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0812cc5 I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway... let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves. childhood children fatherhood growing-up inspirational inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspiring kids life life-and-living living motherhood parenthood parenting parenting-children C. JoyBell C.
9da1f37 Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong. child faith parental-love parenthood parents Richard Dawkins
b7593d6 He seriously thought that there is less harm in killing a man than producing a child: in the first case you are relieving someone of life, not his whole life but a half or a quarter or a hundredth part of that existence that is going to finish, that would finish without you; but as for the second, he would say, are you not responsible to him for all the tears he will shed, from the cradle to the grave? Without you he would never have been born, and why is he born? For your amusement, not for his, that's for sure; to carry your name, the name of a fool, I'll be bound - you may as well write that name on some wall; why do you need a man to bear the burden of three or four letters? parenthood Gustave Flaubert
31a8df1 Teach them the quiet words of kindness, to live beyond themselves. Urge them toward excellence, drive them toward gentleness, pull them deep into yourself, pull them upward toward manhood, but softly like an angel arranging clouds. Let your spirit move through them softly. encouragement leadership mentoring parenthood teaching Pat Conroy
2078aff Family likeness has often a deep sadness in it. Nature, that great tragic dramatist, knits us together by bone and muscle, and divides us by the subtler web of our brains; blends yearning and repulsion; and ties us by our heart-strings to the beings that jar us at every movement. parenthood George Eliot
a77ab7e ...my father, [was] a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. At worst? He never beat her, but his pure, inarticulate fury would fill the house for days, weeks, at a time, making the air humid, hard to breathe, my father stalking around with his lower jaw jutting out, giving him the look of a wounded, vengeful boxer, grinding his teeth so loud you could hear it across the room ... I'm sure he told himself: 'I never hit her'. I'm sure because of this technicality he never saw himself as an abuser. But he turned our family life into an endless road trip with bad directions and a rage-clenched driver, a vacation that never got a chance to be fun. abusive abusive-parents anger broken-home childhood childhood-memories communication divorce emotional-abuse family father fight fighting fights fury heartbreak heartbroken love love-lost malice mental-abuse mother parenthood parents parents-and-children rage scared sexism silence terror Gillian Flynn
aaaa1fb Goldfish get big enough only for the bowl you put them in. Bonsai trees twist in miniature. I would have given anything to keep her little. They outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them. parenthood Jodi Picoult
506a1f7 It's the silliness--the profligacy, and the silliness--that's so dizzying: a seven-year-old will run downstairs, kiss you hard, and then run back upstairs again, all in less than 30 seconds. It's as urgent an item on their daily agenda as eating or singing. It's like being mugged by Cupid. parenthood Caitlin Moran
97f44f6 I think maybe, when I was very young, I witnessed a chaste cheek kiss between the two when it was impossible to avoid. Christmas, birthdays. Dry lips. On their best married days, their communications were entirely transactional: 'We're out of milk again.' (I'll get some today.) 'I need this ironed properly.' (I'll do that today.) 'How hard is it to buy milk?' (Silence.) 'You forgot to call the plumber.' (Sigh.) 'Goddammit, put on your coat, right now, and go out and get some goddamn milk. Now.' These messages and orders brought to you by my father, a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. abusive abusive-relationship abusive-relationships bad-parenting broken-home childhood childhood-memories communication depression divorce family father fight fighting fights heartbreak love love-lost mother parenthood parents parents-and-children relationship sexism silence Gillian Flynn
1c887e4 "It is not true that "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." Love alters all the time; it is fluid, in perceptual flux, an evolving business across a lifetime." parenthood Andrew Solomon
10a09d2 I guess you just have to trust your kids, trust that their innate interest in life will win out in the end, don't you think? life love parenthood parenting George Saunders
c4dcbf1 There are no verdicts to childhood, only consequences, and the bright freight of memory. childhood development parenthood Pat Conroy
bff0bb4 Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. karma parenthood wrath Fyodor Dostoyevsky
0473522 "Before they had kids, if asked to conjure images of parenthood they would have said things like "Reading in bed," and "Giving a bath," and "Running while holding the seat of a bicycle." Parenthood contains such moments of warmth and intimacy, but isn't them. It's cleaning up. The great bulk of family life involves no exchange of love, and no meaning, only fulfillment. Not the fulfillment of feeling fulfilled, but of fulfilling that which now falls to you." meaning parenthood Jonathan Safran Foer
528d838 The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks. life parenthood John Updike
