Most parenting books make you feel like you are already doing it wrong. This one does the opposite.

The Good-Enough Parent by Dr Kishore Das is a book that tells you that you do not need to be a perfect parent. You just need to be good enough.

Dr Kishore Das is a paediatrician with over forty years of experience. He is also a father of two children. This is not a book written from a distance. It is written by someone who has spent decades in clinic rooms listening to parents and watching them worry.

The title comes from an idea by the British psychologist Donald Winnicott, who said that children do not need perfect parents. They need parents who are present, caring, and responsive enough. Parents who make mistakes and repair them. Parents who keep showing up.

Dr Das takes that idea and builds a practical, readable book around it. He covers everything from preconception and pregnancy to the newborn phase, early childhood, screen time, discipline, and emotional development.  He explains the science behind child development clearly and without jargon. He covers things like attachment theory and how the brain develops in early childhood, but always in a way that connects back to real, everyday parenting situations.

He also writes about the things Indian parents actually deal with. The shift from joint families to nuclear households. The pressure around academics. The balancing between traditional values and modern life. These thoughts are woven into the book in a way that makes it feel written for us, not just translated from a Western context.

There is a story early in the book about a bedtime routine that completely fell apart. The lullaby was a disaster, and there was a long debate about whether Pinocchio could actually talk. Just as he was ready to give up, his daughter whispered, "You are the best, Dadda."

That story says everything the book is trying to say. Parenting is not about getting every moment right. It is about being there.

There is also a lovely prologue about his daughter, now a junior doctor in London, coming home exhausted after a twelve-hour shift with no food and cancelled trains. As he watched her, he found himself thinking this is what parenting looks like too. Unpredictable, relentless, and still worth it.

For anyone who is a parent, about to become one, or thinking about it, this book will definitely help a lot. It is especially useful if you find yourself second-guessing every decision or feeling like you are constantly falling short, which is a very common feeling among most parents. Dr Kishore Das helps you understand your child better. He also helps you understand yourself better and let go of the idea that there is one right way to do any of this.

It is a calm, grounded, genuinely helpful book. The kind you will find yourself returning to at different stages of your child's life.

Read more by ordering your copy here.