c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
As children we are taught, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me!" As adults we teach those same words to our own children while simultaneously we sue one another for defamation or verbal assault. Ah, the naked leading the blind.
— Bryan Oftedahl
Maggie had learned a long time ago that each day with a child was filled with two kinds of battles: those that won the war, and those that did not.
— Sydney Strand, Bad Mom Rents a Man: Mother's Day
As children we are taught, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me!" As adults we teach those same words to our own children while simultaneously we sue one another for defamation. Ah, the naked leading the blind.
— Bryan Oftedahl
Teachable moments are any time that you use situations to dialogue with your child about what's going on- what he or she has seen, heard, or done. As this passage from Deuteronomy (Deut. 6:6-7) describes, teachable moments can be any time you and your child are together.
— Kara G. Durbin, Parenting with Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments
There’s one thing you can start doing right now that will change how you communicate with any young human: Remember what it’s like to be one.
— Justin Young
Leadership is giving out far more than one expects in direct return. The rewards are intangible, yet priceless.
— T Jay Taylor
How can I help this son of mine see when I can't see? The parent must always self-parent first, self-preach before child-teach, because who can bring peace unless they've held their own peace?
— Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Parents who always whisper the word "sex" unintentionally tell their kids, "I don't want to talk about this. Get your answers elsewhere.
— Michael Rittenhouse, Sex: What Your Parents Didn't Tell You
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
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
Raising people is not some lark. It's serious work with serious repercussions. It's air-traffic control. You can't step out for a minute
—  you can barely pause to scratch your ankle.
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
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
Autism is just the surface. What is inside each of us is what matters, autistic or not.
— Liz Becker
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
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
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
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
You have a healthy baby boy! The words ring like church bells in the ears of new parents.
— Dr. Linda Barboa
Every parent is an artist, but not every artist is apparent.
— Eric Micha'el Leventhal
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
Your child may be under more stress than you realize. Remember that situations around to past experiences. Just because you do not see something as a big deal does not mean it is not for your child.
— Kara G. Durbin, Parenting With Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments
Encourage obeying "all the way, right away, and in a happy way.
— Kara G. Durbin, Parenting With Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments
Young children especially need the visual reinforcement of seeing you turn to Scripture for wisdom.
— Kara G. Durbin, Parenting With Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments
Once you put yourself on the lookout for teachable moments, you'll find them everywhere!
— Kara G. Durbin, Parenting With Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments
Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.
— Phyllis Diller
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
It doesn't take a man to have a child, it takes a man to raise a child.
— GonzoBilly
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
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
Siddhartha began to understand that it was not happiness and peace that had come to him with his son but, rather, sorrow and worry. But he loved him and preferred the sorrow and worry of love to the happiness and peace he had known without the boy.
— Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Parents must try to be, or at least put forth their best efforts to be, what they wish [their] children to be. It is impossible for you to be an example of what you are not.
— Joseph Fielding Smith
By spending years and years living entirely for yourself, thinking only about yourself, and having responsibility to no one but yourself, you end up inadvertently extending the introverted existence of a teenager deep into middle age.
— Danielle Crittenden, What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman
If something happened to Gillian, I'd rip the world down to save her, even if she spat in my face when I did. That's what parenthood means.
— Seanan McGuire, One Salt Sea
I never thought to ascribe my mother's emotional and physical exhaustion to the lack of a husband and father; rather, I ascribed it to my existence. In other words, I grew up learning the exact opposite of what Eisenhower was taught. I learned that if I didn't exist, the family would be better off. I grew up believing that if I had never been born, things would be easier for the people I loved. (page 35)
— Donald Miller, Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation
My parents never projected their dreams onto me. If they hoped I would be a great pitcher, or political figure, or artist (no chance), they never told me about it. Their view of parenting was to offer love and encourage me to chart my own path.
— George W. Bush, Decision Points
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
If you can give your son or daughet only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
— Bruce Barton
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
It seems to me that if God felt it best to delay marriage into the latter part of your twenties, He would also see fit to delay the hormonal urge to want to have sex. Or perhaps it was never His intent to delay marriage in an effort to "become more independent," "enjoy singlehood," and "build our careers.