39aa9ff It wasn't until we dropped him at his university dormitory and left him there looking touchingly lost and bewildered amid an assortment of cardboard boxes and suitcases in a spartan room not unlike a prison cell that it really hit home that he was vanishing out of our lives and into his own. growing-up love parenthood Bill Bryson
576b474 "Why do men like me want sons?" he wondered. "It must be because they hope in their poor beaten souls that these new men, who are their blood, will do the things they were not strong enough nor wise enough nor brave enough to do. It is rather like another chance at life; like a new bag of coins at a table of luck after your fortune is gone." expectation failed-ambition fatherhood parenthood John Steinbeck
f091e65 Originality must compound with inheritance. grace-of-god heritage identity innovation legacy parenthood Harold Bloom
7a19a77 A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, 'Everything is possible again.' It was the perfect thing to write because that was exactly how it felt. family fatherhood love motherhood parenthood Jonathan Safran Foer
d005c7f When (The World According To) Garp was published, people who'd lost children wrote to me. ''I lost one, too,'' they told me. I confessed to them that I hadn't lost any children. I'm just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination, I lose my children every day. (afterword) imagination parenthood John Irving
5d95f6b Memories particularly of when they weren't being what parents are nine-tenths of the time, the taskmasters, the examples, the moral authorities, the nags of pick-that-up and you're-going-to-be-late, keepers of the diary of her duties and routines, memories, rather, of when they found one another afresh, beyond the tensions between parental mastery and inept childish uncertainty, of those moments of respite in a family's life when they could reach one another in calm parenthood Philip Roth
124c0db it's my responsibility to cultivate the man in my son. I can't be passive about that. maturity parenthood Randy Alcorn
c8e4de5 Do not expect too much from your child and she will grow in your love... But if you push her too much, you will push her away. A child is not yours to own but to raise. She may not be what you will have her to be, but she will be what she has to be. Remember what they say, that 'Wood may remain twenty years in the water, but it is still not a fish. daughter family parenthood parenting Jane Yolen
464c266 "It's a strange thing, having a child," he said. It completely alters your most fundamental priorities. When my eldest daughter was born, I realized that I would do anything - anything - to protect her. If I had to set myself on fire to save her from something, I would do it with the utmost relief and gratitude. It's quite a thing, quite a privilege, to care about someone so much that the measure of worth of your own life is changed so much." Tatsu." parenthood parents-and-children sacrifice-for-others value-of-life Barry Eisler
ae76f92 Parents are programmed to want the best for their kids, regardless of what they get in return. That's what love is supposed to be like, right? But in fact, if you think about it, that's kind of a strange belief. Given what we know about the way people really are. Selfish and shortsighted and egotistical and needy. Why should being a parent, in and of itself, somehow confer superior-personhood on everybody who tries it? Obviously it doesn't. franzen love neediness parenthood selfishness Jonathan Franzen
27b8bfd Would you actually believe that you had committed your foolish acts in order to spare your son from committing them too? And could you in any way protect your son from Sansara? How could you? By means of teachings, prayer, admonition? My dear, have you entirely forgotten that story, that story containing so many lessons, that story about Siddhartha, a Brahman's son, which you once told me here on this very spot? Who has kept the Samana Siddhartha safe from Sansara, from sin, from greed, from foolishness? Were his father's religious devotion, his teachers warnings, his own knowledge, his own search able to keep him safe? Which father, which teacher had been able to protect him from living his life for himself, from soiling himself with life, from burdening himself with guilt, from drinking the bitter drink for himself, from finding his path for himself? Would you think, my dear, anybody might perhaps be spared from taking this path? That perhaps your little son would be spared, because you love him, because you would like to keep him from suffering and pain and disappointment? But even if you would die ten times for him, you would not be able to take the slightest part of his destiny upon yourself. life parenthood Hermann Hesse
5db31f4 Excitement about things became a habit, a part of my personality, and the expectation that I should enjoy new experiences often engendered the enjoyment itself. cheerfulness curiosity enthusiasm parenthood personality Doris Kearns Goodwin
038377a "Incidentally, I have also learned a bit about the importance of avoiding feminine embarrassment ('Daddy,' wrote Sophia when she enrolled at the New School where I teach, 'people will ask "why is old Christopher Hitchens kissing that girl?"') and shall now cease and desist." fatherhood fathers-and-daughters kisses parenthood the-new-school women Christopher Hitchens
85b71e0 "But I got through the review, for all their Latin and French; I did, and if you doubt me, you just look at the end of the great ledger, turn it upside down, and you'll find I've copied out all the fine words they said of you: "careful observer," "strong nervous English," "rising philosopher." Oh! I can nearly say it all off by heart, for many a time when I am frabbed by bad debts, or Osborne's bills, or moidered with accounts, I turn the ledger wrong way up, and smoke a pipe over it, while I read those pieces out of the review which speak about you, lad!" parenthood son Elizabeth Gaskell
