Being a mom is life’s greatest gift. You are responsible for molding this young child into a productive member of society. But let’s be honest. It’s hard work. No matter how hard I try to be the model mother, I fall short. I do not bake cookies. I do not play games with my child. Homework with my son, forget it! I lack patience. Absolutely no patience. I cuss. Like a lot. The F-Bomb gushes from my mouth like Niagara Falls. There is no instructional manual and every season of parenting is a new level of difficult. The truth is we all need some words of affirmation to reassure us we are doing the best we can do. Keep reading for some positive parenting quotes to inspire you even when you feel like a complete failure.
There is no perfect mother or father
If you have a crazy idea that perfect parents exist, let me clue you in. Being a parent is like a folding a fitted sheet. No one really knows how. But on the other hand, no one is willing to admit they are clueless. You will have days where you feel as if you are rocking this parenting gig. But even the best parents have bad days. Days where there is no way you can deal with your toddler’s melt down, where you woke up in a bad mood and can’t seem to shake it, or simply a day where you just do not feel as if you can parent today. The good news is you get a second chance for a better tomorrow.
If you are feeling like a failure today, keep reading for some of my favorite positive parenting quotes that inspire me to try again tomorrow.
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Inspirational Parenting Quotes
“Families are like branches on a tree. We grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.”
Unknown Author
“Being a family means you are a parent of something very wonderful. It means you will love and beloved for the rest of your life.”
Lisa Weed
“Remember you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being. “
Kittie Franz
“There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one.”
Sue Atkins
“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
“One hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”
Forest E Witcraft
“Being a mother is not about what you gave up to have a child, but what you’ve gained from having one.”
Sunny Gupta
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”
Jill Churchill
“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
“The point of parenting isn’t 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
“Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget that you already have one.”
Glennon Melton
“Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.”
Alfie Kohn
“Don’t forget to bring your funny bone along on your parenting journey. Humor is a universal language that topples walls, connects hearts, and open the door to communication and cooperation.”
LR Knost
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”
Anne Frank
“Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.
H. Jackson Brown Jr
“One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.”
Jane Goodall
“Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.”
Alvin Toffler
“Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.”
Peter Ustinov
“I didn’t know how to balance work and motherhood. You just do it. … I was just like every other mom and dad trying to figure it out. There’s a lot of compromise. Every bit of that sacrifice is truly worth it.”
Reese Witherspoon
“The ultimate goal for every mother and father: For their children to be happy. Because nobody is more important or special to parents than their kids. There’s no wilder ride in this world than that of being a parent.”
Walt Disney
“If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.”
Bette Davis
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Alexander Pope
“The example we set for our kids – how to act when things don’t go our way- is much, much more important than the rules we set for them. “
Leo Babauta
“Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. “
Riney Jordan
“There are two gifts we should give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.”
Unknown
“Children will become what they are told they are.“
Dorothy Delay
“To raise a child who is comfortable enough to leave you means you’ve done your job. They are not ours to keep but to teach how to soar on their own. “
Unknown
“If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. “
Abigail Van Buren
“Kids don’t remember their best day of television.”
Unknown
“When you parent, it’s crucial you realize you aren’t raising a “mini-me” but a spirit throbbing its own signature”
Dr. Shefali Tsabary
“In all kinds of ways- if we are willing, our children take us into places in our hearts we didn’t know existed.”
Dr. Shefali Tsabary
Parent-Child Relationship Positive Parenting Quotes
“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
“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.”
Barbara Johnson
“Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.”
Matthew Jacobsen
“Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice.”
Charles F. Kettering
“Too much love never spoils children. Children become spoiled when we substitute presents for presence.”
Anthony Withman
“Don’t raise your kids to have more than you had. Raise them to be more than you were.”
Unknown Author
“I wish children could grow according to their natural pace: sleep when sleepy, wake up when rested, eat when hungry, cry when upset, play and explore without being unnecessarily interrupted; in other words, be allowed to grow and blossom as each was meant to.:
Magda Gerber
“Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow.”
Thomas Bray
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”
Ignacio Estrada
“By loving them for more than their abilities we show our children that they are much more than the sum of their accomplishments.”
Eileen Kennedy-Moore
“Feeling heard and understood allows children to release the feelings, let go and move on.:
Janet Lansbury
“Children must nver work for our love, they must rest in it.”
Gordon Neufield
“It is better for your children to come to you by a feeling of respect and gentleness, than by fear.”
Unknown Author
“You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else.”
Amanda Morgan
“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
“Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff. “
Catherine M Wallace
“There are times as a parent when you realize that your job is not to be the parent you always imagined you’d be, the parent you always wished you had. Your job is to be the parent your child needs, given the particulars of his or her own life and nature.”
Ayelet Waldman
“My message is very simple. Love your kids. Just love them. Love, appreciate, show that you value them, remind them of their greatness, encourage them, respect, honor, trust, and treat them with dignity.”
Eric D Greene
“I believe the worst turn we’ve taken in parenting is that we are always looking for a special trick instead of a special connection.”
Rebecca Eanes
“One day, they’ll walk in your shoes. Make sure they’re pointed in the right direction.”
LR Knost
“Children are likely to live up to what you believe in them.”
Lady Bird Johnson
“Your children need your presence more than your presents.”
Jesse Jackson
“Love your children—and let them know you love them. Children who experience love find it far easier to believe God loves them.”
Billy Graham
“My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all – the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would be, and much less about what we would do.”
Mitt Romney
“The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.”
Thomas Edison.
“The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.”
Peggy O’Mara
“Don’t stand unmoving outside the door of a crying baby whose only desire is to touch you. Go to your baby. Go to your baby a million times. Demonstrate that people can be trusted, that the environment can be trusted, that we live in a benign universe.”
