#parenting

When faced with first time fatherhood at the age of 49, I didn’t know whether to celebrate with champagne… or hemlock. ↗

— Len Filppu

#parenting #age

*marissa tries to get her single, working mother's attention by suggesting something outrageous, to which mom replies:* 'You're a smart girl. Use your head and avoid any guy who reminds you of your father. ↗

— Camille Noe Pagán

#fathers #humor #mothers #parenting #art

Why children?' he asked. 'Why always children? For love to end where it begins is far more beautiful, and Nature knows it. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#homosexuality #love #nature #parenting #sterility

But I think parents aren't teachers anymore. Parents -- or a whole lot of us, at least -- lead by mouth instead of by example. It seems to me that if a child's hero is their mother or father -- or even better, both of them in tandem -- then the rough road of learning and experience is going to be smoothed some. And every little bit of smoothing helps, in this rough old world that wants children to be miniature adults, devoid of charm and magic and the beauty of innocence. ↗

— Robert R. McCammon

#childhood #innocence #parenting #beauty

The miracle of children is that we just don’t know how they will change or who they will become. ↗

— Eileen Kennedy-Moore

#kids #miracle #parenting #parents #parents-and-children

I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it won't change the fact that they are upset. ↗

— Stephen Chbosky

#change

When you take the time to actually listen, with humility, to what people have to say, it's amazing what you can learn. Especially if the people who are doing the talking also happen to be children. ↗

— Greg Mortenson

#communication #education #parenting #communication

Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories. ↗

— John Wilmot

#children #fatherhood #marriage #parenting #theory

The reality is that most of us communicate the same way that we grew up. That communication style becomes our normal way of dealing with issues, our blueprint for communication. It’s what we know and pass on to our own children. We either become our childhood or we make a conscious choice to change it. ↗

— Kristen Crockett

#communication #parenting #parents #change

What do we say to a guest who forgets her umbrella? Do we run after her and say "What is the matter with you? Every time you come to visit you forget something. If it's not one thing it's another. Why can't you be like your sister? When she comes to visit, she knows how to behave. You're forty-four years old! Will you never learn? I'm not a slave to pick up after you! I bet you'd forget your head if it weren't attached to your shoulders." That's not what we say to a guest. We say "Here's your umbrella, Alice," without adding "scatterbrain." Parents need to learn to respond to their children as they do to guests. ↗

— Haim G. Ginott

#communication