673 Quotes About Parenthood

If we reward our children for doing the right things, or discipline for intentionally doing the wrong things, then we might be viewed as doing the right thing. On the other hand, we (or parents) might not fully grasp the right thing—as the “right thing” becomes convoluted in the mix of the time and period, the latest “grand experiment”, and other influences of parenthood and childrearing.

Really, it's not easy being the badly brought-up center of attention of a family of nitpickers.

My mom's attitude was, "I choose you, kid. I brought you into this world, and I'm going to give you everything I never had." She poured herself into me.

That you are not mine to possess, that you are not mine to craft and shape, that you are a gift to me, means that you can also be a divine presence to me. When you call to me in your need, that is God's call to me as well. The space I give you to grow and flourish becomes also the space for my own growth and flourishing.

the child is the father of the man

Childhood begins to end once the child stops being happy to see its parent return home unless they have brought it something.

The woman who picked us up when we fell down or wiped our faces or fed us lunch or yelled us down from treetops or out of mud (all of it so casually, with barely a break in the conversation or an extra breath) may have been our mother but could just as easily have been someone else's. We hardly noticed. The women merged into a kind of laughing, chatting, benevolent blur, a network of distracted love and safekeeping.

My parents are really good people. . .and mostly normal. . .Their rules made practical sense--eat your vegetables, don't ride your bike through cow manure, and don't let your little brother eat his boogers--all of which were good but weren't exactly rules with life-changing consequences if they weren't followed.

Not a few millions of parents strongly hope that their own children will step in by instantly becoming their own parents’ foster parents, if and when the parents reach their second childhood.