— Vicki Courtney, Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter
Dwight Eisenhower said that from the beginning, his mother and father operated on an assumption that set the course of his life - that the world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence. Eisenhower's parents assumed, and taught their children, that if their children weren't alive, their family couldn't function. (page 34)
— Donald Miller, Father Fiction: Chapters for a Fatherless Generation
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
We're not mad," he began, meaning he was. He was always a plural when mad, as though grammatically throwing his lot in with her mother gave him the power of her authority.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Artificial Gods
They had perfected their team nagging to a level where they no longer had to confer and felt they would be wasting their talents if they only admonished their own children.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Danse Macabre (Night's Dream, #2)
I've always believed phone calls from kids must be allowed if mothers are to feel welcome in the workplace, as anyone who has worked in my chambers can attest.
— Sonia Sotomayor, My Beloved World
So often parents of abused children feel helpless. When a child falls, and scrapes her knees parents can erase the hurt by kissing it and putting a Band-Aid on it, but not so with the pain of sexual abuse.
— Erin Merryn, Living for Today: From Incest and Molestation to Fearlessness and Forgiveness
How we feel about our kids isn't as important as how they experience those feelings and how they regard the way we treat them.
— Alfie Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
I know what it feels like to miss everything about him--the way he smells, the way his mouth curls up when he laughs, his voice.
— Travis Neighbor Ward, Come Find Me
I felt like I needed to comfort both the little girl inside me and my mother, assuring them that neither of them could have prevented the rape. I didn't want my mother to blame herself and I didn't want to blame the little girl inside of me for not speaking up at the age of six.
— Erin Merryn, Living for Today: From Incest and Molestation to Fearlessness and Forgiveness
Being a parent is like being a catcher. You gotta handle whatever is thrown your way.
— Tom Swyers
Kids never want a perfect mother; they need a little love, even if that comes from a worst mother.
— M.F. Moonzajer, LOVE, HATRED AND MADNESS
It matters to ourselves, of course, but it matters terribly to other people. Moral failure or spiritual failure or whatever you call it, makes such a vicious circle... It seems as if when we love people and they fall short, we retaliate by falling shorter ourselves. Children are like that. Adults have a fearful responsibility. When they fail to live up to what children expect of them, the children give up themselves. So each generation keeps failing the next.
— Dorothy Whipple, They Were Sisters
Consistency also teaches us that some things do not change, though we may wish they would. Not everything bends to our personal preferences.
— Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
The attempt to prevent our kids from struggling for fear it might scar their permanent records is, instead, scarring them for life.
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
Our own egos are so fragile we cannot bear to give our lives to the raising of children only to have them become ordinary people. There, I said it. The worst thing a 21st-century child of interesting parents could be: ordinary. Like us.
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
We fluff them and fold them and nudge them and enhance them and bind them and break them and embellish them beyond measure; then, as we drive them up to the college interviews that they’ve heard since birth are the gateway to the lives they were destined to lead based on nothing more than our own need for it to be true, we tell them, with a smile so tight it would crack nuts, “Just be yourself.”�
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
A father is a man who fails every day.
— Michael Chabon
Did you notice there aren’t any average kids anymore—only Gifted and Disposable?
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
I feel like I've lived numerous lives...and you can explore my incarnations through my works.
— Laurel-Rain Snow, Interior Designs
What better reminder do we have than our kids of our own best selves, our less stressed and more carefree selves? In their silliness we see the echo of the way we used to be: when we were kids, yes, but also before we had kids, or even two weeks ago, before all of the stress of these year-end corporate meetings. Their joy, their infectious enthusiasm, their sense of "mission" as the poor dog is dressed in boxer shorts, cannot help but cajole you, and beckon you, to lighten up.
— Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
We fluff them and fold them and nudge them and enhance them and bind them and break them and embellish them beyond measure; then, as we drive them up to the college interviews that they’ve heard since birth are the gateway to the lives they were destined to lead based on nothing more than our own need for it to be true, we tell them, with a smile so tight it would crack nuts, 'Just be yourself.
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
I can’t hear God’s voice for my kids, but I can watch and listen and pray and adjust and try not to screw up whatever He has planned for their lives. And although I can’t make them listen to God, or even want to, I can plant enough seeds to swing the world in their favor. That said, as I navigate my day surrounded by the parents of gifted children (did you notice there aren’t any average kids anymore—only Gifted and Disposable), here’s where I get confused: if a person believes in gifts but not in God, then where—as they stand in daily admiration of their child’s emergent uniqueness, their heart swelling with pride and joy and, yes, gratitude —where, then, do they send the thank-you note?
