c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
We all know that parents do not make children but that children make parents…Authentic parenting is one long sacrificial act…parenting reveals the way that sacrifice at once diminishes our life as we knew it…while at the same time revealing to us larger and infinitely more fascinating forms of life…Parents know experientially that the very process which makes them suffer also makes them grow.
— Luke Timothy Johnson, The Living Gospel
I thought of all the magazine article I'd read on mothers who worked and constantly felt guilty about leaving their children with someone else. I had trained myself to read pieces like that and silently say to myself, 'See how lucky you are?' But it had been gnawing at the inside, that part that didn't fit, that I never let myself even think about. After all, wasn't it a worse kind of guilt to be with your child and to know that you wanted to be anywhere but there?
— Jodi Picoult
Ha! Kids! You have no idea what you put your parents through, either. Wait till you have your own, you'll see. That's when you'll know what it really feels like." .. "What what feels like?"..."Love," said Angela.
— Tess Gerritsen
I often must sacrifice my own needs and desires for the purpose of giving my children what they need and modeling for them the depths of Christ's love."...make myself available in the routine tasks and myriad interruptions of daily life b/c I believe it is God's will for me to serve my family through them.
— Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity
When dreaded outcomes are actually imminent we don't worry about themwe take action. Seeing lava from the local volcano make its way down the street toward our house does not cause worry it causes running. Also we don't usually choose imminent events as subjects for our worrying and thus emerges an ironic truth: Often the very fact that you are worrying about something means that it isn't likely to happen.
— Gavin de Becker, Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe
But to be a parent is to live in the past-present-future all at once. It is to hug your children and be intensely aware of how much smaller they felt last year ... even as you wonder how much bigger they will feel the next. It is to be a time-shifter, to marvel at the budding of their intellect, their verbal dexterity, their sense of humor ... at the same time rewinding and fast-forwarding ... to when they were younger, to when they'll be older. It is to experience longing for the here and now, which I know sounds flaky - sort of like complaining about being homesick when you're already home - but can happen, trust me, when you live in multiple time zones all at once.
— Youngme Moon, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd
Once when I was young-maybe more than once-when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me "garbage" in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn't damage my self esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn't actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage. As an adult, I once did the same thing to Sophie, calling her garbage in English when she acted extremely disrespectful toward me. When I mentioned I had done this at a dinner party, I was immediately ostracized. One guest named Marcy got so upset she broke down in tears and had to leave early. My friend Susan, the host, tried to rehabilitate me with the remaining guests. "Oh dear, it's just a misunderstanding. Amy was speaking metaphorically-right, Amy? you didn't actually call Sophie 'garbage.'""Um, yes I did. But it's all in the context," I tried to explain. "It's a Chinese immigrant thing.
— Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
I don't understand why some kids git a good school and mother and father and some don't. But Rita say forgit the WHY ME shit and git on to what's next.
— Sapphire
What is called family pride is often founded on the illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself.
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume 1
Why would a vampire create a younger vampire if there was a possibility the young one might end up destroying the old one?'Stephin stared. 'If you can explain to me how this is different from parenting in general I might know how to answer that.
— Adam Rex, Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story
We parents are an extension of our children, not the other way around. We are their conscience until it becomes their responsibility to tell themselves what’s right and necessary. We are their butlers until they are fully able to get the items they need and can clean up after themselves. We are their cheerleaders until they learn how to develop their own confidence and motivation. We are their counselors until they are able to take the lead in making the tough decisions that affect them.
— Larry Tanner
One must make allowances for a parental instinct that has been starving for twenty-five or thirty years. It is famished, it is crazed with hunger by that time, and will be entirely satisfied with anything that comes handy; its taste is atrophied, it can't tell mud cat from shad. A devil born to a young couple is measurably recognizable by them as a devil before long, but a devil adopted by an old couple is an angel to them, and remains so, through thick and thin.
— Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson
As parents we carry the blueprints, the dreams of what our family could be. The plans change, the whole thing goes way over budget, there are unexpected additions, and the work never ends. Still, through the messiness of construction we see each other with such depth and hope. Our five year-old boy is still so clearly the baby he once was and sometimes—can you see it?—the young man he will one day be. We draw energy and inspiration from our dreams; our simple, common motivations. --SIMPLICITY PARENTING
— Lisa Ross
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
Uselessness, she thought, was the permanent condition of parenthood.
