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Parenting Quotes
"Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children."
62
"So much is asked of parents, and so little is given."
60
"Should kids check phones at dinner? I don't know. To me, that's a parenting choice."
57
"You may not be able to read a doctor's handwriting and prescription, but you'll notice his bills are neatly typewritten."
56
"I still speak Czech with my parents because I was born there."
55
"The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears."
55
"I'm not a parenting expert. In fact, I'm not sure that I even believe in the idea of 'parenting experts.' I'm an engaged, imperfect parent and a passionate researcher. I'm an experienced mapmaker and a stumbling traveler. Like many of you, parenting is by far my boldest and most daring adventure."
54
"The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following:1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog.2. The terrible twos last through age three.3. Never ask your child an open-ended question, such as "Do you want to go to bed now?" You won't want to hear the answer, believe me. "Do you want me to carry you upstairs, or do you want to walk upstairs to go to bed?" That way, you get the outcome you want and they feel empowered."
54
"...a little "appreciation" sometimes does quite as much good as all the conscientious "bringing up" in the world."
52
"Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself."
50
"Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain."
50
"I now need to take a very aggressive approach to having a baby."
50
"No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move."
50
"Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?"
49
"If your kid needs a role model and you ain't it, you're both fucked."
49
"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath."
49
"Parenting is the greatest pay it forward system on earth. We don't owe our parents anything. We owe our children everything. The same was true for our parents. The same will be true for our children."
49
"It's impossible to protect your kids against disappointment in life."
47
"Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery."
46
"My parents were very loving, but disciplinarians."
46
"My parents encouraged me in everything I ever wanted to do."
45
"First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see."
45
"We watch them grow, with sadness and amazement and fear. We have stepped away, but not entirely away. They know this. They sense it. We are no longer here, but we are not yet gone. And we will be like that for the rest of their lives.We watch, and they surprise us.We watch, and they surpass us."
45
"My parents were second cousins. That is enough to explain all of my peculiarities."
43
"I can encourage my daughter to love her body, but what really matters are the observations she makes about my relationship with my own body."
43
"My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7."
43
"A child who passes through many hands in turn, can never be well brought up. At every change he makes a secret comparison, which continually tends to lessen his respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined."
43
"Some children are threatened with loss of privileges such as money, cell phones, cars or even eviction from home if they do not 'toe-the-line' and 'act straight'. I don't think parents who do such things consider for a moment the kind of emotional damage they are doing to their children - or thinking beyond their own feelings about the situation - which will not change or go away simply because of their denial."
43
"Never put a single thought of weakness in the flourishing minds of the children. Fill them up with vigour and compassion, for their character will define the future of the entire human species."
43
"The most precious gift that you can give to the child is unconditional love and acceptance, which allows the child to discover his own inner being, his authentic self, his freedom to be himself."
42
"After having been standing by the gate of the garden for a long time, Siddhartha realised that his desire was foolish, which had made him go up to this place, that he could not help his son, that he was not allowed to cling him. Deeply, he felt the love for the run-away in his heart, like a wound, and he felt at the same time that this wound had not been given to him in order to turn the knife in it, that it had to become a blossom and had to shine."
42
"But the most wonderful thing of all, our highest achievement and the one thing for which I pray we will always be remembered, is stuffing wads of polyester into an anatomically incorrect, cartoonish ideal of one of nature's most fearsome predators for no other reason than to soothe a child."
42
"I approach serious subjects, and I like to have the good guys win and have the parents among the good guys."
42
"Don't you know, you idiot, that that is what every fool of a woman says about her child?Miss Bulstrode's thoughts."
42
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