Parenting is a mixture of moments of pure bliss and a dash of frustration. Some days, we feel like we’re messing up as mothers. Working moms are guilted into believing that they should spend more time with children.
Most of us wonder at least once a day if we’re doing enough, or too much, for our children. Parenting can easily fill us with self-doubt or make us feel like running away for a couple of hours.
During those tough hours, days, or weeks, we don’t always have the option to run away. We also don’t always have a person right by our side to remind us that we’re doing a great job.
For those moments, we do have inspirational parenting quotes. These are some of my favorite positive parenting quotes.
Positive Parenting Quotes
1. “Remember you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being.” – Kittie Franz
2. “To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” – Barbara Johnson
3. “Too much love never spoils children. Children are spoiled when we replace presence with presents.” – Anthony Withman
4. “There’s no such thing as a perfect parent. Just be a real one.” – Sue Atkins
5. “I don’t know what I’m doing, but then I remind myself that no parent does, right?” – Ellie Kemper
6. “You’re going to get a lot of advice from people, and you can take bits and pieces, but you know innately what your child needs. You should trust that. Don’t beat yourself up for making decisions about things that may or may not work. It’s an experiment in life, and you’re a part of that.” – Lucy Liu
7. “Get rid of the guilt. When you’re at one place, don’t feel bad about not being at work. When you’re at work, don’t feel bad about not being at home.” – Katie Couric
8. “I think every working mom goes through the same thing: you go through these big chunks of time where you’re thinking ‘ this is impossible, this is so impossible’ but then you keep going, and you do the impossible.” – Tina Fey
9. “As a mom, you have to look at how much time you’re spending with your kids. There is nothing you will regret more in life than not being present with your children.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
10. “Parenting shifts as your kids shift. The best thing for me has been throwing any parenting manual out the window.” – Kate Hudson
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11. “Sometimes, when I want to take on the world, I remember that’s it’s more important to sit down and ask my son how he’s doing.” – Angeline Jolie
12. “I use humor instead of getting into that whole yes and no thing all the time. It’s about just getting them to laugh instead of getting into power struggles.” – Marcia Cross
13. “I want to show the example that you can work and be a single mother and handle a lot of things at the same time.” – Christina Millian
14. “I think it’s really important for every mother to find their own way.” – Solange Knowles
15. “You do the best you can. Some days you feel good about yourself, and some days you don’t.” – Katie Holmes
16. “You have to carry on as a mother, no matter what, and that’s what I’ve always done.” – Madonna
17. “I’m a hustler. I’m a single mom, so whatever I’ve got to do…” – Sherri Shepard
18. “The best gift that parents can give children is time, but single moms need to know that it’s okay to have a little me time.” – Denise Richards
19. “Just because I am a single mother does not mean that I cannot be a success.” – Yvonne Kaloki
20. “I know how to do anything. I’m a mom.” – Roseanna Barr
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21. “”The only thing kids wear out faster than their shoes is their parents.” – John Plomp
22. “Things may seem really hard and crazy with your kids right now, but someday you’re going to miss this!” – Amy Stasney
23. “We have a secret in our culture, and it’s not that birth is painful. It’s that mothers are strong.” – Laura Harm
24. “Do what you feel in your heart. You’ll be criticized either way.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
25. “No one is ever quite ready; everyone is caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you.” – Marisa de los Santos
26. “Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.” – Harold Hubert
27. “Be the parent today that you want your kids to remember tomorrow.” – Unknown
28. “In the happiest childhood memories, our parents were happy too.” – Robert Brault
29. “I got a lot of support from my parents. That’s the one thing I always appreciated. They didn’t tell me I was being stupid, they told me I was being funny.” – Jim Carrey
30. “All that I am, or hope to be, is because of my mother.” – Abraham Lincoln
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31. “To love someone is to accept that person exactly the way that he or she is.” – Fred Rogers
32. “Children do not need us to shape them, they need us to respond to who they are.” – Naomi Aldort
33. “Children must never work for our love, they must rest in it.” – Gordon Neufeld
34. “You must first teach a child that he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else.” – Amanda Morgan
35. “Counteract conflict by connection and communicating calmly.” – Kirsty Lee
36. “Kids need to be in charge of their own lives, not boxed in by adult baggage.” – Issa Waters
37. “Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget that you already have one.” – Glennon Melton
38. “If you want your children to improve, let them hear the positive things you say about them to others.” – Haim Ginott
39. “I believe children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.” – Whitney Houston
40. “The sign of great parenting is not the child’s behavior. It is the parent’s behavior.” – Andy Smithson
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41. “Parents are the ultimate role model for children. Every word, movement and action has an affect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than a parent.” – Bob Keeshan
42. “If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money.” – Abigal Van Buren
43. “Treat a child as though he is already the person he is capable of becoming.” – Haim Ginott
44. “The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them.” – Kourtney Kardashian
45. “Maybe my fairytale has a different ending than I dreamed it would, but that’s okay.” – Kim Kardashian
46. “Children are educated by what the grown up is and not by his talk.” – Carl Jung
47. “Do not worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulgham
48. “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” – Peggy O’Mara
49. “Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves.” – Elbert Hubbard
50. “Everyone knows how to raise children except for the people who have them.” – P.J. O’Rourke
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51. “Children are apt to live up to what you believe in them.” – Lady Bird Johnson
52. “Parenthood…It’s about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last one.” – Peter Krause
53. “Raising children is part joy and part guerilla warfare.” – Ed Asner
54. “Parenting is one of the best management programs there is.” – Irene Rosenfield
55. “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” – James Baldwin
56. “What it’s like to be a parent: It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.” – Nicholas Sparks
57. “The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the tires.” – Dorothy Parker
58. “The best way to make children good is to make them happy.” – Oscar Wilde
59. “One thing I learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.” – Jane Goodall
60. “Raise your children to love and embrace others.” – Kaiden Blake
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61. “Children are gifts. They are not ours for the breaking. They are ours for the making.” – Dan Pierce
62. “Our children are only as brilliant as we allow them to be.” – Eric Leventhal
63. “So much is asked of parents, and so little is given.” – Virginia Satir
64. “The raising of a child is the building of a cathedral. You can’t cut corners.” – Dave Eggers
65. “The life of a mother is the life of a child. You are two blossoms on a single branch.” – Karen Miller
66. “Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.” – Arnold Glasow
67. “The best way to guide children without coercian is to be ourselves.” – Madeline L’Engle
68. “Did children want sports cars for parents? No. They wanted Hondas. They wanted to know that the car would start in all seasons.” – Dave Eggers
69. “I’m beginning to perceive motherhood as a long, slow letting go, of which birth is just the first step.” –
70. “Praise your children openly, reprove them secretly.” – William Cecil
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71. “Having a baby is a life-changer. It gives you a whole other perspective on why you wake up every day.” – Taylor Hanson
72. “Love is staying up all night with a sick child…” – David Frost
73. “Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing.” – Fredrick Backman
74. “Parenting is an impossible job at any age.” – Harrison Ford
75. “Good parents hardly parent. They let their kids learn, fail, and grow without interference.” – Trevor Carss
Being a parent is one of the hardest, most thankless jobs. Thankfully, the parents that said these quotes had an understanding of what it’s like to be a parent.
Enjoy their wisdom, humor, and know that you aren’t going at it alone. The next time you’re questioning your parenting skills, simply read through these quotes again.
