It's funny that you write this comment to a parenting-advice forum! But since you did, let me answer it this way. Your parents and others of their generation were sure of themselves because our culture empowered parents tremendously. There was a concept that adults were adults and kids were little, inexperienced and "in their place." Then the pendulum swung and kids were put on the same level as their parents, given equal say and status. Parents became dis empowered. This happened as a result of a developing awareness that parents weren't always parenting in the best way. The idea was to help parents do better - not to remove their authority and position. We are currently swinging back to middle where we recognize that parents aren't perfect, they can learn things from each other and from experts, but they are still the PARENTS and kids are still kids. You need to trust yourself as a parent. Parenting books are there to provide you with options for difficult situations that YOU want help with - they are not there to tell you how to do things or to tell you to change things that are working for you. If you use them as a resource, parenting books can serve you rather than overwhelm you and confuse you. I don't think parents were better off in the old days because they had very few options available to them - they had to rely entirely on their own little world of experience and knowledge. Today we can reach out to the world for shared wisdom. But we must come home to ourselves and do what seems best to us in the end. So I think you should continue to expand your horizons but when it comes to what you select to implement, trust yourself.   Sarah Chana