Peggy O’Mara
Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung
“Children should not be burdened with making us happy, nor blamed for making us sad or angry. Children are not responsible for how we feel. We are.”
Larissa Dann
“You will never look back on life and think, “I spent too much time with my kids.”
Unknown
“A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves.”
Banksy
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
Robert Fulghum
“As a mother, my job is to take care of the possible and trust God with the impossible.”
Ruth Bell Graham
“God could not be everywhere so he created mothers.”
Jewish Proverb
“You’re always going to wonder if you’re doing things wrong. But that’s what it means to be a mom, to care so much about someone else that you just want to be as perfect as possible.”
Naya Rivera
“I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know..”
Mitch Albom
“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.:
Billy Graham
Positive Discipline Quotes
“Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.“
Bill Ayers
“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms… let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.”
Joy Bell
“Every day our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. We should tread softly.
Sir Ken Robinson
“To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is”.
Fred Rogers
“I’m always amazed when adults say that children “just did that to get attention”. Naturally children who need attention will do all kinds of things to get it. Why not just give it to them?”
Lawrence J Cohen
“A child seldom needs a good talking to as much as a good listening to.”
Robert Brault
“If your children fear you, they cannot trust you. If they don’t trust you, they cannot learn from you.”
Lori Petro
“Children do not need us to shape them; they need us to respond to who they are.”
Naomi Aldort
“It’s time we stop buying the lie that we need to be hard on kids because “the world is hard”. Love them as hard as you can. That’s what they need.”
Tara Vogler
“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
“Counteract conflict by connection and communicating calmly.”
Kirsty Lee
“Gentle parenting doesn’t involve instantaneous results, but naturally achieved, life-long lasting results.”
Kirsty Lee
“You can’t teach children to behave better by making them feel worse. When children feel better, they behave better.”
Pam Leo
“Instead of asking “how do I deal with tantrums?” or “how do I deal with aggression?” or “how do I deal with this sleep problem?” ask “How to help this little person whom I love?” That’s the best starting point for knowing how to help your unique child.“
Rebecca Eanes
“There are no bad children. There are bad choices. There are bad moments. There are bad days. There are bad situations. But there are no bad children. Period.”
LR Knost
“Children do not enter this world with bad intentions. The do not come to wear us out, test our patience, or push us over the edge. They come to us with a need for love, connection, and belonging.”
Rebecca Eanes
“Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem. To raise problem solvers, focus on solutions not retribution.”
LR Knost
“One day your child will make a mistake or a bad choice and run to you instead of away from you and in that moment you will know the immense value of peaceful, positive, respectful parenting.”
LR Knost
“Effective discipline is based on loving guidance. It is based on the belief that children are born innately good and that our role as parents is to nurture their spirits as they learn about limits and boundaries, rather than to curb their tendencies toward wrongdoing. Effective discipline presumes that children have reasons for their behavior and that cooperation can be engaged to solve shared problems.”
Peggy O’Mara
“The sign of great parenting is not the child’s behavior. The sign of truly great parenting is the parent’s behavior. “
Unknown
Positive Single Parent Quotes
“Motherhood 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 Gilsing
“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”
Sophia Loren
“Being a mom means choosing to show up day after day and love day after day and give day after day and try day after day and not having all the answers and not being perfect but simply doing your best. “
Rachel Martin
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”
Frederick Douglass
“Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her.”
Uri Bronfenbrenner
“Being a single parent is twice the work, twice the stress and twice the tears but also twice the hugs, twice the love and twice the pride.:
Unknown
“Single moms, you are a doctor, a teacher, a nurse, a maid, a cook, a referee, a heroine, a provider, a defender, a protector, a true Superwoman. Wear your cape proudly. “
Mandy Hale
“A single mom tries when things are hard. She never gives up. She believes in her family, even when things are tough. She knows that above all things… a mother’s love is more than enough.”
Denice Williams
Positive Co-Parenting Quotes
“The best security blanket a child can have is parents who respect each other.”
Jane Blaustone
“I’m very fortunate because we’re committed to co-parenting our children together.”
Elle Macpherson
“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to child’s success is the positive involvement of the parents.”
Jane D. Hull
“Co-parenting is not asking permission. It’s about discussing your child’s needs and wants and deciding what’s best.”
Unknown Author
“Co-parenting. It’s not a competition between two homes. It’s a collaboration of parents doing what is best for the kids.”
Heather Hetchler
“Make a positive difference in your children’s lives. Act and speak about your co-parent with respect and integrity.”
Allison Pescosolido
“This is probably one of the most difficult challenges any parent could face, learning to love the other parent enough to make the children first.” –
Iyanila Vanzant
“Think of it as an important business project; you don’t always love the person that you’re working with, but you work together to get the project done. Co-parents need to adopt this same business model when co-parenting their children.”
Kela Price
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to be a little selfless. You have to say ‘It’s not about us. This didn’t work out quite how we wanted it to but look at the amazing blessing that we have in these wonderful children.’ So you kinda put everything else to the side and really focus.”
Nick Cannon
“If you love your child more than you hate your ex, you can solve most co-parenting problems.”
Helen Fried
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/609534130820018543/In summary
Parenting can be hard. The best gift we can give our kids is our time, patience, and forgiveness. These positive parenting quotes offer hope for all parents.
What is your favorite quote? I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a comment.
About the Author:
Hi! I’m Chris. I’m a mother, wife, college professor by trade and micro-influencer by hobby. I am a bargain hunter, jack of all trades, and master of chaos.
Thank you for reading my random thoughts on travel, my stories of life as an under appreciated mother of a teenager, and my easy recipes that have won no awards but instead my family’s love and adoration (which is WAY better, right?).
