#pare

That was the tricky part. You poured inordinate amounts of time and attention and affection into your kids, but the result was indirect. You didn't point out a cat to your one-year-old and then watch him, minutes later, say 'Cat.' Instead, you pointed out a hundred cats to your one-year-old and then, one day, watched him point to a cat and say 'Mama. ↗

— Katherine Center

#parenting #beauty

The tide will turn, Miss Willow." A smile lurked around his mouth, but no, that was not possible, that the earl of Tiern-Cope should smile, and at her. "It hasn't yet." "You may find the sea casts you onto the shores of paradise." His voice was low and soft, and Olivia felt her heart stir at the sound. "Or through the very gates of hell." "So it might." She gave herself a mental shake. Lord Tiern-Cope could not possibly be flirting with her. Impossible. "But that won't stop me from embracing this moment in all its beautiful perfection." "With but one flaw, Miss Willow." "Whatever could that be?" "Don't even try to tell me I don't spoil the present perfection of your moment." The corner of his lip twitched and then gave up. He smiled, and she, perverse creature that she was, felt like she'd been tossed off a cliff with him standing at the bottom to catch her. ↗

— Carolyn Jewel

#olivia #sebastian #the-spare #beauty

Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you've done will have mattered as much. ↗

— Lisa Wingate

#faith #family #parenting #faith

We had to make ends meet. My parents were divorced, so my father wasn't really in my life. We grew up like most kids, just wanting things. ↗

— Jeffrey Donovan

#ends #father #grew #had #just

Parents are so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves. ↗

— Marcelene Cox

#business

Like any other tool for facilitating the completion of a questionable task, rewards offer a "how" answer to what is really a "why" question. ↗

— Alfie Kohn

#parenting #rewards #business

(Da) "Sorry, Son, what was that? I was too busy ignoring you." (Later) "Sorry, Son, I missed that," Ma said. "Ignoring you can be a full-time job. ↗

— Brian Farrey

#humor #parenting #business

But I'm learning it's human nature to want the things you can't have. What changes is how you go about pursuing the things you want. When you're a little kid and you're told no, you scream and throw a temper tantrum. When you're a teenager and your parents tell you no, you're old enough to internalize your temper tantrum. But you're smarter and you're sneakier this time around. So you nod and act like you care when they say no, when they tell you who you can be friends with, when they say the know what's best. But then you go behind their backs to do it anyway. Because at some point, you need to start calling the shots. At some point, you need to start believing you know whats best. Or, I thought with a smile, you just stop asking for their permission in the first place. ↗

— Katie Kacvinsky

#parents #permission #change

We pretend that we know our children, because it's easier than admitting the truth--from the minute that cord is cut, they are strangers. It's far easier to tell yourself your daughter is still a little girl than to see her in a bikini and realize she has the curves of a young woman; it's safer to say you're a good parent who has all the right conversations about drugs and sex than to acknowledge there are a thousand things she would never tell you. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#parenting #change

When you moved, I felt squeezed with a wild infatuation and protectiveness. We are one. Nothing, not even death, can change that. ↗

— Suzanne Finnamore

#pregnancy #change