Quotes About Parenting

The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.

You can't teach children to be good. The best you can do for your child is to live a good life yourself. What a parent knows and believes, the child will lean on.

He said: "My mother washed out my mouth with soap because of all the bad words I used, and these had been pretty bad, I admit. What she did not know was that by washing out all the bad words, she also washed out all the good ones." In therapy all these bad words were freed, and

Out of all the wishes on the Parental Wish List, "good memories" are one of the few that clearly depend upon how you raise your child. Don't forget it.

The challenges of raising a child are as much for the sanctification of the parents as they are for the benefit of the child.

As parents, we have a chance when our children are young to turn them into good citizens rather than wait for the government to raise them for us.

What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect begins, therefore, before he is born.

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.

Love is the greatest advantage a parent can give.

I'm tough, had to be. My parents tried to protect me by telling me that I was nothing and I would amount to nothing. That's why I'm so amazed when I hear middle-class parents telling their little bog-standard Imogens and Tims how wonderful they are.

Ma soeur a mis le feu à sa chambre en lisant la nuit avec une lampe de poche sous son duvet pour que mon père ne voie pas de lumière passer sous la porte. Mais elle l'a éteint toute seule, en battant l'édredon contre le mur, et en ouvrant la fenêtre pour évacuer la fumée. Quand ma mère entre le matin dans sa chambre, elle trouve tout cramé. Mes parents n'ont plus la force de rosser ma soeur, elle résiste trop dignement à leurs coups.

Here's my win, born out of the bumps and bruises of sibling conflict: If you have two kids, assign one even, the other odd. Then whenever there's a question of who gets the "advantage," it's decided by what day it is. Who gets their pick of car seat? Odd kid, because today's the third. Who gets the last hug at drop-off? Even kid, because today's the sixteenth.

For few are the children who turn out to be equals of their fathers, and the greater number are worse; few are better than their father is.

When one parent dies, the world is dramatically altered, absolutely, but you still have another one left. When that second parent dies, it's the loss of all ties, and where does that leave you? You lose your history, your sense of connection to the past. You also lose the final buffer between you and death. Even if you're an adult, it's weird to be orphaned.

The degree to which a surviving parent copes is the most important indicator of the child's long-term adaptation. Kids whose surviving parents are unable to function effectively in the parenting role show more anxiety and depression, as well as sleep and health problems, than those whose parents have a strong support network and solid inner resources to rely on.

We might suspect that this attempt to balance the books through reciprocity was just the product of civilized parenting … if it weren't for the fact that every society that's been studied, no matter how advanced or primitive, has a principle of give and take.

I have a little boy at home, A pretty little son; I think sometimes the world is mine In him, my only one. . . 'Ere dawn my labor drives me forth; Tis night when I am free; A stranger am I to my child; And stranger my child to me. . . .

My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.

He wanted a father, and for the same reason, he wanted to be a father.

This is the pain-pleasure of having newly adult children; they're innocent and ruthless in forgetting their sweet old dependence.

at some level you remain an orphan for life; looking after children is one way of looking after yourself.

It's a commonplace of parenting and modern genetics that parents have little or no influence on the characters of their children. You never know who you are going to get.

She had the power to remove a child from an unkind parent and she sometimes did. But remove herself from an unkind husband? When she was weak and desolate? Where was her protective judge?

If I can't get along with the father of my children, how can the world make progress?