Parenting Quotes

Nothing's scarier than having a sick child, and one so newly born, and so vulnerable. It's the worst thing for a parent.

~ Kenneth Oppel

Children should not be taught to get a job or pursue a profession. Children should be taught to discover their passion and with it define their mission.

~ Tarryn Tomlinson

Love had still seemed like such a paltry thing in the face of all my doubts then, much the way it felt now. David had worries my love couldn’t touch, fears my love couldn’t easily dispel. My love seemed like a well-worn blanket instead of the titanium shield I needed.

~ Andrea Lochen

And they certainly wouldn’t take you along to a murder. That would be irresponsible parenting.

~ Kelley Armstrong

children need love most when they don't deserve it

~ Ikechukwu Joseph

Imperfect parenting does not cause addiction. If that were so, everyone would be one.

~ Sandra Swenson

A mother’s love is like an everlasting bed of roses, that continues to blossom. A mother’s love bears strength, comfort, healing and warmth. Her beauty is compared to a sunny day that shines upon each rose petal and inspires hope.

~ Ellen J. Barrier

Having a child who is struggling doesn't make you a bad parent, just as being a child who is struggling doesn't make your child a bad kid.

~ Ann Douglas

You don't need to be primary caregiver of your children to be of primary influence in their lives. What you do for them behind the scenes in your own unique way is what makes the true difference in the long run.

~ Miya Yamanouchi

School plays were invented partly to give parents and easy opportunity to demonstrate their priorities.

~ Calvin Trillin

All fathers are liars . . . If you want to be a father, you have to be prepared to become a liar.

~ Alison Espach

What is success, after all, but doing what you really want to do?

~ Ruth Minshull

You can't let go. You can't detach with love. You can't let them hit bottom. You can't seem to implement the strategies you have learned when you are faced with your adult child's chaos and anxiety. When you try to do this, it makes you physically and emotionally ill, and the anxiety and fear becomes unbearable.

~ Mary Crocker Cook

Be bigger presence at work. Race up ladder (joyfully, w/smile on face), get raise. Get in best shape of life, start dressing nicer. Learn guitar? Make point of noticing beauty of world? Why not educate self re. birds, flowers, trees, constellations, become true citizen of natural world, walk around neighborhood w/kids, patiently teaching kids names of birds, flowers, etc. etc.? Why not take kids to Europe? Kids have never been. Have never, in Alps, had hot chocolate in mountain café, served by kindly white- haired innkeeper, who finds them so sophisticated/friendly relative to usual snotty/rich American kids (who always ignore his pretty but crippled daughter w/braids) that he shows them secret hiking path to incredible glade, kids frolic in glade, sit with crippled pretty girl on grass, later say it was most beautiful day of their lives, keep in touch with crippled girl via email, we arrange surgery here for her, surgeon so touched he agrees to do surgery for free, she is on front page of our paper, we are on front page of their paper in Alps? Ha ha.

~ George Saunders

Women are responsible for the people in the family having pants.

~ Heidi Julavits

It’s a fool who thinks having a kid is a right, which is the biggest crock of fish heads I’ve ever heard.

~ Carew Papritz

Like I tell our kids, 'Your Mom isn't always right and I'm not always right. But together, WE'RE ALWAYS right!

~ J. Thomas Steele

Being a good parent is not an obligation, it is a choice. Plenty of people fall short in the parent category and quite a few refuse to accept it. You will do a much better job if you understand that taking care of your children is a choice not an obligation.

~ Gudjon Bergmann

Our children need to see that faith matters, that it's relevant to our daily situations, that it's real.

~ Michelle Anthony

Our goal as parents should be to endeavor to pass down our faith to the next generation in such a way that they will be able to pass down their faith to the following generation in our absence.

~ Michelle Anthony

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

~ Michelle Anthony

When we start to realize how amazing God's story is, a question naturally arises: Who am I that I should get to be a part of the greatest story ever told?

~ Michelle Anthony

Love your kids and just be there for them. You don’t have to eyeball their every moment or to orchestrate all their comings and goings. They know this. They know that’s too much.

~ Carew Papritz

But my personal favorite words of wisdom came from Gulley during the last thirty minutes of the trip, when she broke up a backseat scuffle by declaring, 'When you lick the person sitting next to you, there's a good chance you're going to get punched.'I believe the only reason that gem is missing from the book of Proverbs is because Solomon must never have traveled with three kids in the back of his chariot.

~ Melanie Shankle

when a child is ridiculed, shamed, hurt or ignored when she experiences and expresses a legitimate dependency need, she will later be inclined to attach those same affective tones to her dependency. Thus, she will experience her own (and perhaps others’) dependency as ridiculous, shameful, painful, or denied. - Dependency in the Treatment of complex PTSD and Dissociative Disorders 2001Authors: Kathy Steele, Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis

~ Kathy Steele

Until we accept that our children have much more of a risk of being sexually abused than drowning in a pool, being struck by a car, stricken with cancer, hurt by a vaccination, or diagnosed with ebola, we contribute to a culture of panic and ignorance.

~ Ann Brasco

Let’s be Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus’s children, Scout and Jem, carefully watch their father’s behavior as the house next door to theirs burns to the ground. As the fire creeps closer and closer to the Finches’ home, Atticus appears so calm that Scout and Jem finally decide that “it ain’t time to worry yet.” We need to be Atticus. Hands in our pockets. Calm. Believing. So that our children will look at us and even with a fire raging in front of them, they’ll say, “Huh. Guess it’s not time to worry yet.

~ Glennon Doyle Melton

The health of your future kids does not start with their birth—it starts with you, right now, well before you plan to impregnate your wife.

~ Pratik Patil

We must be what we wish our children to be. They will form their characters from ours.

~ John S.c. Abbott

When we aren't curious in conversations we judge, tell, blame and even shame, often without even knowing it, which leads to conflict.

~ Kirsten Siggins

Parenting goes beyond providing foods, shelter, clothing, and other basic necessities. Nurturing a child to travel in the direction of positive enlightenment, is arguably the greatest thing that you could do for a child.

~ Hafiz

Parents of medically fragile children find themselves becoming experts in lots of different areas, including laws and regulations, research and treatments, and the various specialists that support the health of their children.

~ Charisse Montgomery

Think of instinct as an unscientific, unquantifiable tool that can be used along with more concrete evaluations to make a well-rounded decision.

~ Charisse Montgomery

The more love and support your child receives, the richer his or her life becomes, and nurses can certainly add to the circle of love surrounding your child.

~ Charisse Montgomery

Even though our journey as parents of a medically fragile child began with emotional turmoil, it has since become a purposeful odyssey that brings meaning and depth to our lives. This is the road we were born to travel.

~ Charisse Montgomery

I fear that this is what long term relationships are all about, at base: full-time role-playing, memorized and inhabited.

~ Elisa Albert

The reason any person yaks excessively is because his communication is not being adequately acknowledged. He just keeps trying to be heard.

~ Ruth Minshull

It's time to undo Rahim.

~ Nadia Hashimi

An exhausted parent can’t provide the best care, although occasionally, we have all had to do so.

~ Charisse Montgomery

If a child cannot place implicit confidence in his parent, most assuredly no confidence can be reposed in the child.

~ John S.c. Abbott