5 Best Selling Books Tired Parents Need on Their Bookshelf

Parenting is tough stuff -- mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually (patience is a virtue, as they say). To help you cope, we prescribe a healthy dose of laughter and silliness. We scoured the internet for parenting books that are light, funny, and super relatable. Here’s what we found collected from The New York Times “Parenthood and Family” best seller lists for 2016, The Independent's top recommended parenting books and Amazon's continually updated parenting best sellers list. (This list is not ranked.)   

1. Go the F*ck to Sleep
By Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés

If you’re tired of having to say “tulog na, please” over and over again to no avail, get the point across by reading your children this book! We’re kidding. This is just for you, weary parent.

This bedtime book for parents has been around since 2011, but it never fails to make the best parenting books lists --and we definitely can see why. It reads like a typical children’s bedtime story with rhyming verses and descriptions of slumbering animals, but it also perfectly captures the universal parenting struggle of putting kids to bed. Don’t believe us? Get into bed and listen to Hollywood actress Jennifer Garner and Nick-Fury-in-real-life Samuel L. Jackson read the book to you. 


2.  Darth Vader and Son
By Jeffrey Brown

Have you ever wondered what Darth Vader would be like as a doting young dad to Luke? Wonder no more. In this precious little book, we see Darth Vader as the father he was always meant to be. Flip through to see dad Vader teach little Luke to play baseball with lightsabers, pour Luke’s cereal using the Force, bring him along to “Take Your Child to Work Day” on the Death Star, and more. The illustrations are pitch-perfect, depicting parenting scenarios that hit close to home, whether it be Earth or a distant planet in a galaxy faraway. It’s the perfect present to any Star Wars-loving human dad. See a few pages from the book here. 

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3. Toddlers are A**holes: It’s Not Your Fault
By Bunmi Laditan

If you’re looking for a no bullsh*t parenting guide, you’ve just found it. (We’re only partly kidding this time.) This book will teach you how to raise, feed, and potty-train your toddler. It will also show you how to manage tantrums and how to “not die on the inside.” In short, it’s useful but, more importantly, very funny. For example, it shows you what to expect when eating at a restaurant with a toddler: one parent quietly eats alone while the other walks around outside trying to calm down a furious toddler. Yup, accurate.

4. Sh*t My Dad Says
By Justin Halpern

Admittedly, calling this a “parenting book” is a little bit of a stretch, but it is ridiculously hilarious though. Comedian Justin Halpern has a father like no other, and sharing his dad’s outrageous musings and sayings are his gift to the world. Here’s one: “The worst thing you can be is a liar…Okay, fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but then number two is liar. Nazi one, liar two.” It’s not just funny either, the book, a coming-of-age memoir, is also a touching look into the father-son relationship in its bare form. Hilarious and endearing, it earns it a well-deserved spot on the bestsellers list. 

5. Nobody Told Me: Poetry and Parenthood
By Hollie McNish

Here’s a book to make your heart smile. You’ll find in this memoir on parenthood the most relatable and yet unspoken aspects of being a new parent. McNish puts her motherhood journal to printed page including stories on unexpected pregnancy bumps, delivery day happenings and first year surprises. In just a few words, she masterfully paints a picture of parenthood the way we all experience it – not always peachy, sometimes frustrating and terrifying, but always filled with love. 

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