Parenting Books: Here's the Only Books on Parenting You Should Really Take to Heart by Meredith Newlin

Most of us parents believe raising kids is the most important job we'll have, and we take it very seriously. If we had the time, we'd love to read every parenting book out there in order to synthesize all perspectives. As a mom to a spirited and strong-willed 4-year-old and 21-month-old, I want to nurture my kids and always choose what's best for them. But I don't have time to pore through every parenting guide to do that. So which books should we take time to read?

To keep it simple, only those that – within the very first pages – leave us feeling encouraged and confident in our parenting philosophy; the ones that resonate with what we inherently know to be true. We want to give kids unconditional love and freedom to express themselves, but we also don't want our kids to be disrespectful and entitled.

The books we should take to heart are those that simply feel real, that don't offer a "quick fix" or try to tell us that raising kids is effortless. Parenting will always require attention, energy, dedication and consistency. We can trust books that don't ask us to be perfect, but instead ask us to be our best – those that give us room to get up and try again, just like our kids do.