Image Credit: Kelly Sikkema
Parenting is tough.
As parents were are learning how to look after our children every day, from the day that they are born.
Sometimes, we need a little help.
Fortunately there is a huge amount of free parenting advice and resources available which you can download to help you with many of the challenges that parents can face.
Here are some of the best free parenting resources from the UK, Ireland and the USA, to help you to improve your parenting skills and make parenting your kids that little bit easier.
Along with their vital work in child protection, the NSPCC have a huge amount of advice on how to deal with some of the more difficult issues that parents may have to deal with, whether that is drugs and alcohol, divorce, racism, or just tips on how to have fun with your new baby.
Coursera partners with more than 275 leading universities including Yale and Imperial College London as well as companies such as Google and IBM. They offer flexible and affordable online learning and many of their courses are free.
There are several free parenting courses that you can sign up to, including childrearing, positive psychology and early childhood education as well as language courses, career-based study, computing courses and business studies.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway is a US Government website maintained by the Children's Bureau. They have a huge amount of advice for parents, foster parents and other caregivers.
While much of it is only relevent to the U.S., the section on General Resources and Tips for Parents has a wealth of good solid information and advice for dealing with the sort of parenting issues that are the same the world over.
The Spark is a Scottish organisation which provides counselling and mental health support services for individuals, couples, families, children and young people.
Alongside many useful articles on various common parenting issues they offer some downloadable booklets including tips for new parents and on dealing with teenagers.
This U.S Health Department offers a collection of leaflets on child development for age groups from newborn baby to teenage as well as factsheets and information about many conditions including ADHD, Autism, Spinabifida, hearing loss and more.
Former primary school teacher Ruth offers free e-books on parenting as well as tipsheets on how to help children with emotional literacy and anxiety.
This Minneapolis based non-profit organisation offers advice on how to maintain and strengthen relationships within the family and how to help kids succeed. Their advice is based upon their own research projects which they have carried out for over 60 years.
This Arizona based early education and health program was founded to promote healthy development of Arizona's young people.
They have useful information for pregnancy, new parents, those preparing their children for school and kindergarten as well as advice on play and suggested childrens books.
Parents Together is a free online parenting course from Family Lives, a UK organisation who parents can turn to for advice before they reach crisis point.
The self-paced course covers relationships and communication with your children as well as promoting positive behaviour and setting bounderies,
These free Montessori resources will help you bring the Montessori principles of calm and independence into your home.
The downloads include suggestions for activities and well as advice on managing tantrums, setting limits and how to speak to your child in a positive way.
Barnados have a number of free e-books in their Parenting Positively series which cover topics including divorce, domestic abuse, bullying, teenagers and parenting skills.
The Solihull Approach model is a way of relating to those around you, which can be applied in a number of different scenarios, including the workplace, schools, prisons and the home.
Understanding Your Child is part of this approach and the website has some downloadable information for parents about topics including brain development, teens and playing with your child.
Free Courses Online is funded by the UK Government, and are open to anyone living in England aged 19 years or above, who has been residdent for more than 3 years.
You can take a free online course which will lead to a Level 2 qualification. Many of the courses are related to children, covering subjects such as challenging behaviour in children, mental health and adverse childhood experiences.
Family Links is a national charity whose vision is for everyone to live an emotionally healthy life.
They have lots of free downloadable worksheets and checklists on how to deal with various situations such as problem solving, calming and negotiation.
Family Links have also produced a DVD called The Parenting Puzzle, which you can watch in full on YouTube. The first episode is here for you to watch.
Over seven episodes it covers topics such as handling feelings, problem solving, safety and empathy.
If you would like even more free parenting advice there are lots of free books that you can download from Amazon to read on a kindle or any other device that runs the Kindle App.
Here are free parenting books that you can download to your Kindle. All books were free at the time of writing.
A little more academic than other books listed here, but this book accompanies and 8-hour free course which explores what parenting actually involves, what is meant by quality parenting, and how it can be enhanced and promoted.
The Family Board Meeting is a carefully designed, easy-to-follow guide to creating quality time with your children. It takes only minutes to plan your first Board Meeting... and it's guaranteed to be fun for all the family! Welcome to the most important meeting of your life.
A gentle book to help you shift your mindset to help you overcome negative thinking, improve your mental health, and help you to become the best version of yourself as you step into this new role of parenthood.