#parenting

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim ↗

— Jeannette Walls

#life #parenting #life

These girls probably use double negatives and watch "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" with their babies instead of reading Eric Carle. ↗

— Natalie Taylor

#sign-of-life #single-parenting #love

I love you enough not to care if you hate me. ↗

— Kelly Harman

#love

You try as a parent. You love beyond reason. You fight beyond endurance. You hope beyond despair. You never think, until the very last moment, that it still might not be enough. ↗

— Lisa Gardner

#love

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

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

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

Ask your child for information in a gentle, nonjudgmental way, with specific, clear questions. Instead of “How was your day?” try “What did you do in math class today?” Instead of “Do you like your teacher?” ask “What do you like about your teacher?” Or “What do you not like so much?” Let her take her time to answer. Try to avoid asking, in the overly bright voice of parents everywhere, “Did you have fun in school today?!” She’ll sense how important it is that the answer be yes. ↗

— Susan Cain

#parenting #communication

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

#carpeting #children #courage #housekeeping #parenthood