I will admit I have purchased several parenting books over the last 5 years, some funny, some religious in nature, others because I thought I would find the answer to my current delima (which currently is an unhappy 2 1/2 year old screaming at the top of the stairs because I put the safety gate up so I could clean the house).  They all give some good advice, it's just how you adapt it to your personal life or situation, which I could never really do, unless the colorful life I live in my head counts!  I'm a busy mom in what I feel is a unique situation - we live in the mountains (snow, mud, dirt), I have an hour and a half drive into Bakersfield so my trips to town are usually packed with doctors appts., shopping, and if I'm lucky a park trip or Chuck E. Cheese's, and then I'm limited to an hour at each stop if I want to be back home by 6pm for dinner. And when we're in town the boys don't always get their naps - makes for a very rough & cranky afternoon and Mommy gets easily upset, frustrated and short tempered.  So far I have not found a parenting book that gives me answers to any of those problems. With gas prices so high, I can't afford to make a trip to town for playdates and then another one for shopping or doctor's appts., I am the poster-mom for trip linking!

I'd like to talk or read stories about parents in situations where they don't live in town, how did they cope with it, what about school (my oldest starts Kindergarten in August so I have to either change my town trips to the afternoon or leave him with a grandparent while I go to town in the morning.

Okay, both boys are yelling now - hope this helps!

 

 

I havn't read a whole lot, but read through a couple 'dad' books.  They had some parenting advice, but were less about specific situations, and more about common feelings dads have.  From the little I've seen (very little, really) a lot of parenting books recognize that relationships are different.  They are a bit more wide open, with suggested techniques on dealing with terrible 2s, or whatever.  Anyways, I think there are some good things offered, so it might be worth looking into some of them to get an idea of whats out there already before starting yours.  Especially check out what Christian parenting books there are since there are a number of them that attempt to bond scripture and parenting.

Anyways, what helped me, and what I'd probably look for, is not just 'if this happens, then do this.'  The Fatherhood book I read from Relevant publishers was saying 'you'll be frustrated, its ok.'  That kind of thing, since sometimes its easy to feel that way, then at the same time feel like 'aw crap, I must be a terrible parent.  I'm not supposed to be angry about this or that.'  Its relatable.

i gave you a book once for father's day.

HA.  Whoops.  Um, I meant to say that I truly, truly, truly love to get books for fathers' day.  But you gave me fiction didn't you??  Wait a minute.  You give me stuff on fathers' day?

I would tend to agree with you on parenting books, but there are a few out there that I really like, and I would agree with Sheeky that it might be good to get an idea of what is there, but I have always thought that there should be one that specifically talked about what the Bible says about parenting because it is not something that just stands out when you open the Bible. In fact some of the examples can be kind of scary, particularly if it isn't being read by a Believer, such as Abraham and Isaac. And there are other books out there, like Growing Kids Gods Way (forgive me if you are a fan - I am NOT) that indicate they are teaching you to parent according to the Bible but that is not completely true. Not that the principles in the book are against the Bible; they just forget the whole HUGE part about grace and being a servant - which is a HUGE part of parenting. I agree with Sheeky that all parenting books (like most other books) probably have something good to be gained, but often there is stuff in there that is not helpful, and maybe hurtful! My two favorite parenting books that I have read are Parenting with Love and Logic by Jim Faye and Foster Cline. Their theory and ideas just make great sense to me. I am not the best at doing what they recommend, but I really wish I was because I think they are right. It is not a "Christian" parenting book, but at least one of them is a Christian. The other book is one I just read by Tim Kimmel called Raising Kids for True Greatness. I may have given you guys a copy actually. It's not one I ever would have picked out, but it was given to me, in a round-about way, by Tim Kimmel himself, so I decided to read it. It does not give specific examples of discipline, but gives excellent ideas about what our ultimate goals should be with our children. It inspired me to want to do things differently and to set different goals for the kids and for myself as their mother. I'm excited to see where God leads you in this! But will you first finish the sequel to the other book?????!!!!!!!

Yes, I will do the sequel to the other one first...  unless I don't.  :-)

depends if they want to publish the first one.

but it's on my to-do list either way

i think it only happened once.  haha.