tragedies, become social media savvy, and live responsibly? Yes. This list will help with all that and more! Here are some of the best parenting books to help you raise your kiddo into the Jesus-loving, world-improving, people-helping, confident-yet-humble man or woman God meant for them to be.

Parenting Beyond Your Capacity: Connect Your Family to a Wider Community
by Reggie Joiner and Carey Nieuwhof
It takes a village to raise a child, right? We might say that, and even believe it’s true. But our busy lives make it hard to regularly connect our kids to godly people. This book can help you make it happen.

Talk Now and Later: How to Lead Kids Through Life’s Tough Topics
by Brian Dollar
This book helps you guide your kids through common issues with a godly perspective: God, death and tragedy, sex, self-image, making wise choices, divorce, friendships, money, bullying, and restoring broken relationships. Yes, please!

Right Click: Parenting Your Teenager in a Digital Media World
by Kara Powell, PhD, Art Bamford, and Brad M. Griffin
The digital onslaught today is nothing like what we were raised with, so we don’t have great experience to pull on for parenting our kids through it. That is, until this book!

Nurturing the Leader Within your Child: What Every Parent Needs to Know
by Dr. Tim Elmore
Every kid is different, but every kid still has leadership potential! This book helps you find approaches for building your kid up for leadership in a way that clicks with them.

Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids
by Dr. Kara E. Powell and Dr. Chap Clark
When our kids are little, we can teach them about faith. But how do we teach faith in a way that sticks so that our kids thrive in their relationship with God when they become adults and leave our homes? This book is full of research and godly wisdom to help us parents out!

Don’t Miss It: Parent Every Week Like It Counts
by Reggie Joiner and Kristen Ivy
Are you just going through the motions to keep your kids alive? This tiny little book is filled with nuggets and tweetables to help you start putting purpose into each precious week you have with your kids!

Parental Guidance Required
by Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner
Not a book, but a great podcast teaching series that Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner did together that is wonderful as well. Each week is titled clearly to show which topics of parenting it addresses.

Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility
and
Parenting Teens With Love and Logic: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood
by Foster Cline, MD and Jim Fay
Are you constantly telling your kids to do the things they’re supposed to do? Exhausting, right? Foster Cline and Tim Fay have a great approach that can help you keep your sanity and temper in check while you build your kids up in a way that helps them learn responsibility and ownership!

Boundaries for Kids: When to Say Yes, When to Say No, to Help Your Children Gain Control of Their Lives
and
Boundaries for Teens: When to Say Yes, When to Say No
by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
Another kids/teen bundle! When your kids are young, they’re learning to take responsibility for their actions, attitudes, and emotions. Then, when they’re teens they have to navigate relationships, peer pressure, dating, and character on a whole ’notha level! These books will help you help your kids build their own healthy boundaries based on biblical principles.

Are My Kids on Track? The 12 Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Milestones Your Child Needs to Reach
by Sissy Goff, Med. LPC-MHSP, David Thomas LMSW, Melissa Trevathan, MRE
You can read loads and loads of articles, go to the pediatrician, and talk to teachers to track your kids’ physical and intellectual growth. Now you can read this book to get some insight on spiritual milestones!

Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
by Paul David Tripp
We have enough to-do lists. How about some vision based in God’s grace to refuel us as parents? Thanks, Paul David Tripp.

Family ID—Intentional Direction: Discover Your Family’s Unique Purpose and Passion!
by Greg Gunn
What if you could run your family like a successful business? Doesn’t tickle your fancy? Well, what if you could apply successful principles to your family in a human, nurturing, and loving way? Yeah. I can get on board with that. Cast a godly vision for your family, then strategize how to stay on course with this book!

The Lifegiving Parent: Giving Your Child a Life Worth Living for Christ
by Clay and Sally Clarkson
There’s a lot of advice in this world for parenting where the child is the heart of your home. This book has ideas to help you make Christ the heart of your home so your kids see what life with Him is like!

Parenting Your …
by Kristen Ivy and Reggie Joiner
This is a set of 18 books with one book for each year of life from birth through 12th Grade. It has practical daily advice to help us see our kids and families are normal. Each book offers easy-to-understand reasons why our kids are acting the way they are—and shows that, whether it’s pleasant or not—it’s just a phase.

So did you find a book to help you through a tricky or mysterious stage? Looks like it’s time to get reading!


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