— Lisa Unger, Fragile
I realize it's commonplace for parents to say to their child sternly, 'I love you, but I don't always like you.' But what kind of love is that? It seems to me that comes down to, 'I'm not oblivious to you - that is, you can still hurt my feelings - but I can't stand having you around.' Who wants to be loved like that? Given a choice, I might skip the deep blood tie and settle for being liked. I wonder if wouldn't have been more moved if my own mother had taken me in her arms and said, 'I like you.' I wonder if just enjoying your kid's company isn't more important.
— Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Believe that God is strong enough to save your children, no matter how you fail.
— Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus
I believe one of the most sacrificial acts of love adoptive parents can do is to give up their preconceptions and agendas about what their child's views "should" be and be open to hear the conflicting emotions and thoughts their child often experiences.
— Sherrie Eldridge, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
How can families harm us when they love us? Very easily, unfortunately. Most of us overlook one important fact when we think love is enough: Love and respect aren't the same thing.Love is fusion. As a baby, you belong to your parents, you're extension of them. Respect is differentiation: you belong to yourself, and you're an extension of no one. Differentiation is essential for happiness of adults.
— Barbara Sher, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It
Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.
— Arnold H. Glasow
From the time they hit middle school, they start moving away from home. They are not doing anything wrong; it's just the way they are made. They are becoming independent, and they begin redefining themselves through the eyes other people who are not in their immediate family. The older they get, the more important it is to have other voices in their lies saying the same things but in a different way. 
— Reggie Joiner, The Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide...
Daddy, are you going to yell at us some more today?'Neary gazed down into her clear, guileless eyes. That was how he looked to her---a yelling machine. And she was prepared to accept more yelling because she loved him.
— Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
I raised my three teens with love, perseverance, tenacity, sweat, tears, prayers, lighting candles, and the list could go on.
— Ana Monnar
When you get born your father and mother lost something out of themselves, and they are going to bust a ham trying to get it back, and you are it. They know they can't get it all back but they will get as big a chunk out of you as they can.
— Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
Now I know I’ll never be numb again. A mother is condemned to feel everything forever. And I’m finally afraid, condemned to fear everything forever. But that makes sense: feel someone else’s pain, feel someone else’s everything.And he’s my baby, so everything’s okay.
— Kristin Hersh, Rat Girl
That is the flip side, you see, to laissez-faire parenting. It succeeds or not, throughout the animal kingdom as it does with humans, in direct relationship to the strength of the offspring. Some of us don’t need very much. Some of us need a lot.
— Cynthia Rogers Parks, Houses: a novel
Children need time to become themselves--through play and social interaction. If you overwhelm a child with stuff--with choices and pseudochoices--before they are ready, they will only know one emotional gesture: More!
— Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
Did children want sports cars for parents? No. They wanted Hondas. They wanted to know that the car would start in all seasons.
— Dave Eggers, A Hologram for the King
Every mom has her own battle. Win yours without being 'nyinyir' to others.
— Jihan Davincka, The Davincka Code: How Traveling Inspires You
This is why we can't have nice things...
— Madge Madigan, When Life Gives You Lemons... At Least You Won't Get Scurvy!
That thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it is a matter of getting lost. The word ‘lost’ comes from the old Norse ‘los’ meaning the disbanding of an army…I worry now that people never disband their armies, never go beyond what they know.Advertising, alarmist news, technology, incessant busyness, and the design of public and private life conspire to make it so. A recent article about the return of wildlife to suburbia described snow-covered yards in which the footprints of animals are abundant and those of children are entirely absent. Children seldom roam, even in the safest places… I wonder what will come of placing this generation under house arrest.
— Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost
At what age did I start to think that where I was going was more important than where I already was? When was it that I began to believe that the most important thing about what I was doing was getting it over with? Knowing how to live is not something we have to teach children. Knowing how to live is something we have to be careful not to take away from them.
— Colin Beavan, No Impact Man
Fifteen minutes later, Betsy came thundering down the stairs. "I'm going to the mall with Sierra to see a movie."Michael leaned forward, switched off the television. "Can you please rephrase that in the form of a question?""Sure. Can I have some money?
— Kristin Hannah, Home Front
I was delighted to see him growing more cautious and skeptical about what he heard, especially when he heard it from someone in apparent authority. I think that is fundamental to a good education. And if it comes back to bite me from time to time, that's a price worth paying.
