As parents, we all know that things can be very difficult on some days.

It could be today for you, perhaps. Sometimes, inspiration is what we need to help keep our sanity.

We sincerely hope you’ll enjoy our compilation of inspiring parenting quotes – perfect for those tough parenting days where you need just that little extra push.

 

“Remember you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being.” — Kittie Franz

“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” — Barbara Johnson

Motherhood [and Fatherhood] has taught me the meaning of living in the moment and being at peace. Children don’t think about yesterday, and they don’t think about tomorrow. They just exist in the moment.” — Jessalyn Gilsig

“Too much love never spoils children. Children become spoiled when we substitute presents for presence.” — Anthony Witham

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent. Just be a real one.” — Sue Atkins

“The point of parenting is not to have all the answers before we start out but instead to figure it out on the go as our children grow. Because as they do, so will we.” — Bridgett Miller

“By loving them for more than their abilities we show our children they are much more than the sum of their accomplishments.” — Eileen Kennedy-Moore

“Children must never work for our love, they must rest in it.” — Gordon Neufeld

“It is better for your children to come to you by a feeling of respect and gentleness, than by fear. ” — Unknown

“One hundred years from now it won’t matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove, but the world may be different because you were important in the life of a child.” — Forest E. Witcraft

“The most powerful way to change the world is to live in front of our children the way we would like the world to be.” — Graham R. White

“You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else.” — Amanda Morgan

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“So often, children are punished for being human. They are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes. Yet, we adults have them all the time. None of us are perfect. We must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves. ” — Rebecca Eanes

“Every day, in a hundred small ways our children ask, “Do you hear me? Do you see me? Do I matter” There behavior often reflects our response.” — L.R. Knost

“Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.” — Matthew Jacobsen

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

“Don’t raise your kids to have more than you had. Raise them to be more than you were.” — Unknown

“If I had my child to raise all over again, I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later. I’d finger-paint more, and point the finger less. I would do less correcting and more connecting. I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes. I’d take more hikes and fly more kites. I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play. I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars. I’d do more hugging and less tugging.” – Diane Loomans

“Many have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You remain responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” — Antoine De Saint-Exupery

“No one knows how children will turn out; a great tree often springs from a tender plant.” — Norwegian proverb

“Children spell love… T-I-M-E.” — Dr. A. Witham

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” — Charles R. Swindoll

“It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell me children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.” — Joyce Maynard

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” — Robert Fulghum

“Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?” — Samuel Johnson

“Treat a child as though he already is the person he’s capable of becoming.” — Haim Ginott

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” — Robert Brault

“Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they’re going to catch you in next.” — Franklin P. Jones

“If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.” – Haim Ginott

“A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.” – Paulo Coelho

“I think it’s necessary to let kids get bored once in a while—that’s how they learn to be creative.” – Kim Raver

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop, The Lion & the Mouse

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” – Horton the Elephant

“A child’s mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled.” – Dorothea Brande

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” – Rachel Carson

“A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother’s goodness deeper than the sea.” — Japanese Proverb

“A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions.” — Richard L. Evans

“Affection without sentiment, authority without cruelty, discipline without aggression, humor without ridicule, sacrifice without obligation, companionship without possessiveness.” — William E. Blatz

“Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life and it’s like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.” — Gary Smalley

“Always kiss your children goodnight – even if they’re already asleep.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.” — John Wilmot

“Children are the proof we’ve been here… they are the best thing and the most impossible thing.” — Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How she Does It

“Children keep us in check. Their laughter prevents our hearts from hardening. Their dreams ensure we never lose our drive to make ours a better world. They are the greatest disciplinarians known to mankind.” — Queen Rania of Jordan, Hello Magazine

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” — Charles R. Swindoll

“Don’t demand respect as a parent. Demand civility and insist on honesty. But respect is something you must earn — with kids as well as with adults.” — William Attwood

“God sends children to enlarge our hearts, and make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections.” — Mary Howitt

“I looked on childrearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully interesting and challenging as any honourable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.” — Rose Kennedy

“If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers.” — Edgar W. Howe

“If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent.” — Bette Davis

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” — Abigail Van Buren

“I’m moved by contraries, by opposites, the strength that was my mother’s eyes, the beauty of my father’s hands.” — Judith Jamison

“In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck – and, of course, courage.” — Bill Cosby

“It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.” — Barbara Kingsolver

Cute Baby Girl Learning to Walk

“Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.” — C. Everett Koop, M.D.