— Heather Choate Davis, Elijah & the SAT: Reflections on a hairy old desert prophet and the benchmarking of our children's lives
With children the clock is reset. We forget what came before
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
The children who need love the most will always ask for it in the most unloving ways
— Russel Barkley
Forgive your child and yourself nightly. You didn't ask to live with the effects of ADHD any more than did your child.
— Martin L. Kutscher, ADHD - Living without Brakes
I go to all the appointments. All the meetings. I sit with the team of inclusion teachers, occupational therapists, doctors, social workers, remedial teachers, and the cab driver that gets him from appointment to appointment, and I push for everything that can be done for my autistic boy. But I will never have a plan that will fix him. Noah is not something to be fixed. And our life will never be normal. And people always say, oh well what’s normal, there’s no such thing really, and I say — sure there is…there’s a spectrum… and there’s lots and lots of possibilities within that spectrum, and trust me buddy, ducks on the moon ain’t one of them….but ….In this abnormal life, I get to live with a pirate, and a bird fancier, and an ogre, and a hedgehog, and many many superheroes, and aliens and monsters — and an angel. I get to go to infinity and beyond.
— Kelley Jo Burke, Ducks on the Moon: A Parent Meets Autism
When a child reaches puberty, parents become so curious about their sex lives and whereabouts, put them behind bars to their own detriment. When such a child breaks free, don't be surprised to see him/her in porn movies.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
As parents we have a tendency to overprotect
—  it's okay to try and show them all positives but we cannot forget that the real world has teeth
When your mom was not in labor yelling at me, she made me laugh so hard.
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
Fear of the Dark I’ve always been prone to worry and anxiety, but after I became a mother, negotiating joy, gratitude, and scarcity felt like a full-time job. For years, my fear of something terrible happening to my children actually prevented me from fully embracing joy and gratitude. Every time I came too close to softening into sheer joyfulness about my children and how much I love them, I’d picture something terrible happening; I’d picture losing everything in a flash. At first I thought I was crazy. Was I the only person in the world who did this? As my therapist and I started working on it, I realized that “my too good to be true” was totally related to fear, scarcity, and vulnerability. Knowing that those are pretty universal emotions, I gathered up the courage to talk about my experiences with a group of five hundred parents who had come to one of my parenting lectures. I gave an example of standing over my daughter watching her sleep, feeling totally engulfed in gratitude, then being ripped out of that joy and gratitude by images of something bad happening to her. You could have heard a pin drop. I thought, Oh, God. I’m crazy and now they’re all sitting there like, “She’s a nut. How do we get out of here?” Then all of the sudden I heard the sound of a woman toward the back starting to cry. Not sniffle cry, but sob cry. That sound was followed by someone from the front shouting out, “Oh my God! Why do we do that? What does it mean?” The auditorium erupted in some kind of crazy parent revival. As I had suspected, I was not alone.
— Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
I feel guilty when I feed them unhealthy food they like. I feel guilty when I feed them healthy food they don’t like. I feel guilty when I drop them off at school. I feel guilty when I pick them up at school. I feel guilty mostly for writing this book instead of spending time with them.
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
As I’m beginning to find out, parenting is no child’s play, it couldSometimes determine whether couples continue to live together orgo their separate ways.
— Oche Otorkpa
As a father, we need to actively listen.
— Asa Don Brown
As parents, we sometimes mistakenly assume that things were always this way. They weren't. The modern family is just that - modern - and all of our places in it are quite new. Unless we keep in mind how new our lives as parents are, and how unusual and ahistorical, we won't see that world we live in, as mothers and fathers, is still under construction. Modern childhood was invented less than seventy years ago - the length of a catnap, in historical terms.
— Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
They did the best they could with the knowledge they had." How the fuck did people know that? They didn't have no way of knowing that. Even if they did the best they could with the knowledge they had, why the hell didn't they have better knowledge? I mean, then nobody should ever fail an exam because everyone who Wright's an exam is doing the best they can with the knowledge they have. If I don't study for geography exam then I flunk out. Can I then say wait, just like the people who get a "A" I was doing the best I could with the knowledge I had. That's not an excuse for a 6 year old with a goddamn spelling B. How the hell is it an excuse for parents in full control of a developing human mind?If you don't study for the exam you fucking fail and if you don't study for parenting you fucking fail. You don't get to say that you did the best you could with the knowledge you had. Fuck that. That's a bullshit cop-out. You goddamn will study. It's a little more important raising a child than passing a spelling B when you're 6 goddamn years old. You goddamn will study and if you don't study youre more culpable.
