37 Quotes About Child-rearing

A mother is a child's first looking glass into the world.

I tried to teach them [his sons] that about the importance of self-discipline, and that the culture of yes is built on a foundation of no.

Rules are rules was stuffed into him from the crib like he was a Thanksgiving turkey.

There are a hundred ways in which a boy can injure—if not indeed kill—himself. The more adventurous he is and the greater his initiative, the more ways he will find. If you protect him from each of the first hundred, he is sure to find the hundred and first. Though most men can look back on their boyhood and tremble at the narrowness of some of their escapes, most boys do in fact survive more or less intact, and the wise father is the trusting father.

That was another nice thing about my parents. There was none of that holding on to knowledge and power that some parents go in for. We were all adults together, on a plateau of equality.

Our obligation as parents is not to make our children happy but to teach them how to be happy; it's not to make them comfortable but to teach them how to tolerate discomfort. For these lessons—upsetting to them as they may be now—will better equip them for survival later when it matters most.

Being a Dad is not about creating a life, for that demands little of your life. It’s about cultivating a life, for that demands all of your life.

Some may argue that we shouldn't shelter our children. We should let them see and experience the sins that are all around us. By keeping the children unaware, they say, we are preventing the development of their defenses. I disagreed. We have our whole lives to experience the ugliness, our whole lives to grapple with society's misplaced priorities. Trying to give a child a childhood was nothing to be ashamed of.

Whether you’ve ever considered it or not, you’re an author. And the stories that you write are penned across the hearts of your children. Therefore, be careful with the pen because you’re writing on some very precious paper.