The Best Quotes About Being a Parent
February 18, 2022
There’s no doubt that being a parent is the hardest (and most rewarding job) many of us have ever had.
For your inspiration and humor, we decided to round up some of our favorite quotes about parenting. Hope you enjoy!
“One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.”
-Jane Goodall
“When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value.”
-Thomas Edison
“Parenting without a sense of humor is like being an accountant who sucks at math.”
-Amber Dusick
“I don’t think it matters how many parents you’ve got, as long as those who are around make their presence a good one.”
-Elizabeth Wurtzel
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”
-Anne Frank
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”
-Umberto Eco
“Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did ― that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that ― a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.”
-Debra Ginsberg
“Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.”
-Walt Disney
“My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”
-Wilma Rudolph
“If John Lennon was right that life is what happens when you’re making other plans, parenthood is what happens when everything is flipped over and spilling everywhere and you can’t find a towel or a sponge or your ‘inside’ voice.”
-Kelly Corrigan
“Having kids — the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings — is the biggest job anyone can embark on. As with any risk, you have to take a leap of faith and ask lots of wonderful people for their help and guidance. I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to parent.”
-Maria Shriver
“No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say “Oh, my gosh,” and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It’s not a question of choice.”
-Marisa de los Santos
“Having children is like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.”
-Ray Romano
“Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are.”
-Cheryl Lacey Donovan
“All of us have moments in out lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.”
-Erma Bombeck
“There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.”
-Marianne Williamson
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