— Martine Millman, Homeschooling: A Family's Journey
Let those parents that desire Holy Children learn to make them possessors of Heaven and Earth betimes; to remove silly objects from before them, to magnify nothing but what is great indeed, and to talk of God to them, and of His works and ways. before they can either speak or go.
— Thomas Traherne, Centuries Of Meditations
Come in early, so there'll be time to pop corn,' Mrs. Ray said. If she mentioned popping corn, they always came in early. So she usually mentioned it.
— Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances.The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.
— Kirk Mango
When they're little, and you go for years without a good night's sleep, you wonder if they'll ever make it through to morning without finding some reason to wake you up. But then one day you look at the clock and it's 7:30 a.m......For a panicked moment, you wonder if your child is---well, I can't even say it. You leap out of bed and run into his room and if you haven't wakened him up with all your commotion by then, you stand there for a minute trying to make sure that he's still breathing. You see the chest rising and falling and you let out a sigh. There's nothing wrong. He's just growing up. He doesn't need you anymore, is all; he doesn't need to wake you up in the night.
— Beth J. Harpaz
The recent spate of magazines for "parents" (i.e., mothers) bombard the anxiety-induced mothers of America with reassurances that they can (after a $100,000 raise and a personality transplant) produce bright, motivated, focused, fun-loving, sensitive, cooperative, confident, contented kids just like the clean, obedient ones on the cover. 
— Susan Douglas, The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women
Praise your children openly, reprove them secretly.
— William Cecil
There are many different ways of approaching parenting as there are cultures. However, in non-industrialized cultures, the similarities are also striking. Extended nursing, co-sleeping, carrying the baby in close physical contact, responding promptly to cries or distress, never leaving a baby alone, are all virtually universal in traditional societies that have not become overly "westernized".
— Ingrid Bauer, Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene
I should be an affected women, if I made any pretence of being surprised by my son's inspiring such emotions; but I can't be indifferent to anyone who is so sensible on his merits
— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
His son's transformation cannot be stopped, or hastened, or adjusted; the man he will become is already present, like a form emerging from a slab of stone. All that remains is to watch it happen.
— Justin Cronin, Mary and O'Neil
He'd learned in the past few months that telling a girl what to wear--even one the size of a golf club--was a bad idea. Histrionics often followed.
— Kristin Hannah, Home Front
The desire to procreate, in some, is so strong that it creates a sort of tunnel vision in the afflicted. One can’t see beyond trying to make a baby, and they never stop to think about what it will really be like once said baby has in fact, arrived.
— Karen Fowler, Reflections on Motherhood
You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
— Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do. We should set them an example that we wish them to imitate.
— Brigham Young
I'm beginning to perceive motherhood as a long, slow letting go, of which birth is just the first step.
— Sandra Steingraber, Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood
Perhaps I did nothing because I don't have enough fear to be a good parent.
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants
The newborn has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breatfeeding satisfies all three.
— Grantly Dick-Read
We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.
— Henry Ward Beecher
That's a parents' job, isn't it? To raise a child strong enough to leave and break our hearts?
— Beth Groundwater, To Hell in a Handbasket
Once your baby arrives, the world is no more the same than you are. Because from our very bodies we add to the collective human destiny. Our deepest urge is always toward life, to wholeness and well being.
— Claire Fontaine
You can't have that wish, my Little Bear,' said Mother Bear.
— Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear
I'm also discovering that while they seem to believe that I do not require sleep, my husband (who also doubles as their father) has the ability to morph into an invisible and supremely evasive nocturnal being, with powers so stealthy as to evade capture by the aliens [children] that had invaded our once peaceful and quiet habitat [bedroom at night].
— Dallas Louis, The Mommy Diaries; How I'm Survivng Parenting without Killing Anyone
She brought a chair into the room and placed it alongside the top of his bed. Then she held his hand as he drifted off to sleep. It was so small in her own hand, and it felt warm and dry. She pressed his hand gently, and his fingers returned the pressure, but only just, as he was almost asleep by then. She remembered, but not very well, what it was to fall asleep holding the hand of another; how precious such an experience, how fortunate those to whom it was vouchsafed by the gods of Friendship, or of Love. She thought she had forgotten that, but now she remembered.
— Alexander McCall Smith, Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
Fifteen-year-old girls produce children with sixteen-year-old boys in the backseat of cars and in the stairwells of apartment buildings. Why can't two loving adults who have contemplated parenthood and are prepared to offer love, patience, and devotion come up with enough chromosomal matter to stick together and create a child?
