Books on how to be a good parent are plentiful. These works supply materials for investigating attitudes both historic and contemporary toward childbirth, women, children, family life, the gendered division of labor, the wage gap, and more. In Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children, the popular author Pye Henry Chavasse proclaimed in 1898 that a child “is the source of a mother's greatest and purest enjoyment, that he [sic] is the strongest bond of affection between her and her husband.”
Below are some Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that will lead to both fiction and non-fiction resources on the topic of motherhood through selected browse searches in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
According to Merriam-Webster, parenting can be defined as
- the raising of a child by its parents
- the act or process of becoming a parent
- the taking care of someone in the manner of a parent
Children are not always cared for by their biological mother or parents. In researching this topic, you will find resources which talk more broadly about parenting, with our without the emphasis on the gender of the parent.
Below are some Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that will lead to both fiction and non-fiction resources on the topic of parenting through selected browse searches in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:
The following titles represent resources which may prove useful in your search for information about motherhood and parenting. Each title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.
Chavasse's Advice to a mother on the management of her children by 
Mothering while black: boundaries and burdens of middle-class parenthood by Mothers and mothering: an annotated feminist bibliography by 
You're doing it wrong!: mothering, media, and medical expertise by 
