Ways to bring up healthy and happy kids have changed so much over the last few decades that it can be a challenging landscape to navigate. To get you started, Philip Blackwell of Ultimate Library, recommends five excellent books that cover a broad range of issues. These include Ken Robinson’s ‘The Element: How finding your passion changes everything’ and Robert Webb’s ‘How Not to be a Boy’ that looks at the absurd expectations of boys and men in these times. As well, Philippa Perry’s The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read that offers sane, sage and judgement-free advice on how to have the best possible relationship with the people who matter to you most.
1. The Danish Way of Parenting by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl
Danish parents raise happy children who grow up to be happy adults who raise happy children and the cycle repeats itself. Sandahl and Alexander ask the reader to remove their “cultural glasses” for a moment and try on a “Danish way” of seeing things and then take a look at the world around them.
2. How Not to Be a Boy by Robert Webb
Rules for Being a Man: Don’t Cry; Love Sport; Play Rough; Drink Beer; Don’t Talk About Feelings. But Robert Webb has been wondering for some time now: are those rules actually any use? To anyone? Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes to discovering the power of making people laugh, and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and
father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life.
3. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry
This is a book for us all. Whether you are interested in understanding how your upbringing has shaped you, looking to handle your child’s feelings or wishing to support your partner, you will find indispensable information and realistic tips in these pages. Philippa Perry’s sane, sage and judgement-free advice is an essential resource on how to have the best possible relationship with the people who matter to you most.
4. How to Raise a Feminist by Allison Vale and Victoria Ralfs
Growing up in the ‘70’s, neither Allison Vale nor Victoria Ralfs reckoned they needed feminism. But years of settling for the smallest chops at the dinner table, getting battered in British Bulldog, and negotiating the flashers down the lane, left them feeling uneasy: had feminism been the missing link? How to Raise a Feminist is the ideal read for anyone,
anywhere, unnerved by the pressure to be perfect; a “good enough” guide to raising your children into glorious gutsy, empathetic, likeable young people, irrespective of their gender.
5. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson
The Element is the point at which your natural talent meets personal passion. World-renowned creativity expert Ken Robinson considers the child bored in class, the disillusioned employee and those of us who feel frustrated but can’t quite explain why – and shows how we all need to reach our Element.
