Quotes About Parenting

Teenagers," he said into the silence, his smile knowing. "Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em." "But you can ground them, if they still live with you," she said, and silently added, Even when they're in their twenties.

Jeremy was the spitting image of his father, Joe Strand, while Bianca was a miniature Luke.

My father insisted that the boys in my life were directly responsible for my juvenile-delinquent tendencies. My mother, more accurately, assumed that I was the bad influence.

Ellen had long ago stopped being embarrassed by temper tantrums. She flipped it and wore it like a badge of honor. A temper tantrum was a sign that a mom said no when it counted.

To me, it doesn't really matter how a baby comes into the world, only that it does. I just feel lucky in who my baby is. Best of luck with yours.

About $300 or $400 a month per child, depending on a couple of factors, like they get more if the child has special needs." Abby shrugged. "But the way I look at it, even if their motive is money, that doesn't mean they won't do a good job.

she knew from her practice that kids who felt terrible about their parents somehow ended up feeling terrible about themselves.

Joy doesn't smart-tongue him. It's not because he tries to control her as a proper Chinese father should or that she's an obedient Chinese daughter. Instead, she's like a pearl in his palm - forever precious; to Joy, he's the solid ground on which she walks - forever steady and reliable.

Raising a girl and marrying her off is like building a fancy road for others to use.

Each of us extracted different people from our parents by our personalities and hence we had different experiences growing up.

Nobody told you that wen you became a parent, you became a child again; it was early bedtimes and grilled cheese sandwiches for all. Every date night was a negotiation, every invitation that you actually had the desire or energy to accept became a strategic maneuver that may or may not work out after all.

As parents, we must accept that our children are who they are. We can't make them into something we want, or be disappointed in them because they don't meet our artificial expectations.

You were never so acutely aware of your own flaws as you were in the presence of your child. Why was that?

When they're small, they're part of you, on you in bed, showering with you, climbing onto your lap, holding on to your leg. Slowly, slowly, they start to move away, and if you love them, if you want them to feel safe and free to explore the world, you have to let them go. Mostly.

Sometimes it seemed like that was all it was, motherhood—grief and guilt and fear. You said good-bye a little every day—from the minute they left your body until they left your home.

For my parents, Joe and Virginia Miscione We never understand what it means to be a parent until we are parents ourselves. I love you, Mom and Dad. Thanks for everything … then and now.

My dad and I were in the kitchen, bent over the table while he tried to help me with my trigonometry homework—which, PS, addled my brain and has yet in life to reveal its practical application.

need to protect my boys from their … poison.

Jones still labored under the delusion that he could bend Ricky to his way of thinking, that with anger, hard words, and harsh punishment he could force their son to do and be what he wanted—in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

The hardest thing about being a parent is watching your kids make mistakes. Our instinct is to protect you. But you're right, Deenie. Sometimes we have to step aside and let you make them anyway. The best we can do is be there when you mess up.

Don't pout that way, my child, you'll give yourself a blister.

My knowledge of parental duties was slight—something to do with graham crackers and proper underclothing. But those duties certainly did not include dashing off to a country of furious Illyrians and, probably, bad drinking water.

No one else seemed to feel this kind of passionate attachment to other humans. Not to a newchild, not to a spouse, or a coworker, or friend. She had not felt it toward her own parents or brother. But now, toward this wobbly, drooling toddler—

The Willoughby parents frequently forgot that they had children and became quite irritable when they were reminded of it.