“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.”
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.
“Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on earth.”
“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.”
“Don't reward bad behavior. It is one of the first rules of parenting. During the financial cataclysm of 2008, we said it differently. When we bailed out banks that had created their own misfortune, we called it a 'moral hazard,' because the bailout absolved the bank's bad acts and created an incentive for it to make the same bad loans again.”
“A new father quickly learns that his child invariably comes to the bathroom at precisely the times when he's in there, as if he needed company. The only way for this father to be certain of bathroom privacy is to shave at the gas station.”
“Most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.”
“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If there is any truth to my parenting the dreamwork movement, it comes from the power of the press.”
“No, I've never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot.”
“No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly.”
“I thought that once we were out of the baby stage, parenting would be a breeze.”
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.”
“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.”