Affection without sentiment, authority without cruelty, discipline without aggression, humor without ridicule, sacrifice without obligation, companionship without possessiveness.
– William E. Blatz

Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life and it’s like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.
– Gary Smalley

Children are the proof we’ve been here… they are the best thing and the most impossible thing.
– Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How she Does It

Children keep us in check. Their laughter prevents our hearts from hardening. Their dreams ensure we never lose our drive to make ours a better world. They are the greatest disciplinarians known to mankind.
– Queen Rania of Jordan, Hello Magazine

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
– Charles R. Swindoll

Don’t demand respect as a parent. Demand civility and insist on honesty. But respect is something you must earn — with kids as well as with adults.
– William Attwood

God sends children to enlarge our hearts, and make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections.
– Mary Howitt

I just want my kids to love who they are, have happy lives and find something they want to do and make peace with that. Your job as a parent is to give your kids not only the instincts and talents to survive, but help them enjoy their lives.
– Susan Sarandon, Readers’ Digest, May 2002

I looked on childrearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully interesting and challenging as any honourable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.
– Rose Kennedy

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I’d finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
– Diane Loomans, from “If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again”

If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent.
– Bette Davis

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
– Abigail Van Buren

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.
– Barbara Kingsolver

It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.
– Joyce Maynard

Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.
– C. Everet Koop, M.D.

Love is giving someone your undivided attention.
– Author Unknown

Lucky parents who have fine children usually have lucky children who have fine parents.
– James A. Brewer

No one knows how children will turn out; a great tree often springs from a tender plant.
– Norwegian proverb

One who walks the road with love will never walk the road alone.
– C. T. Davis

Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who tread on their toes.
– Chinese Proverb

Parenthood is a lot easier to get into than out of.
– Bruce Lansky

Parenthood, its not a job. It’s an adventure!
– Author Unknown

Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.
– Arnold Glasow

Praise your children and they will blossom!
– Author Unknown

Presence is more than just being there.
– Malcolm Forbes

The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.
– O. A. Battista

The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.
– Benjamin Spock

The problem with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are usually unemployed.
– Author Unknown

The real menance about dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.
– Jean Kerr

The world talks to the mind. Parents speak more intimately — they talk to the heart.
– Hain Ginott

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.
– Hodding Carter, Jr.

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.
– Henry Ward Beecher

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
– Josh Billings

We may be blinded by our own perceived flaws, but those who love us have clearer vision.
– Sarah Ban Breathnach

We never know the love of our parents for us until we have become parents.
– Henry Ward Beecher

When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.
– Fred Rogers

You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.
– Polish Proverb

A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother’s goodness deeper than the sea.
– Japanese Proverb

A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions.
– Richard L. Evans