Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
The Solo Parent's Bookshelf: Support, Strength & Parenting Wisdom
33
items Discover the best parenting books for solo parents, single moms, and single dads navigating the beautiful but sometimes overwhelming journey of raising children on their own. From gentle parenting and understanding your child's emotions to building r...
Sections
11
The Ultimate Solo Parenting Guides
Gentle Parenting & Positive Discipline
Understanding Your Child's Emotions & Behaviour
Self-Care, Burnout & Emotional Wellbeing for Solo Parents
Raising Resilient, Confident & Happy Children
Separation, Divorce & Co-Parenting
The Ultimate Solo Parenting Guides
Books specifically written for single parents, covering everyday challenges, decision-making, routines, support systems, and raising happy, healthy children without a live-in co-parent.
A practical starting point.
The Field Guide for Single Parents, Pat Hankin
This book focuses on helping single mothers build a more stable, intentional life. It's a useful choice for readers looking for encouragement alongside practical strategies for managing family responsibilities.
Single Moms Serving Others by Jennifer Maggio
An empowering read about independence, financial confidence, and creating a fulfilling life as a single mother. Particularly appealing to parents who want to build a strong future for themselves and their children.
The Kickass Single Mom by Emma Johnson
Gentle Parenting & Positive Discipline
Books about setting healthy boundaries, handling tantrums, responding calmly to difficult behaviour, and building a strong parent-child relationship without relying on punishment or shame.
Helps parents respond to difficult behaviour with connection and understanding rather than escalating conflict. Especially valuable when you're the only adult available to handle a challenging moment.
No-Drama Discipline
Packed with practical examples and communication techniques for parents of young children. It's particularly helpful for handling resistance, frustration, and everyday power struggles.
How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
Explains how children's developing brains influence their emotions and behaviour. Its practical strategies help parents respond more calmly and turn difficult moments into opportunities for learning.
The Whole-Brain Child
Understanding Your Child's Emotions & Behaviour
Resources on child development, emotional regulation, attachment, anxiety, big feelings, and what children really need from their parents at different ages.
Teaches parents how to recognize, understand, and coach their children's emotions. A great resource for helping children feel heard while learning to manage big feelings.
Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child - Gottman
Offers a collaborative approach to challenging behaviour, particularly when children struggle with frustration, flexibility, or problem-solving. Helps parents look beyond the behaviour to understand the difficulties underneath it.
The Explosive Child book.
Helps parents understand the intense emotions, attachment needs, and developmental changes of toddlers. Particularly reassuring when a little one's behaviour feels confusing or overwhelming.
The Emotional Life of the Toddler by Alicia F. Lieberman
Self-Care, Burnout & Emotional Wellbeing for Solo Parents
Books that help parents manage overwhelm, reduce guilt, establish boundaries, protect their mental wellbeing, and remember that their own needs matter, too.
A compassionate guide to managing everyday responsibilities when life feels overwhelming. Its shame-free approach is especially useful for solo parents juggling childcare, work, chores, and exhaustion.
How to Keep House While Drowning: Gentle Approach
Helps readers replace harsh self-criticism with kindness and understanding. A valuable reminder for parents who feel guilty about losing their patience, needing a break, or not being able to do everything.
Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff
Explores how chronic stress affects us and how we can help our bodies move through the stress cycle. Useful for parents who feel as though they're always responsible for the next task and rarely get a chance to recover.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Raising Resilient, Confident & Happy Children
Books about fostering independence, confidence, kindness, problem-solving, resilience, and healthy self-esteem, even when family life looks different from the traditional ideal.
Explains how giving children appropriate autonomy can help them develop motivation, confidence, and resilience. Especially relevant when a solo parent wants to encourage independence without feeling responsible for controlling every outcome.
Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child
Explores how beliefs about ability and learning influence motivation. Its growth-mindset principles can help parents encourage children to learn from mistakes, persist through challenges, and develop confidence in their abilities.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Offers strategies for helping children become more open, resilient, and emotionally balanced. A helpful guide to nurturing confidence and adaptability without expecting children to be happy or cooperative all the time.
The Yes Brain
Separation, Divorce & Co-Parenting
Guidance for navigating family changes, helping children process separation, managing communication with an ex-partner, and supporting children through transitions between households. Include books on parallel parenting where appropriate.