— Scott Simon, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption
I tell Esther she should ease up on lard. There's no need to mix lard in with Scottie's rice, chicken, and beans. I tell her she hasn't read the blogs. I've read the blogs. I know what Scottie should eat.
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants
Everything I had to give went to my children, and though I loved them and my husband utterly, the drudgery of the day-to-day made it seem as if not love but coffee, my Toyota and sheer logistics were what propelled me through life.
— Marcia DeSanctis
Currently, the average age of exposure to hardcore pornography is 9 years old. None of this can be good for anyone... except the sex industry.
— Guy Noland
Even though you can't control outcomes for your child, you can parent unconditionally with all your heart.
— Lisa Coyne, The Joy of Parenting: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Guide to Effective Parenting in the Early Years
Greatness, whether athletic or otherwise, doesn’t come from those content on just being but from those who seek being the difference.
— Kirk Mango
*marissa tries to get her single, working mother's attention by suggesting something outrageous, to which mom replies:*'You're a smart girl. Use your head and avoid any guy who reminds you of your father.
— Camille Pagán, The Art of Forgetting
All parents set out with expectations, hopes and dreams for their child. When a child is diagnosed with a health problem, these aspirations are altered. While one parent is hoping to see their child graduate from university, another is praying that they can live pain free
— Sharon Dempsey, Extreme Parenting: Parenting Your Child with a Chronic Illness
Don't even think abou
— Jennifer Crusie, Welcome to Temptation
I've tried to teach what I learned all those years in my mother and father's house, all those things I didn't realize I was learning and that I never knew I'd be so grateful for. When you have love and it's proffered every day in a kind of tender, yet stern insistence and even reckless laughter, when it is given to you and you accept it in life as a thing as natural as rain or snow, or the littler of leaves in fall, you can't help but take it for granted. For a bewildered while you incorrectly understand that the world has given you this becuase it's there in equal measure, everywhere. You never knowuntil it's too late to do anything about it, how seet the effort is: how lasting the human will to love can be in the breast of people who want to make it for you, who want to give it to you, without calculating what's in it fo them, without thinking at all of what it will mean when you grow to full adulthood, see the world as it is, and forget to mention what you have been given.Ever day of my grown-up life, I have wanted to do what my parents did. I have wanted to widen the province of love and weaken hate and bitterness in the hearts of my children. And I've done these things because of what I got from my family, all those lovely years when I was growing up, being loved and cherished and, unbeknown to me, and in the best way, honored, for myself.
— Marian Wright Edelman, Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing Up in America
It could not have been easy for Mother, an only child, to grow up without a father and with a mother who was remote. Photos of her as a child show her extremely dressed up --Cornie's beautiful little doll. But a daughter, unlike a doll, grows up, and might fall in love with and marry someone her mother does not like; she becomes an individual with her own ideas.
— Cornelia Maude Spelman
People who are not fully enlightened have no business becoming parents. This contradicts the conventionally accepted notion that people have an inherent "right" to have children. They do not. People who have a compulsion to traumatize a child, even in the mildest forms, are breaking the child's human rights, though of course the parental compulsion to find false pleasure through procreation obliterates their awareness of these rights. But interestingly, many parents would agree that convicted pedophiles and child murderers have no right to procreate, because of the dynamics in which they are so likely to engage.
— Daniel Mackler, Toward truth: A psychological guide to enlightenment
God is at work telling a story of restoration and redemption through your family. Never buy into the myth that you need to become the "right" kind of parent before God can use you in your children's lives. Instead learn to cooperate with whatever God desires to do in your heart today so your children will have a front-row seat to the grace and goodness of God.
— Reggie Joiner
Babbit was an average father. He was affectionate, bullying, opinionated, ignorant, and rather wistful. Like most parents he enjoyed the game of waiting till the victim was clearly wrong, then virtuously pouncing.
— Sinclair Lewis
If we fail to provide boys with pro-social models of the transition to adulthood, they may construct their own. In some cases, gang initiation rituals, street racing, and random violence may be the result.
— Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
A virtue is a habit that includes all of these things: actions (you take care of your child even when you don't feel like it), emotions (you are often overtaken by feelings of tenderness and delight), perceptions (you understand your little children better than they understand themselves), choices (you choose to get out of bed and go to the children's room even when you'd much rather not), and thoughts (you think differently, more thoroughly and carefully, about your children than about anyone else in the world). The habit of love includes all these things, but not necessarily all at the same time.