— Stefan Molyneux
Applying parents values back to them allot of the time is like trying to pay back a guy who is a counterfeiter with his own counterfeit bills. "No, your supposed to think this is real money. I know it's not. I'm only pretending this is real money to get away with something. I don't actually want to receive it because I know it's fake money.
— Stefan Molyneux
Readers who have owned animals will appreciate how difficult it would be to train a dog to play exclusively in his own yard, to fetch his sweater whenever he sees it is raining outside, or to be generous in sharing his dog biscuits with other dogs. Yet these same people would not even question the feasibility of trying to use reward and punishment to teach their children the same behaviors.
— Thomas Gordon, Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children
As those of you with children know, rational parenting is like the Loch Ness Monster. We all hope it's out there somewhere, but we don't know anyone who has actually discovered it (and if we do come across someone who claims to have found it, deep down we think that person is a little off.
— Holly Sprink, Faith Postures: Cultivating Christian Mindfulness
Every child should be read to.
— Kim Hansen, The Adventures of Sheriff Williker: /Book 1: The Case of the Missing Horseshoe
The love, loyalty, and dedication of Mary and Joseph are an example for all Christian couples, who are neither the friends nor masters of their children’s lives, but the guardians of this incomparable gift from God.
— Pope Benedict XVI
That women bring home the bacon, fry it up, serve it for breakfast, and use its greasy remains to make candles for their children's science projects is hardly news. Yet how parenting responsibilities get sorted out under these conditions remains unresolved.
— Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
...failure promotes success only if you actually take the time to analyze your mistakes.." "Failure has to be separated from fault, and for many people that requires a bit of deprogramming, as we learn early on that they are one and the same." "In this framework, intention is extremely important.
— Amanda Lang
We’re gonna do like Posh and Becks and call it after the place it was conceived.”“Where’s that?” I asked.“King of Prussia.
— Henry G. Radcliff, The Sheriff of Nowhere
My husband says this longing for isolation is not a good quality, that if I wanted to be a hermit I should have moved to the West Coast and adopted a lot of cats, not gotten married and had children that demand to be fed several times a day.
— Anna White, Mended: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Leaps of Faith
Be fair. Play hard.
— Dan Venezia
PARENTHOOD is journey of being driven to the BRINK of INSANITY and BACK...Like a YO YO!!
— Tanya Masse, Stripping Away the Insanity of Life & Parenthood!
Games where someone wants to touch your body where your swimsuit covers or they ask you to touch their body where their swimsuit covers. Those body parts are private. No one is allowed to touch you there, or ask you to touch them there.
— Carolyn Byers Ruch, Rise and Shine: A Tool for the Prevention of Childhood Sexual Abuse
… when Michel came home from school, for example, and everything was as it should be. My own voice, above all, asking him what he wanted in his sandwich, also sounded as it should have. The larder was full, I had done all of the shopping that morning. I took care of myself as well, I looked in the mirror before leaving the house: I made sure my clothes were clean, that I had shaved, that my hair didn’t look like the hair of someone who never looks in a mirror - the people in the supermarket would have noticed nothing unusual, I was no divorced father reeking of alcohol, no father who couldn’t handle things. I clearly remembered the goal I had set for myself: I wanted to keep up the appearance of normality. As far as possible, everything had to remain the same for Michel as long as his mother wasn’t around. A hot meal every day, for a start. But also in other aspects of our temporary single-parent family, there shouldn’t be too many visible changes. Normally, it wasn’t my habit to shave every day; I didn’t mind walking around with stubble. Claire had never made a big deal out of that either, but during those weeks I shaved every morning. I felt that my son had a right to sit at the table with a clean-smelling, freshly shaven father. A freshly shaven and clean-smelling father would not prompt him to think the wrong things, would in any case not cause him to doubt the temporary character of our single-parent family.
— Herman Koch, The Dinner
I amazed myself, above all, with how well I was able to manage. Michel got to school on time, his teeth brushed and his clothes clean. More or less clean: I was less critical of a few spots on his trousers than Claire would have been, but then I was his father. I’ve never tried to be ‘both father and mother’ to him, the way some half-assed, home-made-sweater-wearing head of a single-parent household put it once in some bullshit programme I saw on afternoon TV.
