“Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”
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.
“Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.”
“Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”
“Kids are a great analogy. You want your kids to grow up, and you don't want your kids to grow up. You want your kids to become independent of you, but it's also a parent's worst nightmare: That they won't need you. It's like the real tragedy of parenting.”
“The interesting thing about being a mother is that everyone wants pets, but no one but me cleans the kitty litter.”
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.”
“Every cliche about kids is true they grow up so quickly, you blink and they're gone, and you have to spend the time with them now. But that's a joy.”
“Don't try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it.”
“I think I'm going to have to live vicariously through my daughter's rebellion because I certainly never did go through adolescence.”
“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.”
“I barely have time for my own children. To adopt more children and not have time for them, that would be poor parenting on my part.”
“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.”
“The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.”
“The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.”
“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.”
“I'm trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived.”
“A mother who is really a mother is never free.”