Best Parenting Books for Toddlers

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Parenting toddlers can be really challenging, especially if you’re a first-time parent. Toddler development is a lot to manage – their natural push for independence, their developing brains, their intense emotional expression – while it’s a joy to behold, it can be overwhelming, too. But armed with the best parenting books for toddlers, you will be prepped and ready to teach your toddler everything they need to know.

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Why You Need Parenting Books for Toddlers

Toddlers are…how should I put this? A lot.

They are a lot of energy, raw emotion, and a lot of love. All that intensity inside such a small package!

Toddlers are learning to understand the world around them and how to interact with it. They are figuring out how to control their little bodies and use language to express their needs, wants, and any random thought that pops into those amazing brains!

And with all that power-packed development comes a lot of teaching, modeling, and absorbing on the part of their parent. That can be quite a heavy lift for any parent, especially a first-time parent.

Not to mention the fact that it’s been ages since you yourself were parented. And you were a toddler at the time. So even if you remember your toddlerhood, you didn’t have the brain power to internalize the techniques your parents were using.

So just how are you supposed to know what to do?

That’s exactly the point. You aren’t supposed to what to do. How could you?

Positive Parenting Skills are Learned, Not Inherited

Sure, we come hard-wired with some innate parenting instincts. Probably some biological/evolutionary knowledge gets passed down through our genetics and helps us keep our kids alive. But parenting is a little more complex than simply keeping your kid alive.

Helping your child survive (i.e. meeting their basic needs), is a far cry from helping your child thrive (i.e. teaching them how to navigate and experience the world in ways that feed them emotionally, cognitively, socially, and spiritually).

Not to mention that when it comes to discipline (AKA the act of teaching your child how to live independently the world), there is no internal map to guide you. You only have what you have observed during your lifetime to draw from. That includes what you have seen from loved ones, from media, and through your own research & learning.

That is where parenting books for toddlers can be so helpful. Not only do they provide you with specific tools and techniques to help you teach your child how to behave and thrive, but they provide useful psychoeducation information and context that can help you parent your toddler more effectively.

Parenting books for toddlers impart crucial information about child development that all parents can benefit from since we don’t come by the knowledge naturally.

Parenting and Toddler Development

No matter how old your kids are, parenting is challenging. But when you’re parenting toddlers, it’s often your first exposure to setting limits and imposing rules. The more information you have about toddler development, the better equipped you will be at holding these boundaries for your child.

Understanding things like developmental stages, developmental milestones, age-appropriate behaviors, emotional intelligence, and emotion regulation will help you understand where your toddler’s behavior is coming from. This understanding will in turn will help you stay calm, support their learning, and protect your relationship with your child.

Toddlers are Wired to Push Boundaries

Toddlers are innately driven to push toward independence. This drive helps them learn and grow and develop the skills they need to survive. They are so desperate to learn and experience the world around them; that is a toddler’s prime directive. But this drive also means they will test their boundaries. They often push boundaries that you set because they don’t comprehend the need for them.

That’s why when toddlers hear the word ‘no’, it sometimes results in emotional meltdowns. The parenting books for toddlers on the list below provide invaluable techniques for how to understand your toddler’s developmental needs and respond accordingly.

These toddler parenting books offer parenting tools that will not only help you teach and model skills that will improve their behavior, but also help them grow and develop.

For more awesome stuff like parenting books and amazing learning toys for your kids, check out our Parenting Resources page.

First-Time Parents and Boundary-Testing Toddlers

When you see a parent with a toddler, it’s safe to assume they are new to parenting. Of course, some parents are seasoned pros by the time they tackle toddler number 3, 4, or 5, but more often than not, toddler parents are new parents.

In many cases, toddlers have the unlucky honor of being parenting guinea pigs. They get to experience all of our parenting trial and error, and for better or worse, they learn from it.

Toddlers are impulsive, boundary-testers who need skill-modeling, consistency, and stability. What’s really cool (note the sarcasm) is that new parents are often anxious, nervous wrecks who don’t know what they are doing. So, basically the exact opposite of what a toddler needs. 😀 What a combination!

It’s easy to see how when these forces combine, things can get messy!

But never fear! That’s where parenting advice from the experts comes in handy.

The pros who authored the parenting books for toddlers on the list below have not only been through it personally, but have helped thousands of other parents with their families, too.

Positive Parenting Books for Toddlers

The research on effective parenting is clear: positive parenting approaches are more effective than punitive discipline approaches. Positive parenting focuses on ensuring there is attachment between parent and child and that discipline is focused on learning, not shame.

All of the parenting books for toddlers on the list below utilize positive parenting frameworks. I highly recommend each of the books on this list for lots of reasons, but mainly because they:

Value parental self-care and emotion regulation
Focus on validation of feelings and behavioral modeling
Provide positive strategies for limit-setting that protect your bond with your child
Offer easy-to-use tools that actually work

The Best Parenting Books for Toddlers

Here are my top picks for the best parenting books for toddlers money can buy.

No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury

I adore this parenting book and I refer to it often! Parenting expert and author, Janet Lansbury, offers accessible and relatable parenting advice to help you discipline your unruly and lovable toddler. Janet Lansbury injects a winning combination of direct strategies and empathy all throughout the book. This balance of clear and firm direction paired with warmth and caring 100% mirrors the parenting style she promotes in her book. This extremely powerful toddler discipline book is an absolute lifesaver for exhausted, frustrated toddler parents. I highly recommend No Bad Kids, as well as her podcast, Unruffled– a great place to get a feel for her style and get some amazing actionable advice.