Ok to read Protestant based parenting books?

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manilenya22

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So I’m reading Stormie Omartian’s Power of a Praying Parent and I find it really helpful. She is not Catholic, but I like her prayers and prayer guides on being a prayerful parent. Can I keep reading material like this? I find her other book Power of a Praying Wife helpful as well.
 
I would have no problem with good reading materials from Protestant authors. Dr. Bob Dobson is a good reference on parenting as well.

Those early days when we started program on family life, there was not many material on this from the Church that we often look into other sources, which could help in the area of Christian parenting.
 
Bob Dobson?

Is he real? Or are you thinking of Dr. James Dobson?

We raised our kids by Dr. James Dobson, and loved it! The girls had a delightful childhood and teen years, and turned out great! And we turned out great, too! We loved raising them with good solid parenting principles that were easy to implement.
 
Instead of Dobson, I recommend the parenting books of Mister Rogers. Fred Rogers was a pastor.
 
Does Fred Rogers have any parenting books? I loved him so much as a girl!
 
Don’t limit yourself to just one parenting expert, e.g., Dr. Dobson, De. Popchak, Mr. Rogers, etc.

I read lots of books by lots of parenting experts back before my children were born and during the years we were raising them. Dr. Dobson was my Main Man!, But I benefited so much from reading a variety.

One book that I read that is still around, in its 3rd printing, and it’s soooo good is “The Hurried Child,” by Dr. Daivd Elkind. This book is about making children grow up too fast.
 
Going to first talk about non-Catholic prayer books.

Is your prayer life built on a solid foundation of Catholic teaching? Often the non-Catholic “popular” prayer books are based on very faulty teachings such as prosperity gospel, word of faith, a baptized version of “The Secret”, etc.

I came from that background. When I became Catholic I had to unlearn many things I knew about prayer.

A good priest directed me to two authors.

First, Fr Dubay. The first book that he suggested was “The Prayer Primer”. That was so important for me. After that I read Fr Dubay’s “Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer”. It blew me out of the water so much that when I landed (read it on a plane) first thing I did when I got to the hotel was order 5 copies of that book for friends. I spent 2 hours, back when long distance was a thing, on the phone with my husband talking about this book.

After that, it was Fr. Jaques Phillipe. I’ve read all of his books on prayer. Amazing the perspective that came from the time I spent in a school of prayer.

The Catechism article on prayer is beautiful.

C S Lewis (while not Catholic) wrote about the Psalms in a way that resounded with me in a way it would not have done before.

So, first read some solid Catholic books on prayer.

Parenting is another thing.

I’d begin with Catholic authors like Dr Ray, Coleen Kelly Mast, books like “Growing Up in God’s Image” by Carolyn Smith is one I wish I’d read when I was a younger mom. While out of print, “Converting The Baptized” is an important topic for parents, today we can read “Forming Intentional Disciples” and use that knowledge in our parenting.

Parenting is something where good advice can come from many sources. I found a protestant book “Why Christian Kid’s Rebel” to be helpful in my work as a Catechist. There are books like “Good Pictures, Bad Pictures” that today’s parent needs and there really is no Catholic authored books that meet that niche.

So, my answer is, it depends 🙂
 
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