quotations about parenthood
The sacred gift of parenthood is inscribe in the universal words 'Papa' and 'Mama'.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
Think Great: Be Great!
People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.
LEO J. BURKE
attributed, The Saturday Evening Post, Volume 223, 1950
Remember that the goal of parenthood is to produce a healthy late adolescent who is capable of becoming autonomous and creating a successful, independent life as an adult.
CALVIN A. COLARUSSO
Finding Happiness in Parenthood: The Toughest, Most Fulfilling Job Ever
I want to promise you
permanence, my constant orbit, but even continents
are revisions. I am only your diving bell in water
hemmed by shifting plates
ROBIN BETH SCHAER
Shipbreaking
Two people who know they do not understand each other,
Breeding children whom they do not understand
And who will never understand them.
T. S. ELIOT
The Cocktail Party
You know, once you give birth, once you have kids, you realize what's important in life, and you realize it's really not difficult to be a good person. And so when people aren't good around me, I tend to move away from that. There are so many good people in the world, and you want to surround your children with that.
PAMELA ANDERSON
attributed, Babies Are Special
Success at parenthood is a process of finding realistic images and skills, but most parents have to grapple, picking these up willy-nilly from their parents, friends, doctors, or books.
ELLEN GALINSKY
The Six Stages of Parenthood
Parenthood is not always as advertised, so buyers beware.
LAURA SCOTT
Two Is Enough: A Couple's Guide to Living Childless by Choice
Parenthood is a lot easier to get into than out of.
BRUCE LANSKY
attributed, Just Like Dad Says: A Book of Dad's Wit
The journey to parenthood is far more complex than many realize. Typically, most parents-to-be understand that a new little person in their lives will mean some additional work, but they have no idea just how much. Nor can most expectant couples anticipate the many ways in which becoming a parent will change their identities, their priorities and the daily rhythms of their lives forever.
DIANA LYNN BARNES & LEIGH G. BALBER
The Journey to Parenthood: Myths, Reality and What Really Matters
Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don't put your kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.
GARRISON KEILLOR
Leaving Home
The images that prospective parents form are not static. Even in the first trimester of pregnancy, they are shaped and reshaped. Like the base of a building, these images are influenced by the ground they are set into, by the surrounding conditions. These earliest images are the foundation on which parenthood is built.
ELLEN GALINSKY
The Six Stages of Parenthood
There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.
PETER DE VRIES
attributed, Life Goals: How to Discover & Achieve Your Own
Prospective and new parents often fear that they will, by some ironic twist of fate, turn out exactly like their own parents. It seems as if parenthood is automatically accompanied by an unwanted personality implantation.
ELLEN GALINSKY
The Six Stages of Parenthood
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
Lift
Parenthood is one potential pathway to "maturity," but there may be many others producing similar changes.
SANDRA T. AZAR
"Adult Development and Parenthood", Handbook of Adult Development
The transition to parenthood is a life-changing event. New parents are suddenly responsible for the care of a virtually helpless infant, who requires feeding, changing, and soothing 24 hours a day. Caring for a very young child is physically demanding, emotionally intense, and continuous; the transition to being a new parent is therefore both physically and emotionally challenging. Lack of sleep alone, part of the lives of all new parents, and often a new experience for them, may affect parents' perceptions of how well they are doing in their new roles and the help or advice they feel they need.
NEAL HALFON & KATHRYN TAAFFE MCLEARN
Child Rearing in America: Challenges Facing Parents with Young Children
Since little formal preparation exists, such as required training programs, indoctrination into parenthood is often sudden and swift. Most learn to become a parent by becoming a parent.
JEFFREY S. TURNER
Families in America: A Reference Handbook
Not having children makes less work--but it makes a quiet house.
SUSAN GLASPELL
Trifles
Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn't. But now, being a parent, I go home and see my son and I forget about any mistake I ever made or the reason I'm upset. I get home and my son is smiling or he comes running to me. It has just made me grow as an individual and grow as a man.
LEBRON JAMES
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 10, 2005