— Phillip Cary, Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don't Have to Do
A Christian understanding of the world sees a child's character not as genetically determined but as shaped to a significant degree by parental discipleship and discipline.
— Russell D. Moore, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches
. . . Mrs. Lambchop sighed and shook her head. "You're at the office all day, having fun," she said. "You don't realize what I go through with the boys. They're very difficult."Kids are like that," Mr. Lambchop said. "Phases. Be patient, dear.
— Jeff Brown, Flat Stanley
The irreducible, ultimate element in religious faith is the insistence that we are created things; male and female He created them; without God we are nothing. And yet, when men and women have children and become parents, they unmistakably become creators, incompetent, accidental and partial creators, no doubt, but creators none the less. It is their inescapable duty, and, with luck, their occasional delight to care and watch over their creations; even if this creative power is partly illusory because chromosomes and chance decide the whole business, parents cannot act as if it is illusory; they cannot sincerely believe in their ultimate helplessness. They must behave like shepherds, however clumsy, and not like sheep, however well trained.The Sermon on the Mount is a wonderful, intoxicating sermon. But it is a sermon for bachelors.
— Ferdinand Mount, Subversive Family
Jumping, waving arms, cheering, laughing, head-butting him in the groin, an unfortunate ritual in the Tanner home, very much unappreciated by Jim, but tolerated for the sake of the children, Grace, Bobby and Steven joined Jason next to their father.
— Mike   Jackson, Door Knob to Broken Leg
Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked; as I never was when I was not one.
— Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
Mother is water.
— Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
One day you’re going to get arrested, and when you do, don’t call me. I’ll tell the police to lock you up just to teach you a lesson.” Because there were some black parents who’d actually do that, not pay their kid’s bail, not hire their kid a lawyer—the ultimate tough love. But it doesn’t always work, because you’re giving the kid tough love when maybe he just needs love. You’re trying to teach him a lesson, and now that lesson is the rest of his life.
— Trevor Noah, Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
She didn't know how to hate her mother yet, but every time she left her father crying in the airport she came that much closer to figuring it out.
— Ann Patchett, Commonwealth
I wanted two girls," she said. "You and your sister. I wanted exactly what I had. Other people's children are too hard
— Ann Patchett
Conscious parenting is not about being perfect, it's about being aware. Aware of what your kids need from you to reach more of their full potential.
— Alex Urbina, The Inspirational Parent: The Magical Ingredients For Effective Parenting
Our first concern is his happiness of course; but not just today." Because it wasn't that simple, was it? Raising children was the longest of long games.
— Laurie Frankel, This is How It Always Is
Parenthood is like that...the harder the choice, the less likely any of the options are good ones
— Laurie Frankel, This is How It Always Is
He knocked politely and entered the principal’s office with his dad face in full effect. He put his hand on my shoulder in a way that came off as both stern and proud. He was dad-ing it up for the principal, which I was actually a little grateful for, but it also made me mad.
— Charlotte Leonetti
I learned to love my son without wanting to possess him and I learned how to teach him to teach himself.
— Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
Congrats, buddy. It's going to be hysterical seeing you try to parent. You're a disaster.""Thanks, asshole," he says, but he's smiling because he sees the humor in my expression."I hope it's a girl and she grows up to be hot like her mom because that'll make it even more hysterical," I added and chuckle. "You're going to have to buy a baseball bat to keep the boys away.""Oh God, don't even joke about that," he warns.
— Victoria Denault, Game On
The upbringing based on criticizing the wrong and rejecting it since childhood is considered to be one of the factors that support the ability to choose the right choice based on correct criteria and overall vision.As much as the sons and daughters practiced this criticism against the mistakes they see in the community as much they will feel more self strength, and will be more able to control their emotions as long as they are convinced with their opinions, which will free them from any feeling of lacking and will avoid them from standing in the position of defending their own beliefs, but vice versa it will give them the ability to express their opinions in the social events which will influence the others, and that is a result that both parents should care to achieve.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
Many parents have discovered, perhaps with some guilt, that they can read a story to a child while thinking of something else.
— Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
Why shall we talk? To spread positive ambiance in the house, and to stimulate the hearty feelings, and to achieve a perceptible psychological connection between family members.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
Why shall we talk?To depend on the conversation style as a primary language of effectiveness on the other person, in a way that respects the feelings without hurting the human soul dignity, or humiliating it, or belittling it.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
Why shall we talk?To follow the logical method in handling the problems and the other family members’ points of views, with quitting the pressure style, verbal violence, and actual violence towards family members.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
Why shall we talk?To provide the right amount of clarity between family members in their home environment, and to spread the ambiance of honesty and trust between them on the way that uplifts the value of the family in their hearts, and to make it the safe haven for adults and children together.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
Why shall we talk?We talk to enrich our children’s vocabulary, and to let them use their vocabulary balance so their language grows, and their balance of words doubles along with their self confidence.
— Maryam Abdullah Alnaymi
She is doing that on purpose, he thought as he tried to force his own smile away from his wide, damp jaws. She is being adorable as some sort of hideous ruse, to spite me. What a mean baby!...Do not fall in love with that baby...
— Kelly Barnhill, The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Human making is our mission.
— Abhijit Naskar, Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting
In parenting patience is the greatest virtue.
— Abhijit Naskar, Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting
When is the impulse to help an adult child a wise intervention and when is it self-serving and prying? I have an uneasy feeling I will have to carry the question around for a while like some grating pebble in my shoe.
— Sue Monk Kidd, Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story
The AI told her not long ago that her "Why?" period might have been the shortest on record - because Mum and Dad answered every "Why?" in detail AND made sure she understood, so she wouldn't ask that particular "Why?" again. After a month "Why?" wasn't fun anymore, and she went on to other things.
— Anne McCaffrey, The Ship Who Searched
The task of being right is a task the father perfects over time.
— Ben Marcus, Notable American Women
Papi, I don't know what to do anymore." Lourdes begins to cry. "No matter what I do, Pilar hates me.""Pilar doesn't hate you, hija. She just hasn't learned to love you yet.
— Cristina García, Dreaming in Cuban
There are parents who use their small children as weapons. They are weak people. Sick people. And their children are watching them, watching how Mom and Dad use them as weapons.
— Brenda Sutton Rose
I'm the parent. It's my job to be here for you, not the other way around.
— Danielle Younge-Ullman, Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined
All seek perfection from our parents … Just wait till your parents start depending on you, that is when your own perfection, or lack thereof, will be apparent.
— Sandeep Sahajpal
Emma, okay, enough with the singing. Mommy's getting a three-pill headache.
— Jeff Abbott, Trust Me
Parenting has no guide book
—  we come to it with what came at us. It's only the conscious mind that can shift the paradigm.
My advice is to make a point of apologizing to your child about something at least twice a month. Why twice a month? I don't know. It sounds about right to me. (Almost all the specific advice in parenting books is similarly arbitrary. At least I admit it.)
— Alfie Kohn, Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
There is no question that engagement requires sacrifice, but that's what we signed up for when we decided to become parents.
— Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Parenting role-play change every ten years from affection to duty to responsibility, and then the cycle must reverse with next generation playing the same in the reverse sequence.
— Sandeep Sahajpal
If I measure each day by my list, the days are not always very good, but when I look at each day like it is their day too, because it is their day, well, then most days are better. A lot better.
— Ashlee Gadd, The Magic of Motherhood: The Good Stuff, the Hard Stuff, and Everything In Between
A great father is one whose children look up to him rather than away from him.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons
A philanderer cannot be a parent - a parent cannot be a philanderer.
— Abhijit Naskar, Wise Mating: A Treatise on Monogamy
Carrie is my child, and I love her with every ounce of strength I possess. If love alone could cure our children, they would always be well.
— Debbie Reynolds, Unsinkable: A Memoir
Jake thanked God he had a son to put to bed when he knew somewhere there was a family, right now, waiting for someone who would never come home.
— Lisa Scottoline, Keep Quiet
The only thing we can do is love that little girl as much as she deserves. And never, never hurt her!
— M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans
Mothering Oxymoron: Reminding the kids to not talk with food in their mouths, yet I have food in my mouth while trying to correct them in the moment.
— Mommy Moo Moo
Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
If the justification for controlling women's bodies were about women themselves, then it would be understandable. If, for example, the reason was 'women should not wear short skirts because they can get cancer if they do.' Instead the reason is not about women, but about men. Women must be 'covered up' to protect men. I find this deeply dehumanizing because it reduces women to mere props used to manage the appetites of men.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
A father is as much a verb as a mother.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either. And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.
