“If there is any truth to my parenting the dreamwork movement, it comes from the power of the press.”
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 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.”
“If there is any truth to my parenting the dreamwork movement, it comes from the power of the press.”
“I came to parenting the way most of us do - knowing nothing and trying to learn everything.”
“Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.”
“Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.”
“Very often when you see families it's all perfect and neat, and parenting isn't like that. You do have constant negotiations. Things are ever developing and ever changing, and you constantly have to evaluate how you deal with your kids.”
“My childhood should have taught me lessons for my own fatherhood, but it didn't because parenting can only be learned by people who have no children.”
“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.”
“I have a neuroscience background - that's what my doctorate is in - and I was trained to study hormones of attachment, so I definitely feel my parenting is informed by that.”
“Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep.”
“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.”
“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”
“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.”
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.”
“Do you want to be an artist and a writer, or a wife and a lover? With kids, your focus changes. I don't want to go to PTA meetings.”
“Relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose.”