“Love is giving someone your undivided attention.” — Author Unknown

“Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Lucky parents who have fine children usually have lucky children who have fine parents.” — James A. Brewer

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” — Elizabeth Stone

“One who walks the road with love will never walk the road alone.” — C. T. Davis

“Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who tread on their toes.” — Chinese Proverb

“Parenthood is a lot easier to get into than out of.” — Bruce Lansky

“Parenthood, its not a job. It’s an adventure!” — Author Unknown

“Parenthood: The state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.” — Marcelene Cox

“Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.” — Arnold Glasow

“Parents: People who spend half their time wondering how their children will turn out, and the rest of the time when they will turn in.” — Eleanor Graham Vance

“Praise your children and they will blossom!” — Author Unknown

“Presence is more than just being there.” — Malcolm Forbes

“Raising children is like making biscuits: it is as easy to raise a big batch as one, while you have your hands in the dough.” — E.W. Howe

“Taking time and sharing is the essence of teaching. The future of those we cherish, will be a reflection of what we model today.” — Author Unknown

“The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.” — O. A. Battista

“The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.” — Benjamin Spock

“The first art of being a parent consists in sleeping when the baby isn’t looking.” — Author Unknown

“The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.” — Sloan Wilson

“The Hebrew word for parents is ‘horim’, and it comes from the same root as ‘moreh’, teacher. The parent is, and remains, the first and most important teacher that the child will have.” — Rabbi Kassel Abelson

“The problem with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are usually unemployed.” — Author Unknown

“The real menance about dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.” — Jean Kerr

“The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven’s lieutenants.” — Shakespeare

“The world talks to the mind. Parents speak more intimately — they talk to the heart.” — Hain Ginott

“There are times when parenthood seems nothing but feeding the mouth that bites you.” — Peter de Vries

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.” — Hodding Carter, Jr.

“There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.” — Frank A. Clark

“To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.” — Josh Billings

“To nourish children and raise them against the odds is, in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.” — Marilyn French

“We may be blinded by our own perceived flaws, but those who love us have clearer vision.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

“We never know the love of our parents for us until we have become parents.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.” — Fred Rogers

“When you have children yourself, you begin to understand what you owe your parents.” — Japanese Proverb

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.” — Kahlil Gibran

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” — William D. Tammeus

“You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.” — Polish Proverb

“The golden rule of parenting is to always show your children the kind of person you want them to be. Remember that children are impressionable.” — Elizabeth Roxas

“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” — C.G. Jung

“But when you truly realize who gave you your child, why you do what you do and how you do what you do will totally change as you understand that none of this is about you and what you think and feel. It’s all about the purpose and plan of God for that child’s life.” — Joseph Woodley

“Parenting is a life time job and does not stop when a child grows up.” — Jake Slope

“You, the parent, are your child’s first teacher and his best teacher. It’s an awesome responsibility, but one that brings immeasurable rewards.” — Jacquie McTaggart

“One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.” — Jim DeMint

“Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.” — Ruth E. Renkel

“There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.” — Henry Ward Beecher

Mother and Her Little Boy Enjoying the Outdoors

Our lives change when we become parents. Just as our child changes as he grows, so do we. At times, being a parent is difficult, but it is also one of the most rewarding and important roles in your life.

You’ve got this!

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Michael Oliver

Father of two lovely and special children. I'm an engineer (electrical) by trade and have worked at many a blue chip organization in the past.  From Ford Motor Company to Airbus to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals to the UK National Health Service I've had a pretty diverse working life.  After completing my MBA I wanted to break away from the corporate 'cubicle' so I founded Stuff4Tots as a means of being at home for my family and creating a future for us all.

Now as CEO of Stuff4Tots I bring together my expertise as a parent, a husband and a professional to serve fellow parents providing useful and relevant information and products to new families.