— Marian Wright Edelman
We begin to understand that to coparent is to one day look up and notice that you are on a roller coaster with another human being. You are in the same car, strapped down side by side and you can never, ever get off. There will never be another moment in your lives when your hearts don't rise and fall together, when your minds don't race and panic together, when your stomachs don't churn in tandem, when you stop seeing huge hills emerge in the distance and simultaneously grab the side of the car and hold on tight. No one except for the one strapped down beside you will ever understand the particular thrills and terrors of your ride.
— Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior
Who you are is enough for me. I look at you and all I see, is the champion I knew you would be.
— Brittney Brady
While our life remains more chaotic than not, we continue to land on our blistered feet, drag each other out of the quicksand, beg for forgiveness as we wander out of the doghouse, and dig for the humor beneath our grief. So our family, four-pawed members included, continues to bound forward celebrating our canine connection and sharing hope with all who need healing.
— Donnie Kanter Winokur
Don't ever let another man call your child daddy.
— Julian Quintero
There’s nothing wrong with an adult being a child, except whining like one.
— Ben Tolosa, Masterplan Your Success
Oh, man, ‘the nursery,’ ” Dominic said, “what a hell-hole. If I had kids I’d give them the nicest room in the house.”“You do have kids,” his kid said.“Oh, yeah, well, right, you know what I mean.
— Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins
I myself," said Gibbon, "am slightly underdone in the personal worthlessness line. It was Papa's fault. He used no irony. The communications mix offered by the parent to the child is as you know twelve percent do this, eighty-two percent don't do that, and six percent huggles and endearments. That is standard. Now, to avoid boring himself or herself to death during this monition the parent enlivens the discourse with wit, usually irony of the cheaper sort. The irony ambigufies the message, but more importantly establishes in the child the sense of personal lack-of-worth. Because the child understands that one who is talked to in this way is not much of a something. Ten years of it goes a long way. Fifteen is better. That is where Pap fell down. He eschewed irony.
— Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories
Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a bit awkward, but it is necessary.
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Are You a Parent or a Bully? Mentally and physically abusing your children is NOT okay. Real parenting does NOT consist of bullying your children, belittling your children, manipulating your children, beating your children, or cursing at your children. Children are a blessing! Many women can’t get pregnant and/or carry to term. Think about that! Parenting should be taken seriously. Children need LOVE, support, and guidance, NOT a bully! Children shouldn’t fear their parents. It’s important to create healthy relationships with your children, seriously.
— Stephanie Lahart
Console the failure, but nurture the hunger.
— Bryan Cranston, A Life in Parts
This is what parenting involved: hard decisions. She was his mother, she reminded herself. He didn't have to like her.
— Paula Daly, The Trophy Child
For the first time he considers the full emotional dimensions of the day. His life is changing but his parent’s lives are changing too. Like a habitat, abruptly deprived of a major species, the household will be wrenched into realignment by his departure. Like all young people, he has no idea who his parents really are. For 18 years he has experienced their existence only in so far as it is related to his own needs. Suddenly his mind is full of questions. What do they talk about when he's not around? What secrets do they hold from each other? What aspirations have been left to languish? What private grievances held in check by the shared project of child rearing will now in his absence, lurch into the light?
— Justin Cronin, The City of Mirrors
One day ask your daughter the kind of mother she wants to be! One day ask your son the kind of father he wants to be! One day ask yourself the kind of parent you have been! And one day, ask yourself how you have run the race of life through the good and the bad times with the baton of life in your hands!
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
My father did not teach me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.
— Clarence Kelland
Having kids is not the same as being a parent.
— Frank Sonnenberg, BookSmart: Hundreds of real-world lessons for success and happiness
Such a tough life. This is not the easy way." "No," Penn agreed, "but I'm not sure easy is what I want for the kids anyway." She looked up at him. "Why the hell not?" "I mean, if we could have everything, sure. If we can have it all, yeah. I wish them easy, successful, fun-filled lives, crowned with good friends, attentive lovers, heaps of money, intellectual stimulation, and good views out the window. I wish them eternal beauty, international travel, and smart things to watch on tv. But if I can't have everything, if I only get a few, I'm not sure easy makes my wish list." "Really?" "Easy is nice. But its not as good as getting to be who you are or stand up for what you believe in," said Penn. "Easy is nice. But I wonder how often it leads to fulfilling work or partnership or being." "Easy probably rules out having children," Rosie admitted. "Having children, helping people, making art, inventing anything, leading the way, tackling the world's problems, overcoming your own. I don't know. Not much of what I value in our lives is easy. But there's not much of it I'd trade for easy either, I don't think.
