Hacker News Reader

Comment by nickswan | Hacker News Reader

What books would you recommend? Parent to 3 young kids and haven’t read any books on parenting or raising kids yet. As much worries about making a bad choice as well as a good one (in book choice that is!) that would lead to teaching the wrong stuff and habits

View on HN

I think broadly, the challenge with parenting books is that they sometimes put forth a particular philosophy or approach (some are more neutral and inclusive than others). So, I think it really depends what you are looking for, what your parenting style is, and the ages of your kids.

And if you are looking for advice, context is really important.

To directly answer though - my favorite parenting book is The Gardner and The Carpenter by Alison Gopnik

And, the parenting books by Emily Oster (Crib Sheet and Expecting Better - the latter is about pregnancy and the first early childhood).

The first thing I would say is to resist typing your kids as xyz. I think everyone is genuinely afraid / hyper vigilant of kids who are “on the spectrum.” (As an example)... don’t give your kid a label. Second advice would be don’t evaluate your kids without evaluating yourself. Your kids are a reflection of you. As for books, I can’t say there’s a complete book that I can recommend. At best you find snippets here and there that provide ideas. The best thing we’ve done is connect with a psychologist. The kids don’t see her, actually don’t even know she exists.

Simplicity Parenting is an easy and amazing read. The Audiobook is pretty good as well. :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com