By Sudevi dasi

Dear devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I have put together a list of books that are helpful in understanding everything to do with your child and the positive alternatives available to mainstream parenting and schooling. I have spent a bit of time researching how to raise a child like the native cultures of the world, especially Indian culture, as I have always noted that Indian children act very differently to their western counterparts and I always wondered why, since having a child myself I have found many reasons why western children are different, some answers were obvious and others a great discovery for me.

Prabhupada mentioned a few tips on parenting, like not leaving your baby alone in another room to cry, looking after your child is more important than Deity worship and a few other things, like a mother should be able to keep her baby quiet all the time because a baby only cries if something is wrong. That last one always got me, I thought babies always cried, but since I delved into the knowledge I have come across I have discovered western parenting styles are way off the mark, as we are in most areas!

Our children need to be attached to us as we are not just their parents but their spiritual guidance as well. If we break that bond under the false conception that something else, even some other service, is more important, then we have actually done a disservice to the soul that we have been instrumental in bringing into the world, and have a responsibility for. We have to keep that attachment bond in order to be their guide. These books are to not just bring up our children like modern culture with a coating of Krishna consciousness, but to get to the core of what is wrong in our culture.

I hope you will find this list helpful, to bring up our children well could mean they don’t have to go through that “phase”.

All of these books are available on Amazon.com, who post books internationally for about $11. You can of course buy them at book shops, Ebay, get them out from the library if they have a copy. Some however are worth having a copy as a reference or to lend to a friend. For your convenience, there is a copy of list available here which includes hyperlinks to the books on Amazon.

I am still getting through the list myself, but have read quite a few. I fully recommend “Hold on to Your Kids”, it’s an excellent read and reference book, and has many parallels with our philosophy, and helps us to appreciate more what Prabhupada has given us.

Please feel free to pass this list onto other devotees who might find it helpful.

your servant, Sudevi dasi

• What Babies Want. (A DVD about pregnancy and birth and how the bond begins a lot earlier than you may think)
• The Gentle Birth Method
• Gentle First Year
• The Natural Child: Parenting from the Heart
• Politics of Breastfeeding (Issues in Women’s Health)
• Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding
• The Attachment Parenting Book : A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby
• Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child
• The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost (Classics in Human Development)
• Three in a Bed
• Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain
• The Aware Baby
• Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers
• Parenting For a Peaceful World
• Connection Parenting: Parenting Through Connection Instead of Coercion, Through Love Instead of Fear
• Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
• Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes
• The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving BeyondTraditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards”
• No Contest: The Case Against Competition
• Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community
• The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child’s Classroom
• Learning All the Time
• How Children Fail (Classics in Child Development)
• The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
• Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
• A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling
• Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School
• The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
• The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25 Year Landmark Study

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