parenthood Quotes

“Parents never underestimated the abilities of their own children. Quite the reverse. Sometimes it was well nigh impossible for a teacher to convince the proud father or mother that their beloved offspring was a complete nitwit.”

“It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.”

“If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children.”

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move away. The moments that used to define them—a mother’s approval, a father’s nod—are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.”

“Years later, shortly after his daughter was born, Henry called our house one night in tears. ‘I get it now,’ he told Dad.”

“Parenthood has the power to redefine every aspect of life - marriage, work, relationships with family and friends. Those helpless bundles of power and promise that come into our world show us our true selves- who we are, who we are not, who we wish we could be.”

“There’s something completely unnerving about seeing your parents upset. I suppose it’s because they’re supposed to be the strong ones, but that’s not just it. Ever since people are kids they use their parents as some sort of measurement for how bad a situation is.”

“A time for every occupation under heaven. A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted; a time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing; a time for searching, a time for losing; a time for loving, a time for hating...”

“Parents don’t leave Children alone, James, they raise them.”

“I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you’ll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn’t.”

“But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.”

“He also didn’t feel burdened by the thought that early parenthood would wreck his future plans . . . But in some unspoken way, he did sense that he was crossing a point of no return, that things were about to get complicated in a way he was unequipped to handle.”

“After a few moments, Mama raised her head. “One of the things you will someday learn, daughters,” she said to me, “is that parents are never sure if certain decisions we make concerning our children are right.”

“Well it’s not skin off my nose,” she said calmly, “but seems like your boy’s old enough to make up his own mind. How old is he?” “Thirty,” Mrs. Stubbs said, “but he’s a young thirty.”

“We had a party at the end of the week over at Quendy’s, because her parents were off choking somewhere. That was when everyone was having those choking parties. I mean, it was completely midlife crisis.”

“To have an exceptional child you must be willing to have an exceptional child.”

“I pointed out that so often our parenting in the West is too focused on our children, and their needs alone, rather than helping them to learn to care for others.”

“One by one his links to life snap, Leo blue his best friend is now one of those leading the manhunt against him, the betrayal of the Olmech family, the death of his parents and Elisha........., his last link, the last thread, his saviour and friend time and again........SNAP!”

“The concept behind these types of educational projects is to on the one hand install a sense of responsibility into as yet often woefully carefree and naively irresponsible teenagers (how it feels to be totally and wholly on the proverbial hook for something, in this case a flour baby) and on the other hand to make both male and female adolescents think and consider twice with regard to sexuality, with regard to especially unprotected intercourse, as parenthood is shown to be, parenthood means continuous commitment, responsible thinking (or at least, it should).”

“We don’t want our children to pursue their own dreams or walk in our footsteps. We want to walk in their footsteps while they pursue our dream.”

“That was a parent’s job: to provide shoulders. Shoulders for your children to sit on when they’re little so they can see the world, then stand on when they get older so they can reach the clouds, and sometimes lean against whenever they stumble and feel unsure.”

“I am not patient by nature, and it tried me very much to see my children wanting anything.”

“God has sent you to me to console, at one and the same time, the man who could not be a father, and the prisoner who could not get free.”