Good Enough Parent

How to Raise Contented, Interesting, and Resilient Children

by The School of Life
edited by Alain de Botton

A compassionate guide to raising resilient, authentic, well-rounded children.

The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of life lessons, including how to say ‘No’, how to look beneath the surface of “bad” behavior to find the root of what is going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, and how to handle the moodiness of adolescence. 

Rather than striving for perfection, the book argues, the job of any parent is in fact to guide a child gently into the imperfect nature of everything. 

Encouraging, wry, and steeped in years of experience, The Good Enough Parent is an intelligent guide to raising a child who will one day look back on their childhood with just the right mixture of gratitude, humor, and love.

• COMPASSIONATE ADVICE for raising content toddlers into resourceful teens.
• FOR BUSY PARENTS includes digestible, accessible lessons in parenting.
• ACTIONABLE TIPS for balancing parental instinct with the acquisition of new skills.
• EMOTIONAL CURRICULUM with lessons in curiosity, listening, manners, and adolescence.

Hardcover | 192 pages | The School of Life | 2022

The School of Life is a London-based organisation built to help us find calm, self-understanding, resilience and connection – especially during troubled times. The School of Life Press was established to condense their learning into a collection of wise and considered texts. The titles are designed to entertain, educate, console and transform.