— Herman Koch, The Dinner
No, on the outside view there was nothing for anyone to notice about me. I remained one pillar of a trinity, another pillar was lying only temporarily (temporarily! temporarily! temporarily!) in the hospital, I was the pilot of a three-engine aircraft, one of whose engines had stalled: there is no reason to panic, this is not a crash landing, the pilot has thousands of flight hours behind him, he will land the plane safely on the ground.
— Herman Koch, The Dinner
The first night in the hospital with a snuffling baby girl, I learned that my family was not the only thing that had expanded. There was now a whole new world of opportunities for judgment and self-doubt.
— Anna White, Mended: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Leaps of Faith
Simplification establishes an unspoken emphasis on relationship.
— Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
Whose team are you on?” I ask him.   “I don’t follow you – what do you mean whose team am I on?” he asks.   “I mean, you want your son back and there are forces in this world that want to take him from you. There is a battle going on. Sides have been taken, John’s team is his family and the other team is everything that you don’t want for your son. Walking away is the exact thing that the other side wants. Instead of walking away, you need to fight.”   I add: “Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be and he will become what he should be.
— JohnA Passaro, 6 Minutes Wrestling With Life
When the gardeners are good, the flower will bloom.
— Amish Tripathi, The Oath of the Vayuputras
I truly am %100 convinced that, if you want to raise knights and noble women, you must teach your children the philosophies of old. I have been teaching my son ancient philosophies since he was nine years old. It becomes a thought pattern, a way of life, an ingrained character. The philosophy of old is the stuff of knights and queens! If I can one day, I will put up a school dedicated to raising young children in the ways of old, from a fresh young age!
— C. JoyBell C.
What did I tell you about plastic ties? Only for humans, Julie murmured.If you don't listen to me, I can't teach you anything.
— Ilona Andrews, Magic Slays
The problem with parenting today? Children are not raised! They are just born and fed and clothed. Then upon them are placed ornaments for the eyes of others to see: superficial actions and ways, all of which pass away as sure as the sun sets every evening! Why are you not raising nobility? Why are you not raising Knights and Queens? Feed those souls, give them character!
— C. JoyBell C.
You must be committed to your children first. Otherwise, they will receive the leftovers.
— Lorilyn Roberts, Children of Dreams
Since we have had this baby with us, I have never again wondering why I never got pregnant. There is no doubt in my mind that God, in His wonderful way, was saving us to be the parents of this wonderful little boy.
— Kathleen Silber, Dear Birthmother
Kids don’t act right. Sure it’s embarrassing when it happens but any reasonable person won’t fault a parent when a kid throws a fit. However, when a child doesn’t act right and a parent doesn’t act at all then we’ve got a problem.Parents get up off of your rears and parent your children. Please I beg you stop these little bedlamites from running amuck at church, in restaurants, at the movies, in the store or really anywhere that I may be.
— Aaron Blaylock, It's Called Helping...You're Welcome
The world's major religions: Same boss, different departments.
— David R. Wommack
Little things spell LOVE. Beware the spouse or marriage that places a premium on expensive gifts and 'toys.
— David R. Wommack
Parenting should always come from a place of unconditional loving.
— Fiona Dimas-Herd, Communicating With Teens the parents' handbook
We sucked in atheism with our canned milk.
— Joy Davidman
The best parenting strives to educate children in how to live -- enthusiastically, compassionately, without greed, striving for a better world.
— David R. Wommack, Wommack's The Art of Parenting - Vol.1: Lessons from Parents and Mentors of Extraordinary Americans
Jokes about butts WORKED.
— Drew Magary, Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood
It's a fact that every minute you hold a child, it triples in mass.
— Drew Magary, Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood
Mantras are the past & the future.
— David R. Wommack
Take any two-year-old through a car wash and their skulls are blown. FLAPS! FOAM! ROLLING THINGS! It's the closest they'll ever get to being inside a working spaceship.
— Drew Magary, Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood
For every hour a mother gets to herself, a father will demand five times that amount for drinking with friends and acting like an immature dipshit.
— Drew Magary, Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood
Define your mantras, your adages, and bear down repetitively -- over and over and over!
— David R. Wommack
Adoption is a wonderful way of becoming a family. If being a biological parent is any better or more rewarding than being an adoptive parent, I really don't think I could stand it!
