“I think I'm going to have to live vicariously through my daughter's rebellion because I certainly never did go through adolescence.”
Parenting is the most important job you will never feel qualified for. These quotes cover the chaos, joy, worry, and profound love that come with raising another human being — and the humbling realization that your kids are teaching you as much as you teach them.
“I'm torn about late parenting. I believe people should spend their twenties living and having fun and not having any regrets later. I also think people in their thirties generally make better parents but so many of my friends are having trouble - myself included - as fathers get older.”
“I think I'm going to have to live vicariously through my daughter's rebellion because I certainly never did go through adolescence.”
“No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.”
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.”
“Relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose.”
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.”
“While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.”
“I'm trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived.”
“Don't try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it.”
“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”
“Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep.”
“My grandmother was a kind of Scarsdale, New York, society woman, best known in her day as the author of the 1959 book 'Growing Your Own Way: An Informal Guide for Teen-Agers' - this despite being a person whose parenting style made Joan Crawford's wire hangers look like pool noodles.”
“Attachment parenting is not a passive parenting style.”
“Parents should not smoke in order to discourage their kids from smoking. A child is more likely to smoke when they have been raised in the environment of a smoker.”
“Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.”
“No, I've never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot.”