— Laurie Frankel, This is How It Always Is
As for logical consequences, the "logic" is highly debatable. If you continually arrive late for my workshop, despite my warning that lateness is unacceptable, I may find it "logical" to lock you out of my classroom. Or perhaps it would be more "logical" to keep you locked in after class for the same number of minutes you were late. Or maybe my "logic" demands that you miss out on the snacks. As you may be starting to suspect, these are not true exercises in logic. They're really more of a free association, where we try to think of a way to make the wrongdoer suffer. We hope that the suffering will motivate the offender to do better in the future.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
Study after study has found that young children who are not constantly ordered around are much more likely to cooperate with simple requests from a parent—for example, cleaning up toys when asked—than children who are micromanaged and controlled much of the time.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
Six o'clock means very little to a three-year-old. It works better to say "after dinner," or "as soon as the baby takes her morning nap.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
If your child can't resist throwing gravel in the park, in spite of your efforts to offer tempting alternatives, you can say, "I'm taking you home now. I don't want anyone to get hit by a rock, even a little one." If your child wants to help put pancake batter in the pan, but despite friendly reminders you can't convince him not to jump around at the stove, you can say, "I can't cook with you now. I'm too worried about burns.” If your child refuses to get in his carseat, "I can see the seat belt is uncomfortable. You feel freer without it. I can't take you to your friend's house without the belt buckled." Or, "I don't want to be late for work. I'm buckling you in. I know how much you hate it!
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
Instead of feeling an urge to fix the problem or make amends, punishment prompts a child to think selfishly. What television shows will she be forced to miss? What dessert will she have to give up? She’s likely to be filled with resentment instead of remorse.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
When you have a problem with an adult—say, for example, you have a friend who's always borrowing things and returning them late or broken or not at all—you probably don't think about how you can punish that person. You think about how to respectfully protect yourself. You don't say, "Now that you've given me back my jacket with a stain on it, and broken the side mirror off my car, I'm going to . . . slap you." That would be assault. Or ". . . lock you in your room for an hour." That would be imprisonment. Or ". . . take away your smart phone." That would be theft. You'd probably say something like, "I don't feel comfortable lending you clothes anymore. I get very upset when they come back damaged. And, I can't lend you my car, which I just got repaired. I need to have it in working condition. In fact, I'd appreciate some help with the repair bill!
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
The beauty of problem-solving is that, unlike punishment, it offers endless possibilities. If you're committed to punishment and your child continues to misbehave, all you can do is punish more severely. You might hit him harder or take away more privileges, but chances are you won't get any closer to your goal of having a cooperative child. And you'll create a lot of ill will in the process. With problem-solving, you can always go back and brainstorm some more. When you put your heads together, you're bound to come up with something that will work for both of you.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
When there is conflict between us, we don't need to put our energy into fighting each other. We can combine forces to search for a solution that respects the needs of all parties. The child is an active participant in solving his problems. This will stand him in good stead in the years to come.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
Big brotherhood is a burden. The first message he needs to hear from you is that you understand. It isn't easy having to share your parents with a smelly baby or a two-year-old pest! The more we try to convince our kids that it's not so bad, the harder they'll work to convince us that it is indeed that bad.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
We can't give a child a natural consequence. The only truly natural consequences are the ones found in nature.
— Joanna Faber, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
You can apply some leverage when your child is feeling energetic, "We can go to the park as soon as these blocks are put away." But when a toddler is tired or hungry, avoid a losing battle. Do it yourself for now. There will be plenty of other opportunities for your child to participate. Don't worry, this is not the last mess!!
— Julie Adair King, How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
So much time and energy, so much love and learning had gone into those long years of motherhood, and now, between a morning and a morning—or so it felt—they were over. It seemed that mothers of daughters had a more extended role but she knew that she was lucky to be allowed any part in her boys' lives and tried hard to be grateful and undemanding. It wasn't always easy, when she loved them so much, to practice detachment.... Odd that the last of the parenting skills should be the most painful: the final act of letting go.
— Marcia Willett, A Summer in the Country