— Kathleen Silber, Dear Birthmother
A marvelous feeling -- that you love someone deeply -- and in turn, that person loves you back so sincerely.
— David R. Wommack
FAMILY. The ties that bind. The cement that builds character, strength of purpose, mutual respect, values.
— David R. Wommack
Ironically, pretending that parenting is easy diminishes the value of family. As truth seekers and truth speakers, we need to be honest about the cost of parenting.
— Leslie Leyland Fields, Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt
The best parenting strives to educate their children in HOW TO LIVE LIFE -- competitive, compassionate, void of greed, & striving to make a better world.
— David R. Wommack
Many parents have experienced the fact that kids don’t seem to honor their parents the way that previous generations of children did. The question we need to ask is, how did we get to this position? How did this lack of respect infiltrate even the closest family relationships? Most importantly, how can we make sure that it doesn’t ruin our bond with our own teens?
— Fiona Dimas-Herd, Communicating With Teens the parents' handbook
When a teacher is paying extra attention to your child, you believe that it's because you raised such an exceptional kid, one that stands out head and shoulders above the rest of her booger-eating friends.
— Drew Magary, Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood
People treat having a kid as somehow retiring from success. Quitting. Have you seen a baby? They’re pretty cute. Loving them is pretty easy. Smiling babies should actually be categorized by the pharmaceutical industry as a powerful antidepressant. Being happy is really the definition of success, isn’t it?
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
...Ty grabbed my phone and threatened to tell Otter that I liked being spanked during sex.This proceeded to lead up on a long tangent where I had to have him explain to me how he knows about stuff like people getting spanked during sex. H said he might have heard it mentioned while watching MSNBC. I told him he was grounded from watching the news channels for a week. That's where this whole sidebar should have ended, but then I was forced to explain S & M and bondage to my little brother, who was persistent on the topic, and who kept staring at me with mounting horror when I finally /did/ explain, and I realized I had maybe gone too far, and we had to spend the next five minutes swearing to God that I had never nor would I ever attempt to do anything like that. He might now be the only nine-year-old who has heard the terms "cock ring" and "fisting". My parenting skills are unparalleled.
— T.J. Klune, Bear, Otter, and the Kid
I used to wonder why I had hair on my legs, but now I know it's for my toddler sons and daughters to pull themselves up off the ground with as I scream in pain.
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
The single greatest reason why we are losing a generation is because the home is no longer the place of the transference of the faith. We live in a day of ‘outsourcing’…Today, we have a generation of people that outsource their kids.
— Tony Evans
Embrace your beautiful mess of a life with your child. No matter how hard it gets, do not disengage... Do something—anything—to connect with and guide your child today. Parenting is an adventure of the greatest significance. It is your legacy." - Andy Kerckhoff, from Critical Connection
— Andy Kerckhoff, Critical Connection: A Practical Guide to Parenting Young Teens
Kid's don't care how many sermons you preach to them. The only sermon they'll hear is how you live your life in front of them.
— Bruce Van Horn
But I don't think any parent can expect to escape this life without disappointing his child at some point. And the same could be said the other way around. We all of us fall short now and again, and disappoint someone dear to us, or ourselves. Thankfully, my parents have always been the forgiving sort.
— Julie Klassen, The Dancing Master
Adoption is a beautiful, burdensome blessing.
— Jody Cantrell Dyer, The Eye of Adoption: The True Story of My Turbulent Wait for a Baby
Not that I have any little kids running around I need to keep away from the guns. I had any kids I'd get rid of the guns. Nothing more dangerous to the life of a child than a house full of firearms. Nothing more dangerous except maybe a parent.
— Charlie Huston, Already Dead
Ironically, to my children, bedtime is a punishment that violates their basic rights as human beings. Once the lights are out, you can expect at least an hour of inmates clanging their tin cups on the cell bars.
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen, is to do pretty well; and professing myself moreover convinced, that the General's unjust interference, so far from being really injurious to their felicity, was perhaps rather conducive to it, by improving their knowledge of each other, and adding strength to their attachment, I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.
— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children
—  and here was one who was worshipping a stone!
It's a fool who thinks that having a kid is a right, which is the biggest crock of fishheads I’ve ever heard. You have a responsibility, not only to a person but also to a spirit because that’s what a child is. A pissing, crying, yawning, giggling, laughing package of spirit that is looking for you to take the lead. It’s a heck of a responsibility to look after a spirit.
— Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: his Wife, his Children, his Final Gift
Since taking are of one small baby is the hardest job on earth, I am constantly late, as I am today.
— Sally Koslow, The Widow Waltz
Bedtime makes you realize how completely incapable you are of being in charge of another human being. My children act like they've never been to sleep before. "Bed? What's that? No, I'm not doing that." They never want to go to bed. This is is another thing that I will never have in common with my children.
— Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat
This communal parenting brought me out of the privacy of our foreign enclave and into the public life of the community. Here, parenting was everyone’s responsibility; all adults were "aunties" and "uncles".
— Aminta Arrington, Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China
On top of the abuse and neglect, denial heaps more hurt upon the child by requiring the child to alienate herself from reality and her own experience. In troubled families, abuse and neglect are permitted; it's the talking about them that is forbidden.
— Marcia Sirota
Child abuse is still sanctioned — indeed, held in high regard — in our society as long as it is defined as child-rearing. It is a tragic fact that parents beat their children in order to escape the emotions from how they were treated by their own parents.
— Alice  Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
In retrospect, it seems obvious that my research about parenting was also a means to subdue my anxieties about becoming a parent.... I grew up afraid of illness and disability, inclined to avert my gaze from anyone who was too different – despite all the ways I knew myself to be different. This book helped me kill that bigoted impulse, which I had always known to be ugly. The obvious melancholy in the stories I heard should, perhaps, have made me shy away from paternity, but it had the opposite effect.
— Andrew Solomon
Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.”  - Bell Hooks
— Win Quier, Jeremiah's Journey: Gaining Our Autistic Son by Losing Him to the System
My God,” she says. “I feel like I’ve gone through a car wash.”I laugh, or force myself to, because it’s not something I’d normally laugh at.“What about you?” she says to Scottie. “How did you make out?”“I’m a boy,” Scottie says. “Look at me.”Sand has gotten into the bottom of her suit, creating a huge bulge. She scratches at the bulge. “I’m going to go to work now,” she says. I think she’s impersonating me and that Mrs. Speer is getting an unrealistic, humiliating glimpse.“Scottie,” I say. “Take that out.”“It must be fun to have girls,” Mrs. Speer says.She looks at the ocean, and I see that she’s looking at Alex sunbathing on the floating raft. Sid leans over Alex and puts his mouth to hers. She raises a hand to his head, and for a moment I forget it’s my daughter out there and think of how long it has been since I’ve been kissed or kissed like that.“Or maybe you have your hands full,” Mrs. Speer says.“No, no,” I say. “It’s great,” and it is, I suppose, though I feel like I’ve just acquired them and don’t know yet. “They’ve been together for ages.” I gesture to Alex and Sid. I don’t understand if they’re a couple or if this is how all kids in high school act these days.Mrs. Speer looks at me curiously, as if she’s about to say something, but she doesn’t.“And boys.” I gesture to her little dorks. “They must keep you busy.”“They’re a handful. But they’re at such a fun age. It’s such a joy.”She gazes out at her boys. Her expression does little to convince me that they’re such a joy. I wonder how many times parents have these dull conversations with one another and how much they must hide. They’re so goddamn hyper, I’d do anything to inject them with a horse tranquilizer. They keep insisting that I watch what they can do, but I truly don’t give a fuck. How hard is it to jump off a diving board?My girls are messed up, I want to say. One talks dirty to her own reflection. Did you do that when you were growing up?“Your girls seem great, too,” she says. “How old are they?”“Ten and eighteen. And yours?”“Ten and twelve.”“Oh,” I say. “Great.”“Your younger one sure is funny,” she says. “I mean, not funny. I meant entertaining.”“Oh, yeah. That’s Scottie. She’s a riot.
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants
Raising a child is a time of RAPID CHANGE! From the ages of 0 to 19, a PARENT can age over 30 years!
— Tanya Masse
Responsibilities fall heaviest on those willing to take the load.
— Heather Day Gilbert, God's Daughter
Do you guys have sunscreen?” I ask.“No,” Scottie says. “Do we have water?”“Did you bring any?” Alex asks.“No,” I say.Alex pops her head up. “Did you bring snacks for us?”“We can walk to town.”How do mothers manage to bring everything a child could need?
