Parenting Quotes

“Helicopter parents. Before I started at Pirriwee Public, I thought it was an exaggeration, this thing about parents being overly involved with their kids. I mean, my mum and dad loved me, they were, like, interested in me when I was growing up in the nineties, but they weren't, like, obsessed with me.”
― Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies

“We try to bring up our children so that they are protected from the world's evils, only to find we've raised a pack of innocents who seem to be about to stumble into them at every turn just from sheer stupidity!”
― Samuel R. Delany, Tales of Nevèrÿon

“There is entirely too much tut-tutting in this realm, if you ask me. All these kings would do a deal better if they put down their swords and listened to their mothers.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“Your love life is insignificant when it comes to raising your children to be respectable human beings. The moment you see them suffer or lower their standards because of your selfishness, is the day you should realize that nothing matters more than them. You are not just the queen or king of your fairy tale. The real story of your life is the gift of time God gave you with them.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy -- a little boy!”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

“A person can't pick up they children and just squeeze them to which-a-way they wants them to be.”
― Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

“Too many times I'd left him reaching for me, from a babysitter's arms. "Am I still a mother?" I asked myself... What parts of the day could I cut out and still give him enough? Paul never asked himself that. He thought he was a great dad.”
― Mona Simpson, My Hollywood

“Doctor Copeland belt old evil anger in him. The words rose inchoately to his throat and he could not speak them. They would listen to the old man. Yet to word the reason they will not attend.”
― Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

“Too bad for any parent who has become accustomed to ruling by force, because at some point the kids just get too big to slap around.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything

“For Parents: Never blame or scold a child for their first mistake after all family is the first school from where a child learns.”
― Neeraj Bhanot

“Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can’t oke enough holes to drain it dry.”
― Alvin Price

“Well, we spent enough on gymnastics.'
'Christ, did we,' said Maureen. 'So many lessons.'
So many lessons, it was true: art and music and ice-skating; Lily's every fleeting interest enthusiastically, abundantly indulged. Not to mention the many more practical investments--chemistry tutoring when she struggled, English enrichment when she excelled, SAT courses to propel her to the school and then, presumably, the career of her dreams. What costs had been sunk, what objections had been suppressed, to deliver their daughter into the open and waiting arms of her beautiful life.”
― Jennifer duBois, Cartwheel

“The adoptee benefits because his collective parents are permitted to grow secure in their particular roles in his life. His adoptive parents are not unwittingly encouraged to compete to possess him. Nor are his birth parents punished and banished from a place in his life.”
― Kathleen Silber, Dear Birthmother

“Then the dreaded words, Your child has autism. These words echo in their heads like a freight train blasting through their hopes and dreams.”
― Dr. Linda Barboa

“Autism is just the surface. What is inside each of us is what matters, autistic or not.”
― Liz Becker

“He was a bad, bad bastard. He abused the privilege of being a cunt, as my old Da would say.’ I smiled, picturing the cozy fireside scene of young son on father’s knee being inducted into the world of abusive epithets.”
― Craig Russell, The Long Glasgow Kiss

“Parents in the early half of the twentieth century were primarily concerned with the development of character in their children. They wanted to be certain that their children were ready to cope with adversity, for it was surely coming to them one day whether in personal or national life. The development of character involves self-discipline and often sacrifice of one's own desires for the good of self and others. Montessori education, developed in this historical period, reflects this emphasis on the formation of the child's character. However, parents today are more likely to say their primary wish for their children is that they be happy. In pursuit of this goal they indulge their children, often unconsciously, to a degree that is startling to previous generations. All parents need to remember that true happiness comes through having character and discipline, and living a life of meaningful contribution -- not by having and doing whatever you wish.”
― Paula Polk Lillard, Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three

“બાળકો પતંગ જેવા હોય છે. એમને ખૂબ ઉંચે ઉડવું હોય છે, દૂર દૂર સુધીની દુનિયા જોવી હોય છે. મા-બાપની ફરજ છે કે એમની ડોર પોતાના હાથમાં રાખી એમને જમીન સાથે જોડાયેલા રાખવા. પવન અનુકૂળ હોય તો ઢીલ છોડવી, પણ ગોથા ખાવા લાગે તો ડોર થોડી ખેંચી લેવી. કપાવાનો ભય હોય તો થોડે દૂર પણ ખસેડી લેવી કારણ કે કપાયેલી પતંગનું ભવિષ્ય અકળ હોય છે. કોઈ સારા હાથમાં પડે અને ફરી ઉડવા માંડે તો વાંધો નહિ પણ કશે ફસાઈને તૂટી-ફૂટી જાય તો એ નુકસાન કાયમી હશે.”
― Manisha Gala

“Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.”
― Phyllis Diller

“If you raise a daughter to be both independent and an excellent marksman, you have to accept the fact that your control over her actions is at an end.”
― Martha Wells, The Gate of Gods

“You have a healthy baby boy! The words ring like church bells in the ears of new parents.”
― Dr. Linda Barboa

“A small step forward . . .every . . single . . .day. The sun is coming up and I am wondering, 'What wondrous thing shall I witness today?”
― Liz Becker, Autism and the World According to Matt: A collection of 50 inspirational short stories on raising a moderate / severe mostly non-verbal autistic child from diagnosis to independence

“Rocco was gripped with the panic he often experienced around her, around himself. He seemed to be both here now and simultaneously five years in the future looking back at this moment, at the loss of this moment. He was always sliding past the nowness of being with her, throwing himself at her like a cranked-up insincere clown for an exhausting fifteen minutes a day or getting cozy with booze in order to achieve the proper mood, and from the time she was born he had felt he was on his deathbed, remembering with regret how skittish and slippery his time with her had been. Had been, as if she were a hard thirty-seven and divorced instead of a two-year old baby, as if he were eighty-six and senile instead of forty-three and slightly overweight.”
― Richard Price, Clockers

“Every parent is an artist, but not every artist is apparent.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal

“Do your kids see your kindness or are you always telling them. "NO?”
― Brenda M. McGraw, Joy Beyond: 28 Days to Finding Joy Beyond the Clutter of Life

“Asking a parent not to be a parent is like asking the sun not to be hot or snow not to be cold.”
― Lesa Howard

“He was afraid to pick up the baby. If he touched it, it might bond with him or something. Or he might leave fingerprints all over it.”
― Judith Arnold, Father Found

“too much alcohol hampers people's ability to parent. That's why I've chosen to remain childless.”
― Kyra Davis, Lust, Loathing and a Little Lip Gloss

“The world is in a mad dash of personal peace and affluence. Sadly, too often the evangelical church is not much different. Of course, we want our children to become Christians. But that is just an addition to the all-consuming goal, that they would attain their own personal peace and affluence.”
― R.C. Sproul Jr., Bound for Glory: God's Promise for Your Family

“Once you put yourself on the lookout for teachable moments, you'll find them everywhere!”
― Kara Durbin, Parenting With Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments