Quotes About Parenting

I was thinking that when I have children, that I should always dress as a character for them, so they think their mom is Alice in Wonderland or Cinderella. It would be totally messed up!

We all know the wonders of Skype, but there's nothing like getting a hug from your daughters or taking them to school.

With the kids around, this is a different world to me. I spend a lot of time with them till they go to their playschool. I wake up early, have breakfast with them. I come back from work and am with them again till they go to bed by 10 P.M. Touch wood, this is what I wanted always.

If you're trying to raise a son, it gives you a chance to say things like, 'Chop your own wood; it will warm you twice.'

Ah, the power of two. There's nothing quite like it. Especially when it comes to paying utility bills, parenting, cooking elaborate meals, purchasing a grown-up bed, jumping rope and lifting heavy machinery. The world favours pairs. Who wants to waste the wood building an ark for singletons?

My mom beat us until she started breaking clothes hangers. Wooden clothes hangers! Once we started laughing back at her, then your spankings were through. That's the way I was raised. So, I got to be about 13 years of age when finally she quit spanking on me. But I think that it was great way to be raised.

Dad was a strict disciplinarian and would give us a wallop with a wooden spoon if we were out of order. But we really respected him - he didn't try to be our best friend.

I had really specific ideas of what kind of mom I was going to be and what kind of things I was going to provide for my child - even down to the organic, wooden toys Birdie was going to be allowed to chew on. Then cut to my daughter being obsessed with every plastic, 99-cent store toy.

Our kids are actually doing what we told them to do when they sit in front of that TV all day or in front of that computer game all day. The society is telling kids unconsciously that nature's in the past. It really doesn't count anymore, that the future is in electronics, and besides, the bogeyman is in the woods.

No, I want my kids to be Tiger Woods. And Serena Williams. I dig those two.

I once ran away from home because I was upset with my parents! I didn't get farther than a few feet into the woods, where I hid behind a tree. Sometimes you feel like you should just go out and rebel, and then you realize it's not the right thing to do. You've got to stay true to your family.

We were the last generation to have the experience of going out with our friends to the woods or the train tracks and the only way our parents could connect with us was to say, 'It's time for dinner.'

I don't think Mia should go on adopting children, and I think that all her adoptions should have been a warning signal to Woody when he met her.

Woody Allen - legally, ethically, personally - was absolutely a father in our family.

Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

I feel, as I get older and now a father, I try to be a little more conscious of the things I would say and do. I try to be more creative as opposed to using a cheap word, cursing, or something vulgar to get a reaction.

We'll tell fear it can come along with us in our minivan, okay? But we'll just tell fear it can't drive. Sometimes we'll tell it to not even talk. Like when we tell our kids, 'Enough. No words.' We're going to play the quiet game with fear. Fear is not the boss of us.

Parents become very good at not hearing the explicit words and listening instead to what the child means but doesn't yet know how to say: 'I'm lonely, in pain, frightened' - distress which then unfairly comes out as an attack on the safest, kindest, most reliable thing in the child's world: the parent.

Parents should plant deeply the seed of the work ethic into the hearts and habits of their children.

It's a life lesson that translates beyond football. You can share these things with your kids: Work hard, do things the right way and you have a chance.

I've met many rich kids over the years. Many are very down to earth and work hard; they come from decent parenting. Others, however, are not.

I think a lot about teaching my kids to work hard.

To be a parent, you must be authoritarian. If the Zambians want to succeed, they must learn to work hard, and they should not expect to be treated with kid gloves.