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants
My mother is European and expresses her love through food and cuddling. She wasn't the type of mother who would make it to school plays or soccer games, but if you wanted to stay at home sick, she was your girl. Whenever you'd go up to her room to cuddle with her, she'd pull out a Kit Kat or Snickers bar from her night table and look at you with dancing eyes.
— Chelsea Handler, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
Just remember something, okay? And this is neither here nor there but it’s something I really want you to know. Not that I think you have much trouble with this, but let’s be clear: you don’t owe your parents anything if they don’t respect you. That’s bullshit, to be taught that just because they created you and made sure you didn’t roll over in your crib and die, you owe them anything. So what I’m saying is use him. Use him if you can, if he lets you. But then don’t think you ever have to look back if he doesn’t respect you.
— Vee Hoffman
Ask any child who failed to live up to his parents’ idea of success, and you’ll likely hear that they never felt good enough, or that their parents had expectations that they could not live up to.
— Nancy Rose, Raise the Child You've Got—Not the One You Want
I had to ask Scottie what TYVM meant, because now that I’ve narrowed into her activities, I notice she is constantly text-messaging her friends, or at least I hope it’s her friends and not some perv in a bathrobe.“Thank you very much,” Scottie said, and for some reason, the fact that I didn’t get this made me feel completely besieged. It’s crazy how much fathers are supposed to know these days. I come from the school of thought where a dad’s absence is something to be counted on. Now I see all the men with camouflage diaper bags and babies hanging from their chests like little ship figureheads. When I was a young dad, I remember the girls sort of bothered me as babies, the way everyone raced around to accommodate them. The sight of Alex in her stroller would irritate me at times—she’d hang one of her toddler legs over the rim of the safety bar and slouch down in the seat. Joanie would bring her something and she’d shake her head, then Joanie would try again and again until an offering happened to work and Alex would snatch it from her hands. I’d look at Alex, finally complacent with her snack, convinced there was a grown person in there, fooling us all. Scottie would just point to things and grunt or scream. It felt like I was living with royalty. I told Joanie I’d wait until they were older to really get into them, and they grew and grew behind my back.
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants
The surest way to a child's heart is to spend time with them.
— Kevin Heath
The world talks to the mind. Parents speak more intimately
—  they talk to the heart.
Correction badly undertaken creates distance.
— Kevin Thoman
Reflection can be painful, but reflection can also be productive.
— Charlotte  Pearson, Mummy Fever: Mission Accomplished
I wasn’t anything special as a father. But I loved them and they knew it.
— Sammy Davis Jr.
Life will never be the same again. Life will be better.
— Charlotte  Pearson, Mummy Fever: Mission Accomplished
Whenever my children complain about the planet to me, I say 'Shut up, I just got here myself'.
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr., If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young
You've got to learn to let go and let your children fall, and fail. If you try to protect them from hurt, and always rush to their side with Band-Aids, they won't learn about life, and what is true, what works, what helps, and what are real consequences of certain kinds of behavior. When they do get hurt, which they will, they won't know how to take care of their grown selves. They won't even know where the aspirin is kept.
— Anne Lamott, Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son
Successful teaching is not head-to-head
—  it is heart-to-heart.
As his children, we were treated as some species of migrant workers who happened to be passing through. My father was the only person I ever knew who looked upon childhood as a dishonorable vocation one grew out of as quickly as possible.
— Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
What is certain is that he [the baby] has too much attention from the one person who is entirely at his disposal. The intimacy between mother and child is not sustaining and healthy. The child learns to exploit his mother's accessibility, badgering her with questions and demands which are not of any real consequence to him, embarrassing her in public, blackmailing her into buying sweets and carrying him.
— Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch
In every southerner, beneath the veneer of clichés lies a much deeper motherlode of cliché. But even cliché is overlaid with enormous power when a child is involved.
— Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
It's hard to trust your child to find his or her own path, especially when we're told everyday by professionals that children must fit into rigid boxes. We all want to give our kids the best opportunities we can, which is why it feels like such a disservice if we don't push them in the "right" direction. Celebrating you children's passions rather than redirecting them, especially when those passions don't line up neatly with a checklist for future success, can feel like jumping off a cliff. It certainly did for me. But that leap of faith is necessary if your kids are going to fly. 
— Kristine Barnett
What we are most passionate about becomes our legacy.
— Mike Crump