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Upon first reading this book, I thought that it was nicely written, positively affirming, but didn’t really tell me much I didn’t already know from reading other books. Until, that is, I reached Part 5. Bear in mind that Parts 5 and 6 are half the book in themselves.

Parts 1-3 reminded me of reading Calm Parents, Happy Kids. Part 4 reminded me of The Hypnobirthing Book (see my review here). These two books are some of my most recommended books so this one was already doing well. But Parts 5 and 6 of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read were my favourites and absolutely rang true in my experience of parenting so far.

This book built on my knowledge of attachment parenting, in which raising children is not about asserting your dominance over their wills in order to mould them into obedient little people, but about working tirelessly on strengthening your connection with that child. This is so that when the day comes that they might have lied to you, instead they open up, when they might have refused to get involved, they offer to help, when they might have sulked and stormed and punched a wall, instead they have the skills and the trust to be able to describe their feelings to you for some much needed validation and support. It’s an attractive thought isn’t it- not need to coerce your children through bribery or threats.

In our westernised society these days, it is all too easy to simply do as our parents did, raising children using the same methods because, after all, we didn’t turn out so bad did we? Or did we? Maybe we can do better. Our parents did their best but they may not have had access to our resources, both books and online, to see if there was a better approach, a kinder one. This book goes into detail on why it’s important to learn about attachment parenting, and (even better) how to actually go about it.

It isn’t a whimsical ‘wouldn’t life be perfect if our kids were like this’ kind of book that makes you think ‘yeah right’ and chuck it out the window. In fact, it’s so believable, heartening and authentic that it genuinely makes you think ‘I wish my parents had read this book.’