5 Books I Wish I Had Read as a New Mom
I found out I was going to be a mom for the first time on New Year’s Eve 2004. Naturally, I rushed off to the book shop right away. It’s where I had gone to learn how to be the college student I wanted to be a few years back and how to be the wife I wanted to be just one year earlier, and I couldn’t think of a better place to find the knowledge I needed.
At the book shop that first day, I bought as many books about parenting and raising kids as my meager budget could manage, but now, all these years later, I wish I could go back in time and give myself a better book list. Maybe I would have made better decisions along the way, and maybe I wouldn’t have been so uncertain, doubting, or stressed during those early years.
Since I haven’t mastered time travel just yet (and since some of these books weren’t written back then), I decided to give this booklist to a new generation of moms instead.
Here are the five books I wish I had read when I was a new mom:
#1 Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
I found this book just last year, and with every word, I couldn’t help but think about how much heartache I could have saved myself and my family if only I had read it when my kids were babies. Even so, reading it with teenagers in the house was extremely helpful too. For years now, my heart has been crying out for more simplicity, less stress, and a break from the culture that tells us we have to go bigger, louder, and more than we ever wanted to.
If your family life ever feels chaotic, if you ever want a reset, a declutter, a break from our “more more more” culture, whether that’s related to physical stuff, mental stuff, or even the foods your family eats, get yourself a copy. You’ll be so glad you did.
#2 The Call of the Wild + Free by Ainsley Arment
I did not find this book; it found me. I picked it up at a friend's house one day and was hooked from the very first chapter. I didn't have time to read a book that week, but I devoured every word during any spare moment I could find. It felt like I was reading a letter from myself. It felt like coming home to me.
Yes, this book is about learning and education, but it's about so much more than that really. It’s about family – all kinds of families – and the way we get to choose how our kiddos grow up, what kind of childhood they get to have, and what kind of relationship we get to build with them, whether we choose to homeschool or not. Although I’ve been a mom for over 14 years now (and homeschooling for over 11), I’ve never prescribed to a certain education philosophy, always thinking my crew was just wild, weird, and too addicted to good stories and the outdoors to settle into one way of being a family or doing school. As it turns out, we aren’t as weird as I thought we were – we’ve just been embracing childhood in a way so many families call wild + free these days.
If you’ve ever felt your heart pulling you to slow down and intentionally choose what kind of childhood you want to give your kids, if you've ever longed to see them living a life full of learning that they love, get yourself a copy of this book today. Mine has a whole pen's worth of ink underlining good quotes and a whole pack's worth of book darts jutting out of its pages because I just couldn't stop loving every word. I hope you find it the same.
#3 Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
I ran across Marie Forleo’s work last year, and my life was forever changed. If you need someone to tell you that your big dreams are possible, if you need a swift kick in the behind to get over your biggest excuses, or if you just need the details about how successful people become so darn successful and what might be holding you back from having that kind of life, you need this book.
How does it apply to parenting? Because no matter how wonderful or well-intentioned you are as a mom, there will be days when you wonder what in the world you’re doing and how you’ll ever be able to figure out where to go from there. Marie says everything is figureoutable, and she’s got a lot of evidence to back it up. I believe her.
#4 The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie
I bought this book on Audible in the summer of 2018, and it completely changed my life – completely. I so wish I had read it sooner. Here’s why – Before reading this book, I was at a crossroads in my family. My kids were becoming teenagers and our whole flow was starting to shift in ways I didn’t like – from toys to video games, from books to television screens, from delight in learning to sarcasm and boredom. I wanted to honor their new phase of life and be the best mom to them, but I also didn’t want to lose the things that had always meant so much to us as a family – time together, learning new things, and reading great books.
This book taught me that reading aloud with my teenagers is just as important as reading aloud with my little kids, and it taught me how to do it in a way they wouldn't be able to resist. Our family has truly never been the same since I read these pages. These days, my boys still love video games and television screens, but they also treasure our read-alouds too, and we have hundreds of inside jokes from the books we’ve read and listened to on Audible since then.
I will forever be grateful for this book – it was just what we needed at our crossroads moment, but boy would it have saved me a load of headaches had I read it when my boys were babies. Get yourself a copy - I know you'll love it.
#5 Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison
I heard about this book from the Homeschool Sisters for years before I finally grabbed a copy, and I regret waiting so long. Written from the throws of motherhood by the most intentional and big-picture mom I’ve ever encountered, this little book is such a delicious way for any mama to reconnect with her big family-loving heart. I like reading it a little each morning with my coffee, and I find that it slows my heart rate just a little and helps me see my family life as a big, tremendous blessing – even the sticky bits. I hope it does the same for you.
Bonus #6
If you’re someone who can’t stick to a list of just 5 (like me, evidently), Boundaries by Henry Cloud is also a book I wish I had read when I was a new mom. It’s all about setting physical, mental, and emotional boundaries so that you don’t end up living out your one precious life as a bitter, broken person marching to the beat of someone else’s drum. Thankfully this book came to me early in my parenting journey and helped me break free from some pretty scary habits and limiting beliefs. If you tend to be a people-pleaser or someone who wonders if you can be kind, gentle, and loving and still have the life you dream of, I hope it does the same for you.
And of course, my own book, too.
I wish I could have told my 2005 mama self that it would all turn out just fine. I wish I could have told her that chasing family togetherness would be the best thing she could ever do in life. I wish I could let her know to slow down and take her time with her little ones, to soak in every snuggle, to relish every smile. I wish I could tell her that she could definitely have the kind of family life she always dreamed of.
I wish she would have known how little it matters what anyone else thinks of her and how much her smile matters to her family. I hope any young mama reading this book today walks away from the pages inside knowing at least that.
So that’s it – the book list I wish I could take back to 2005 and give my new-mama self.
And now that we’re at the end of it, I can see that every single book is either about how to build togetherness with my crew or how to overcome what stands in the way of our biggest dreams (not a huge surprise since that’s what I now do right here these days!).
What books are on your top five list?
I’d love to hear about them!
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