Quotes About Motherhood

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men — from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.

Essere mamma on è un mestiere. Non è neanche un dovere. È solo un diritto fra tanti diritti.

A lot of women ask themselves why they should bring a child into the world? So that it will be hungry, so that it will be cold, so that it will be betrayed and humiliated, so that it will be slaughtered by war or disease? They reject the hope that its hunger will be satisfied, its cold warmed, that loyalty and respect will accompany it through life, that it will be a devote a life to the effort to eliminate war and disease.

They were happy, the two of them. I'd been a fool to come between them. I might destroy them both if I were not careful. A humble happiness. A good mother and child. God, I thought, if you listen to the prayers of people like myself, grant me happiness once, only once in my whole lifetime will be enough! Hear my prayer!

Recently I have come to understand why such things as war, peace, unions, trade, politics exist in the world. I don't suppose you know. That's why you will always be unhappy. I'll tell you why--it is so that women will give birth to healthy babies.

They were happy, the two of them. I'd been a fool to come between them. I might destroy them both if I were not careful. A humble happiness. A good mother and a child. God, I thought, if you listen to the prayer of people like myself, grant me happiness once, only once in my whole lifetime will be enough! Hear my prayer!) I felt like getting down on my knees to pray then and there. I shut the door softly, went to the Ginza, and did not return to the apartment.

Even if Mary gives birth to a child who is not her husband's, if she has a shining pride, they become a holy mother and child.

Mientras que las personas tienen el derecho de vivir con libertad, tienen también el derecho de morir en el momento que lo deseen; pero, cuando la madre está viva, hay que renunciar a este derecho porque, al ejercerlo, al mismo tiempo que quitarse la propia vida se llevarían la de la madre.

Oh oh!" said the mother bird. "My baby will be here! He will want to eat.

THE MOTHER Hobby! What can she do? She cooks and she cleans. You gotta have a house to clean. You gotta have children to cook for. These are the terrible years for a woman, the terrible years. THE GIRL You mustn't feel too harshly against her daughter-in-law. She also wants to have a house to clean and a family to cook for. (THE MOTHER darts a quick, sharp look at THE GIRL-then looks back

I never Tweet about my daughter. Never. I just want to be respectful of her privacy. My job as a mom is to know when to open my mouth and when not to.

Let men be men -- and let women be women -- Women competing with men- does not help us -- We have better things to do -- like being mothers.

My sons think it's a fireman's pole, but I forgot to cut a hole through the ground into the kitchen.

If I ever have a baby, I'm going to have a Brazilian wax first. Keep it pretty, you know?" "Honey, when you've got an eight-pound object coming out of your cooter, the last thing you're going to care about is how it looks.

When I tell her about the expression "MILF" ("Mom I'd like to Fuck"), she thinks it's hilarious. There's no French-language equivalent. In France, there's no a priori reason why a woman wouldn't be sexy just because she happens to have children. It's not uncommon to hear a Frenchman say that being a mother gives a woman an appealing air of plentitude (happiness and fulness of spirit).

WARMING UP TO the crèche turned out to be easy. Warming up to the other mothers there isn't. I'm aware that Anglo-American-style instant bonding between women doesn't happen in France. I've heard that female friendships here start out slowly, and can take years to ramp up. (Though once you're finally 'in' with a French woman, you're supposedly stuck with her for life. Whereas your English-speaking insta-friends can drop you at any time.)

Part of me just wants to force-feed these women some spoonfuls of fatty pâté. But another part of me is dying to know their secrets. Having kids who sleep well, wait and don't whine surely helps them stay so calm. But there's got to be more to it. Are they secretly struggling with anything? Where's their belly fat? If this is all a façade, what's behind it? Are French mothers really perfect? And if so, are they happy?

In French, giving birth without an epidural isn't called "natural" childbirth. It's called "giving birth without an epidural" (accouchement sans péridurale).

What really fortifies Frenchwomen against guilt is their conviction that it's unhealthy for mothers and children to spend all their time together. They believe there's a risk of smothering kids with attention and anxiety, or of developing the dreaded relation fusionnelle, where a mother's and a child's needs are too intertwined. Children—even babies and toddlers—get to cultivate their inner lives without a mother's constant interference.

French moms often ask me where I plan to deliver, but never how. They don't seem to care. In France, the way you give birth doesn't situate you within a value system or define the sort of parent you'll be. It is, for the most part, a way of getting your baby safely from your uterus into your arms.

I realize that i've seen French mothers and nannies pausing exactly this little bit before tending to their babies during the day. It hadn't occurred to me that this was deliberate or that it was at all significant.

The French don't valorize a pregnant woman's anxiety. Instead, in the word cloud of French pregnancy, terms like serenity, balance, and Zen keep popping up. Mothers-to-be are supposed to signal their competence by showing how calm they are and by making it clear that they still experience pleasure. This small shift in emphasis makes a big difference.

It's not enough for French mothers to have pleasures and interests apart from their children. They also want their kids to know about these things. They believe it's burdensome for a child to feel that she's the sole source of her mother's happiness and satisfaction. (A Parisian mother I know told me she was going back to work partly for her daughter's sake.)

For some American moms, there's something morally righteous about committing to motherhood at the expense of their bodies. It's like giving yourself over to a higher cause.