A classic guide to helping children adjust to life in two homes. It covers family transitions, communication, routines, and keeping children out of adult conflicts.
Mom's House, Dad's House - Isolina Ricci
Provides practical guidance for raising emotionally healthy children after separation. A useful resource for creating predictable routines, improving communication, and keeping the child's needs at the centre of parenting decisions.
The Co-Parenting Handbook: Raising Well-Adjusted
Teaches a concise communication approach: keep messages brief, informative, friendly, and firm. Particularly useful when communicating with a difficult co-parent, although it isn't a substitute for legal advice or safety planning when needed.
BIFF: Quick Responses to High-Conflict People
Practical Parenting: Routines, Time & Family Life
Real-world advice on creating manageable routines, reducing household stress, handling homework, improving communication, and making everyday family life run more smoothly when one parent carries most of the load.
Explores how simplifying schedules, possessions, and daily routines can make family life calmer. Particularly appealing to solo parents who want less chaos and more meaningful time with their children.
Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power
A practical classic filled with communication techniques for everyday family life. It helps parents handle conflict, cooperate on household expectations, and build stronger relationships with their children.
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Talk
Offers approachable strategies for deciding what deserves your energy and simplifying the rest. It's a great fit for solo parents who need practical systems without turning their homes into perfectly optimized projects.
The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters
Confidence, Healing & Growing as a Parent
Encouraging books about breaking unhealthy family patterns, healing from difficult experiences, trusting your instincts, building a healthier family environment, and becoming the parent you want to be.
Explores how our childhood experiences and emotional patterns can influence the way we parent. A thoughtful resource for anyone who wants to understand their triggers and build healthier relationships with their children.
Parenting from the Inside Out
Helps readers recognize unhealthy family dynamics and understand how emotionally immature caregiving can affect adult relationships. It can be valuable for parents who want to become more aware of the patterns they carry into their own families.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
Combines compassionate parenting principles with practical tools for handling difficult moments. Its emphasis on connection, boundaries, and repairing relationships after conflict makes it especially reassuring for parents who worry about getting thi...
Good Inside | Dr Becky Kennedy
Books for Every Parenting Stage
Separate recommendations for pregnancy and infancy, toddlers, primary-school children, tweens, and teenagers. This makes the list useful for parents who need advice for a particular age group.
A detailed reference for navigating a baby's first year, from feeding and sleep to development and common concerns. Helpful for new solo parents who want an accessible resource to consult as questions arise.
What to Expect the First Year: (Updated in 2026)
Introduces parents to a framework for thinking about changes in infant behaviour and development. It can offer ideas for understanding a baby's changing needs, although its specific developmental timelines should not be treated as scientifically defi...
The Wonder Weeks by Frans X. Plooij & Hetty van de Rijt
Explains aspects of adolescent brain development, decision-making, risk-taking, and sleep. A useful resource for parents who want to understand their teenagers better while balancing boundaries with growing independence.
Frances E. Jensen's The Teenage Brain
Books to Help Children Understand Their Family
Picture books and age-appropriate reads that help children understand single-parent households, separation, changing family structures, and the many different ways a loving family can look.
A gentle picture book for young children living between two homes. It reassures children that although some things may be different in each home, they can be loved and cared for in both.
Two Homes: Masurel, Claire, Denton, Kady MacDonald
Celebrates the many different ways families can look. Its colourful illustrations and simple language make it a wonderful choice for helping young children understand that families don't all have to look the same to be special.
The Family Book by Todd Parr
Uses the idea of an invisible string connecting people who love one another, even when they're apart. A comforting read for children dealing with separation, time away from a parent, or worries about being loved from a distance.
The Invisible String by Karst & Lew-Vriethoff
Money, Budgeting & Financial Confidence for Single Parents
Practical books about budgeting, saving, financial independence, and building greater financial stability while supporting a family on one income.
A practical guide to budgeting, saving, managing debt, and building financial security. Particularly helpful for solo parents who want to feel more in control of their finances and create a realistic plan for their family's future.
Get Good with Money by Tiffany Aliche
Encourages readers to rethink their relationship with money, spending, work, and time. An interesting choice for parents who want to make financial decisions that support both their children's needs and their own quality of life.
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
Presents a structured approach to budgeting, paying off debt, and building savings. It can give readers a clear starting point for organizing their finances, although its debt and credit recommendations may not suit every household or financial situa...
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey