Quotes About Parenting

There are four of us, and we were all born in different cities because my dad worked all around the place. We settled in Birmingham, so I spent most of my time growing up there. We were all given very Welsh names - Geraint, Owen, Rhiannon and Gwilym. My mum's called Cainwen, and my dad is somewhat disappointingly called Tom.

Parenting is the hardest thing I have ever done. I tried to find the balance between the strict, traditional Chinese way I was raised, which I think can be too harsh, and what I see as a tendency in the West to be too permissive and indulgent. If I could do it all again, I would, with some adjustments.

Much of the misgiving that Muslims feel for the West stems from our strong emphasis on freedom, always a risky enterprise. I've heard some say they would rather rear their children in a closely guarded Islamic society than in the United States, where freedom so often leads to decadence.

When I had my first son, in 2017, we decided to give him a Burmese middle name. I picked Mindon, after the penultimate king of Burma. It sounded strong and regal, and it wasnt too difficult for a Western speaker.

My children grew up with one Western parent. My husband doesn't believe in raising his voice with the kids and we don't spank. They were really raised in a half-Asian family.

To be honest, I know that a lot of Asian parents are secretly shocked and horrified by many aspects of Western parenting.

In the case of the classic Western helicopter parent, it starts with Baby Einstein and reward charts for toilet training, and it never really ends, which is why colleges have to devote so many resources to teaching parents how to leave their kids alone.

When you have a child who wants to take his own life and you feel powerless, nothing else in life matters.

My mum brought me up but it's hard for a woman to try to teach a son man things, so I've had to practically raise myself.

Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments.

When you have children, you realize how easy it is to not see them fully, and perhaps miss all those early years. If you are not careful, you can be too absorbed in work, and they will be only too happy to tell you about it later. Being a parent is one of greatest mindfulness practices of all.

However, as a parent, as a grandparent, as a former educator, I know that these practices alone when we are dealing with young children are insufficient. We will never control this rising epidemic without greater accountability from the food industry.

Having my own gym is easier because I have my family here, my kids enjoy watching my practices and I like having them around. It's hard to go to other people's gyms because not everyone if as kid-friendly as I am.

Parents write to me, or come up to me after shows and ask me 'How can we get our children to be as excited as you obviously were as a child?' It's not necessarily what they want to hear when I say, 'Don't make them practise!'

However pragmatic you are, it is very demanding being a new parent.

Before having children, I think I probably approached work very differently, and you become much more economical and pragmatic about your relationship to it.

My father would tell me my defects but never praise me to my face. The good things about me he would only tell others when I wasn't around.

I finished 'Heartsick' with my daughter asleep in her bassinet by my desk, a feat that any new mother will tell you cannot be sufficiently praised.

I'm attached to my children with whatever flaws they have, and if some glorious angel broke through the living room ceiling and offered to exchange them for other, better children, I'd cling to my kids and pray away this specter.

If you're asking your kids to exercise, then you better do it, too. Practice what you preach.

My kids don't listen to me when I preach at them. But if I tell them a story they can pull something from, that matters.

My daughters are very precious to me.

In my experience, there are plenty of bad middle-class parents: those who put their own lives and careers before those of their children and make precious little time available for their offspring, preferring instead to hire in childcare and shower them with the latest and most expensive gadgets.

I don't get a lot of time with my children. My time is precious, and time with my two kids is like gold dust to me. I can't get that time back.