Parenting Books: 7 Titles Moms Should Read Before Returning to Work

AdobeStock/Konstantin Yuganov

woman reading a book

AdobeStock/Konstantin Yuganov

Lisa Durante
Lisa Durante10
The working mom is many things: a parent, a professional, and a woman.
Each role is unique yet demanding. Managing all three—often at the same time—requires a delicate balance, as well as advice and support, inspiration, and strategies to manage the demands of a hectic schedule.
That’s where these seven parenting books and important guides come in. Before you head back to work, and even if you’ve already returned to the office, these parent guides and books for keeping a positive parenting-working life balance will provide a fresh perspective on how to juggle careers, children, and all of life's demands.
Bringing up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting
By Pamela Druckerman
Less of a parenting advice manual and more of a story, Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bébé is a witty tale of an American woman giving birth to and raising her first child in France. Through each of her stories, the author explores the French perspective on raising children who are polite, eat their vegetables, and sleep through the night. We also get a glimpse into the lives of French working mothers, who seem to have less guilt and more time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures than American mothers seem to do.
Work Pump Repeat: The New Mom’s Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work
By Jessica Shortall
Returning to work as a breastfeeding mom is not for the faint of heart. With heavy doses of humor and absolutely no judgements, Pump Work Repeat is a survival guide that empowers working moms with new babies with stories from the trenches, hacks, and strategies to make pumping at work, on airplanes, and in between meetings easier. Jessica Shortall shares her personal experiences and those of hundreds of other working moms who have pumped at work. There are also plenty of practical tools like a conversation guide to share your plans to pump at work with your manager.
No Regrets Parenting: Turning Long Days and Short Years into Cherished Moments With Your Kids
By Harley A. Rotbart
We only have 24 hours in a day. No Regrets Parenting helps busy parents make the most of their time with their children. Reframining the idea of quality time, this guide offers time management strategies and parenting advice that turn the mundane, exhausting routines of parenthood into opportunities to intimately and meaningfully connect with your kids.
The Pie Life: A Guilt-free Recipe for Success and Satisfaction
By Samantha Ettus
The Pie Life rethinks work-life balance. No longer a two-sided scale where work sits in opposition to life and time with families, Samantha Ettus reenvisions the balance by imagining it in the shape of a pie. The book offers ways to nurture each of seven areas, or slices of a pie, to sustain a thriving personal and professional life. To bring lessons to life, the author shares the personal stories of hundreds of women, including Shonda Rhimes, Gayle King, Sallie Krawcheck and more.
The MomShift: Women Share their Stories of Career Success After Having Children
By Reva Seth
The myth that having families destroys careers persists. It can leave even the most optimistic working mom fearful that career success is a thing of the past, and believe that good parenting is not compatible with professional life. Not so. The MomShift explores the experiences of working mothers who achieved more success in the months and years after having children. The stories aren’t glamorous by any means, but they are remarkable. Depicting the demanding schedules and other challenges women face at work and as parents, these real-life experiences also show us what is possible when we negotiate the terms of balance and let go of guilt.
Drop the Ball: Achieving More By Doing Less
By Tiffany Dufu
The dream of “having it all” at some point shifted into “doing it all” for too many working mothers. Such was the case with Tiffany Dufu, who realized her life was unmanageable as she tried to balance her growing career while raising two children and being a “good” wife to her partner. Drop the Ball describes the changes Tiffany made to create a more manageable life for herself. The book offers a mix of strategic frameworks and practical tactics that will free working moms of the unrealistic expectations that we (and others) place upon us.
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed To Be and Embrace Who You Are
By Brené Brown
Famed social work researcher Brené Brown schools readers on how to stop spending our lives trying to fulfill someone else’s expectations about who we are supposed to be, what we are supposed to do, and what we are supposed to want. Instead, she offers us 10 guideposts that help us build the courage, compassion, and connection we need to be who we really are, all the while embracing our imperfections and recognizing that we are enough just as we are.
BONUS: Novels of fiction
There are plenty of books analyzing niche parenting style subjects and good parenting skills, as well as topics related to mothers who work, but you can also learn about parenting styles and receive other kinds of advice by reading fiction. Novels can give you the perspective you need to be a more empathetic, reasonable, and open-minded parent, colleague, leader, partner, friend, and so much more. Reading is also a great stress reliever. So, before you head back to work, get into the habit of reading (or listening to) novels regularly.
 
Lisa Durante is committed to helping working mothers thrive. She offers working moms training and resources to help them manage the transitions that come with parenthood. She also consults companies to better manage and support employees through parental transitions.