5ef9799 A love for his child was so profound, it spilled over to all humanity. image-of-god maturation parenthood John Howard Griffin
a6c163c More than Captain America your kids need Amelia Earhart - more than Ant Man, they need Abraham Lincoln - more than Green Arrow they need Gandhi - more than Iron Man they need Isaac Newton. child-psychology children fairy-tales fiction-fantasy parenthood parenting parenting-101 parenting-advice parenting-children parenting-teenagers parents parents-advice parents-and-children parents-and-responsibility parents-and-teenagers parents-quotes parents-responsibility raising-kids Abhijit Naskar
2047c67 Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid. parenthood passion Thomas L. Friedman
827c58f We no longer get work out of our children; today we get meaning. parenthood Esther Perel
6ed9bbd My son will wear the title well, the Duke thought, and realized with a sudden chill that this was another death thought. heritage leadership legacy mortality parenthood Frank Herbert
284a4c6 We are now parents. The love for our offspring has opened up fresh fountains of love for each other. Edwin Stanton to his wife. parenthood Doris Kearns Goodwin
460b589 In the mystifying world that was Victorian parenthood, obedience took precedence over all considerations of affection and happiness, and that odd, painful conviction remained the case in most well-heeled homes up until at least the time of the First World War. parenthood victorian-era Bill Bryson
331a9cb I was too old for my father to (be protective), too young to be flattered. parenthood Catherine Marshall
5074daf Fatherhood to us was an act of passion, soon forgot; but not to Orem ap Avonap. Never guessing that the blond and happy farmer was no blood of his, Orem had taken a part of that simple man into himself and saved it for this time. At any time in the Palace he might run by, Youth on this shoulders or, as time went by, toddling along behind. frederick learning parenthood transferring-personality-traits wisdom Orson Scott Card
3644ee8 As long as Nelson was socked into baseball statistics or that guitar or even the rock records that threaded their sound through all the fibers of the house, his occupation of the room down the hall was no more uncomfortable than the persistence of Rabbit's own childhood in an annex of his brain; but when the stuff with hormones and girls and cars and beers began, Harry wanted out of fatherhood. frustration growing-up nelson-angstrom parenthood rabbit-angstrom John Updike
2ce6523 A Nobel Prize winner was asked how he became a scientist. He said that every day after school, his mother would ask him not what he learned but whether he asked a good question today. That, he said, was how he became a scientist. openness parenthood questioning Thomas L. Friedman
0fe420f "Is there a word for adults when they aren't parents?" Steppa laughs. "Folks with other things to do?" "Like what things?" "Jobs, I guess. Friends. Trips. Hobbies." childless-people parenthood Emma Donoghue
720460f 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. love parenthood Hermann Hesse
a202347 But the truth is, the ten or twenty minutes I was somebody's mother were black magic. There is no adventure I would trade them for; there is no place I would rather have seen. -Thanksgiving in Mongolia, The New Yorker, November 18, 2013 Issue loss love miscarriage motherhood parenthood Ariel Levy
08d9a93 It wasn't right that you could only understand your parents' pain once you'd experienced the things they had, and by then they were gone. growing-up knowledge life-lessons maturity old-age pain parenthood parenting wisdom J. Courtney Sullivan
afa12d1 The Mother Thing makes our world. education maturation parenthood perspective Robert A. Heinlein
a124dc5 Your blanks have been filled in far differently from those of a child grown up in the filth and poverty conventional-wisdom culture parenthood John Howard Griffin
1e65441 "Of Teddy Roosevelt and his siblings, the author writes they were, "armed with an innate curiosity and discipline fostered by his remarkable father." fatherhood parenthood Doris Kearns Goodwin
4fe10b1 Lee was a born pedagogue, never happier than when his children were learning to do something the right way. It is a testament to Lee's affection and patience that his children did not rebel. In fact, they appear to have thrived. encouragement parenthood Michael Korda
9f033fe It was too late for he and his father to have an adventure, and NOTHING seemed to have any color anymore. maturation mission parenthood risk Robert Kurson
f80c234 Stories were heirlooms in these parts. inspiration leadership legacy motivation narrative parenthood storytelling Robert Kurson
6c9576d Mothers burning inside the risen suns of their children. future parenthood Karen Russell
0579b2b Though I suppose people do reproduce sometimes for that reason - for insurance against later regret. I think people have children for all manner of reasons - sometimes out of a pure desire to nurture and witness life, sometimes out of an absence of choice, sometimes in order to hold on to a partner or create an heir, sometimes without thinking about it in any particular way. Not all the reasons to have children are the same, and not all of them are necessarily unselfish. Not all the reasons not to have children are the same, either, though. Nor are all those reasons necessarily selfish. life parenthood Elizabeth Gilbert
