Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Inspirational books about motherhood/parenting you have read

72 replies

Tatties · 11/04/2006 21:39

What are they and why?

OP posts:
robin3 · 12/04/2006 16:37

Blueshoes...yep I did mean the Fat Ladies Club..thanks.

Tamz77 · 21/04/2006 21:49

'Becoming a Mother' by Kate Mosse; first inkling that it wasn't just me who isn't calm, patient, serene etc the way mothers are supposed to be.

Before I gave birth, I read Sheila Kitzinger; seems mad to a lot of women but found her positive, celebratory approach to childbirth v empowering, given that we live in a culture that usually focuses on the pain, medical aspects.

mazzystar · 21/04/2006 21:59

Baby Watching by Desmond Morris

Not strictly a parenting book - DM is an anthropologist, but utterly fascinating and found it really helpful

granarybeck · 21/04/2006 22:06

i quite like 'raising happy children', not all of it, but some good bits.

Cadmum · 26/04/2006 18:32

Unconditional parenting. It really made me think.

LadyTophamHatt · 26/04/2006 18:36

I pride myslef on having never read a parenting books beyond the birth-5 thing you're given when first PG.

Never wasted my money on a single one.

How would a book know more about my baby than me??

goes the can of worms.....

granarybeck · 26/04/2006 18:39

'I don't know how she does it" novel about trying to combine working and motherhood.

Cadmum · 26/04/2006 18:47

LTH: How old is your eldest? Would you consider writing us a book?

LadyTophamHatt · 26/04/2006 20:50

Cadmum, eldest is 7(well, he will be on saturday), youngest is 2. then theres a 4 yr old in the middle.

What do you want to know?GrinWink

Cadmum · 26/04/2006 20:58

I didn't read this book until ds1 was 9... Wait fer it!

I want to know how to be all that I can be!

You are so right about knowing your baby better than anyone or any book. Love the 'tude.

shrub · 26/04/2006 21:06

How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk - faber/mazlish. Real life changing stuff. Its like learning a new language but so worth it. All their books are brilliant \link{http://www.fabermazlish.com\fabermazlish}
Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff. This book changed everything, even made us move area! \link{http://www.continuum-concept.org\continuumconcept}

LadyTophamHatt · 26/04/2006 21:07

Errrm.....my only advice would be (and I live by this myslef) don't fret about stuff. Just chill about being a mum.

If you baby(toddler/preschooler/child whatever) is fed, warm, clean and happy, and you are fed warm clean and happy(although a bit stressed...I'll allow that) what else matters?

Apart from the no-one knows my baby like me thing I simply couldn't be arsed to read them. Utterly utterly boring IMO. Why waste your time reading them when you could be spending that time getting to know you baby?? (or trashy novels and celeb mags if your PG)

Original poster
Tatties · 02/05/2006 11:23

Answering my own question here! I have just read Three in a Bed by Deborah Jackson and I wish I had read it when I was pregnant. I am definitely not worrying about co-sleeping now.

OP posts:
wrinklytum · 02/05/2006 11:29

good books if i ever get time to read after no 2 would love to reread "confessions of a bad mother" (stephanie calman) also "stumbling into motherhood"(anne enright) also hilarious makes me feel like less of a useless mum and a good antedote to all those po faced parenting tomes.

acnebride · 02/05/2006 11:31

How to Survive Children by Katharine Whitehorn. I haven't read it for must be 15 years, and had no idea I'd read it so often until large chunks of it popped into my head at appropriate moments when looking after ds. Wry, practical, down-to-earth. Particularly loved 'Parenthood is not what you should do, it's what you can stand' and 'The day I realised that I too could make straightforward statements (I simply said "I don't play football") was as good as the day I found out there was protein in baked beans' and the glossary which includes:

'Blackleg: mother who plays Monopoly even when child has a friend over'.

How to have a baby and stay sane by Virginia Ironside which comforts me intensely by being - as far as I am concerned - completely wrong. I haven't experienced the same as her at any moment. Shows how varied parental experiences are.

And 'how not to be a perfect mother'

And 'Family' by Susan Hill. Very intimate, very sad, much wider than a 'parenting' book.

I just like reading them. It's a hobby, like gardening. I hate gardening.

JackieNo · 02/05/2006 11:36

Shrub, I've never heard of the Continuum Concept - what an interesting website. Might have to buy that oneSmile.

fennel · 02/05/2006 11:37

enjoyed/found useful:

How not to be a perfect mother (Libby Purves, very non-precious approach to parenting)

Siblings without rivalry (a book ALL my friends with 2 or more children beg to borrow)

Life after birth (Kate Mosse, beautifully negative)

A life's work (Rachel Cusk, superbly negative, queen of the moaning mothers, beats Kate Mosse into a corner)

Dr Spock 1960's version of Baby and Child care (so bracing, and so different from modern books)

Three in a bed (Deborah Jackson - all co-sleeping and slings and so on, didn't agree with it all but i did like co-sleeping)

acnebride · 02/05/2006 11:39

oh and bizarrely 'Three in a Bed' by Carmen Reid which in the middle of a nice chicklit romp suddenly chucks in the single most realistic description of childbirth I have ever read, intertwined with an incredibly negative view of home birth, bf et al which made me scream with anger. Glad I didn't stumble across it while pregnant.

wrinklytum · 02/05/2006 11:46

oops forgot to mention kate konopickys "a woman of no importance".my punctuation has gone astray despite english a level bugger it.

JackieNo · 02/05/2006 11:48

Oh yes, Acnebride - I've read 'Three in a bed' too (the chick-lit one) - it's all very negative, isn't it, and rather depressing, although it's presumably supposed to be funny.

fennel · 02/05/2006 11:50

oops was getting confused between kates there.

liked Kate Mosse "becoming a mother" but in earlier post was meaning to say Kate Figes "life after birth".

wrinklytum · 02/05/2006 12:10

ok on a more serious note "Secrets of the baby whisperer for Toddlers" and "Raising Happy Brothers and Sisters" for when no 2 comes on the scene

franca70 · 02/05/2006 12:16

Rachel Cusk's A LIFE'S WORK

acnebride · 02/05/2006 12:19

yes JN but I did find actually reading what the birth was like quite inspirational in a way, as being simply unable to put it into words myself was very odd. Kept saying in my head yes yes YES that's what it felt like. and then no no NO to the stuff mixed in with it.

Angeliz · 02/05/2006 12:22

How to talk so children will Listen, i read that when i was working with children in Care and found it excellent. Inevitably the children i worked with were often very distressed and sad and troubled and although i do find it easy to talk to children, this book had one or two tips that really worked.

'3 in a bed'. I read that recently and it has made me SO much more chilled out with dd2 ans sleeping and everything.

Swipe left for the next trending thread