Parenting books that aren’t shitty
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Let me preface this list with one thing though: parenting books should be read as a reference and a way to collect ideas ONLY, and not as the Bible. As you’ll find when you google every little shit about your baby, every site is going to come with this stupid disclaimer: “do this this and this or your baby will be fucked. But oh, every baby is different so make your own decision.” like, what?
But that’s true. No expert, professional, baby whisperer, whatever, know just as much about your baby as you do, which is NOTHING, because duh, your baby is brand new to the world. But what makes you as the parent special is that no one in this world will ever love your baby more than you. Ok sure family cares and they like “love” them, but in the end they’ll never ever ever love them the way you do because that’s just the way it is, not trying to be mean or anything. They don’t stay up at night worrying that you're not good enough for this little, perfect creature and will disappoint them and then weep thinking about it. So fuck them.
With that said, these books have been pretty helpful. To be honest most parenting books are like read once and then move on, but still good to have in your arsenal.
On Becoming Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep
Used this book for the schedule that they had broken out by month. Honestly though I just kind of had it as a loose guideline and didn’t follow by the hour every hour and took baby’s lead on it.
This book completely changed the way that I thought about brain development. The ideas on here are things that I mutter under my breath to calm myself down when I am just about ready to lose my shit. Might not actually use the techniques here until the baby is in toddler stage, but really good to start out with it.
The Happiest Baby on the Block
Was gifted this book and the concept outlined here is helpful for that infant stage to understand why they are such assholes wanting to sleep at inconvenient times and crying about it.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Ok so this technically isn’t a parenting book but like seriously, your marriage will be tested during childrearing. I dunno, if yours doesn’t then dude more power to you but Steven and I fought like we were dating for the first time again and at this point we had been together for 14 years. Being a parent changes you, and not only do you have to learn and meet your child, you also have to learn and meet your new spouse. Just good to know these principles to keep in mind.
Bonus: Parenting books I’ll get next time
I actually read a lot of Japanese blogs and parenting sites because I wanted to know how other countries did their parenting. That’s where I found resources on stuff like co-sleeping or nursing to sleep or babywearing, which are super frowned upon or not popular here. So I’m looking for books that explore this.
I’ve also heard a lot of good things about Cribsheet (and dude how can I resist the pun??) and read a lot about the Montessori Method second-hand and liked a lot of the concepts (Lu has had a floor bed since 9 months old) so I’d like to get more info on it.