a589507 We can't surrender to the culture. We've minimized the role of fathers, so we've created a generation of barbarians, children who become men without growing up. They stay in boyhood through their 20s and 30s, sometimes their whole lives. They think of themselves first, indulge in pornography, do what they feel like, leave their wives, and culture, and churches to raise their children. heritage parenthood Randy Alcorn
ddb69c5 "Theodore Roosevelt's father wrote him, "I fear for your future. We cannot stand so corrupt a government for any great length of time." parenthood social-conscience Doris Kearns Goodwin
40db674 Drawing from 1.7 million Gallup surveys collected between 2008 and 2012, researchers Angus Deaton and Arthur Stone found that parents with children at home age fifteen or younger experience more highs, as well as more lows, than those without children... And when researchers bother to ask questions of a more existential nature, they find that parents report greater feelings of meaning and reward -- which to many parents is what the entire shebang is about. parenthood parenting reward rewarding Jennifer Senior
c9436d8 Being a father, having an heir, seem to add an extra dimension to David. He had always been of vivid, animating presence in any room he entered. But now he would come from visiting the boy crackling with even greater energy and force. He had been engaged listener, ready to learn what any man might have to offer in discussion, but now there was an additional depth to his questions, a more far-reaching vision behind his decisions. He thought now beyond the span of years, and into a future that glistened ahead into centuries. It's one thing, I suppose, to have a prophet tell you that you will found a dynasty. Now, it seemed, he allowed himself to truly believe it. parenthood Geraldine Brooks
4dfdda2 Their lifelong love of learning, their remarkable wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, was fostered primarily by their father. He read aloud to them at night, eliciting their responses to works of history and literature. He organized amateur plays for them, encourage pursuit of special interests, prompted them to write essays on their readings, and urge them to recite poetry. fatherhood parenthood Doris Kearns Goodwin
3302d4c In biblical times, they used to stone a few thirteen-year-olds with some regularity, which helped keep the others quiet and at home. The mothers were usually in the first row of stone throwers, and had to be restrained. parenthood teenagers Anne Lamott
6935f5b If my children think I'm genuine, no one else's opinion matters to me. family parenthood sincerity testimony Beth Moore
d1db9ef But he was sixty-two when I was, born, and the novelty of daughters had worn away long before. fathers-and-daughters late-in-life-children parenthood Jane Smiley
35b006d Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things. childhood children knowledge learning motherhood parenthood parenting Frances Hodgson Burnett
dd9600e I wanted you to know that the world in its entirety could never be found in the schools, alone, nor the streets, alone, nor in the trophy case. I wanted you to claim the whole world, as it is. parenthood ta-nehisi-coates-quote Ta-Nehisi Coates
afb0050 Each of Nora's children had arrived on this earth as him or herself, the more she knew them, the more she felt it to be true. They were so different from one another, and from her. growing-up individuality mother motherhood parenthood parenting parents personality J. Courtney Sullivan
d0bf86e My mind was curiously blank. It was the blankness of obedience. With the unerring instinct of children, I had surmised what my parents wanted from me. They wanted me to stay the way I was. [434] parenthood Jeffrey Eugenides
acc5c4b "Good God," cries the Mother. Everything inside her suddenly begins to cower and shrink, a thinning of bones. Perhaps this is a soldier's readiness, but it has the whiff of death and defeat. It feels like a heart attack, a failure of will and courage, a power failure: a failure of everything. Her face, when she glimpses it in a mirror, is cold and bloated with shock, her eyes scarlet and shrunk. She has already started to wear sunglasses indoors, like a celebrity widow. From where will her own strength come? From some philosophy? From some frigid little philosophy? She is neither stalwart nor realistic and has trouble with basic concepts, such as the one that says events move in one direction only and do not jump up, turn around, and take themselves back. The Husband begins too many of his sentences with "What if." He is trying to piece everything together like a train wreck. He is trying to get the train to town." parenthood Lorrie Moore
41729e3 Parents need to see that every situation that their kids find themselves in is a teaching situation, and they need to take the time to explore cost and effect. So talking to your children, explaining things to children as to why things happen in the world. Getting them to see cost and relationships between events is the best way to increase comprehension skills. Daynette Gardiner, the best School Psychologist in The Bahamas. cost-and-effects cost-and-relationships learning-opportunities parenthood teachable-moments teaching-situation time Drexel Deal
5c72f89 As parents one of the biggest jobs we have, is teaching our children how to resolve problems effectively. We live in an era where everyone is quick to act the fool over simple issues. As we used to say when I was on the streets, 'everybody wants to cut a movie'. conflict-resolution conflicts cut-a-movie letting-go parenthood parenting parents peace-maker resolving-problems simple-issues street-violence walking-away youth-violence Drexel Deal
6b5dbbf "I suppose you're going to say that I'm not a good mother.' parenthood W. Somerset Maugham
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