Lessons meant to educate (and re-educate) about key mental health issues such as holding boundaries, seeking out healthy relationships, responsible communication, and coping with big, hard feelings.

Then I’ll come inside to spend the evening with my daughter. And, inevitably, her first words of greeting to me include “Book! Book, MOMMY, BOOK!” (All while making the baby sign for “book” and racing into the living room towards the bookshelf – it’s adorable.)

We’ll settle into the armchair in the living room with a stack of board books beside us. And all of that content I just repeated to clients and highlighted in the course lessons will be reflected. Right back to me in some of her currently-cherished books. 

So, today, five days from the launch of my signature course – “Hard Families, Good Boundaries: A step-by-step online program to feeling good no matter who is in your life” – I want to take an opportunity to highlight a few of the key lessons from my toddler’s current favorite books in case you’d like to supplement your own child’s mental health-friendly bookshelf, or in case you’d like a refresh of these great boundary lessons yourself. 

Please, keep reading with me. 

So, first, let me go on the record and say that I’m a lifelong bibliophile. I deeply, wholeheartedly love books. Especially children’s literature. 

I think children’s books are formative, magical, and can influence a person’s life long after childhood ends. Incidentally, my daughter is actually named after a character in a children’s book. That’s how much I love children’s literature. 

So, years ago and through my pregnancy in 2018, one of the things I was most looking forward to was reading books to my daughter. Sharing with her the same magic and wonder that I experienced in the pages of books when I was growing up.

She’s not quite old enough to appreciate some of my all-time favorites. She’s only 20 months old right now. But I’m delighted that I’m being exposed to new and different books that are age-appropriate for her right now.

And I’m further delighted that so many of the excellent books on the market and on her bookshelf are so psychologically empowering and mental health-affirming! Indeed, most of the books I’m going to list here in this post are newer publications. But one is older and a book of mine from childhood.

However old you are, whether or not you have children or grandchildren, or whether you want to be a parent or not, I hope that you will appreciate a peek into some of the children’s books I’m admiring. I hope you’ll deepen the lessons by joining me in my forthcoming course, but more on that later. 

Boundary & Relationship Lessons Learned From My Toddler’s Bookshelf.

Without further ado, here is a small sampling of the books on my toddler’s bookshelf. These have some wonderful boundary and relationship lessons that we could all benefit from.