Quotes About Parenting

With my daughters, it didn't matter how much it was not my thing, we went through two truly horrible pink phases. I bought an awful lot of Barbie rubbish, and it was a great day when I was allowed to send Barbie's house to the skip. That was one of the best days of my life.

My parents had five children in six years and one week, meaning that my mom was pregnant for most of the '60s and driving carpools for most of the '70s. When we were young, she dressed us alike so she could pick us out in crowds: identical skirts for the four girls with the color-coordinated pants for my brother.

They say that if you give your children too much, they don't get the joy out of work. They just want the unearned things to keep falling from the sky.

I am very different as a parent to new kids. My work changed from being rooted in the sky to being rooted in the earth.

We FaceTime and Skype. My two older kids got iPods for their birthdays, so they can FaceTime their dad whenever they need him. They always get a six o'clock call right after dinner, and I make sure I talk to each child. Even my 1-year-old gets on the phone and says 'Daddy.' They know my schedule by now and count the days back until I get home.

Being away from home for six months of the year and seeing your kids grow up on Skype all that time - I think I saw Molly walk for the first time on Skype. That's not good.

I just couldn't imagine hitting a child. But in 'The Slap' it's an extreme situation. You have to ask yourself - would you step in if a child was out of control?

Well, I think one of the big things wrong with kids these days, a lot of them don't have a family. A lot of them got one parent and there's quite a few that don't have any parents and that's where the whole problem is. There's no family life, no father to slap 'em around when they need it.

Kids always act up the most before they go to sleep.

Becoming a father, I think it inevitably changes your perspective of life. I don't get nearly enough sleep. And the simplest things in life are completely satisfying. I find you don't have to do as much, like you don't go on as many outings.

I'm always without sleep. I've got two kids. I understand sleep deprivation on a profound level.

The more I read about feeding times, sleep times and waking-up times, the more inadequate and miserable I felt.

When I had my first boy it all started and that male energy seemed to keep me awake but since my daughter, who's incredibly serene, I can't seem to stop sleeping because she's asleep all the time. It's a pattern.

A baby's existence for the first three months is a one-way street. One person is doing all the work and the other is crying, sleeping and pooping. So the first moment when you're actually able to do something and they acknowledge your presence, that's a big deal. A very big deal.

I genuinely didn't start sleeping properly until I had kids of my own. And then that was just sleeping because of exhaustion.

It's funny because everyone says you sleep when baby sleeps or you take a nap when baby takes a nap. That's true when you have one. When you have two, that is not true.

I realize that dinner time, bath time, and bed time is 'roll your sleeves up, we can do this.' Just get one foot in front of the other, it's gonna be okay.

I remember trying to write at 1, 1:30 A.M., and just sort of falling asleep. And I think that was actually a good creative state for weird ideas. I shifted to a morning schedule once I had two kids, and I still found that if I slept badly, I actually had better ideas.

My parents kept me close to them. I even slept in the same room with them throughout my younger years.

Once you have children, the years slide by so quickly.

I don't think that sliding down a wall with a bottle of Sancerre in your hand at 6:30 in the morning is particularly attractive when you're approaching 40 and you've got a kid.

The way I was grew up gave me a slight fearlessness and a sense of independence. There are things about it that have definitely informed me. And then, as a parent, it's done the opposite. It's made me feel much more protective. There are boundaries in my kids' lives that I don't think I had.

My mother was a high-strung perfectionist. She would check my homework for the slightest imperfection and demand that it be redone if she detected any flaws, which she invariably did. My father, in contrast, was easy going and affable and delighted in helping me with any project.

I had a lovely, feral, free childhood - out and then come back when you're hungry or it gets too dark. I feel slightly cruel that I'm not offering my children the same.