#Parenting Quotes

“Adult males are what their moms designed them.”

“Cannot we let [children] be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One's enough.”

“Of course you will insist on modesty in the children, and respect to their teachers, but if the boy stops you in your speech, cries out that you are wrong and sets you right, hug him!”

“I always joke that my kids' favorite holiday is Father's Day. They love the way I celebrate the occasion by writing each of them a thank-you letter and a generous check. It's my way of letting them know how much I appreciate the great pleasure and privilege of being their dad.”

“The greatest service that can be offered to children who show personality traits or inclinations that might not be understood by the adults around them is to allow them to express their own unique humanity.”

“Children pay more attention to what you do than to what you say.”

“As youngsters, my mother taught her children that while we might not be the smartest people around, we could be courteous, polite and considerate of others.”

“Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future.”

“We fail our children if we say, 'Don't do as I do, but do as I say'.”

“A solid foundation for children involves a solid moral base”

“We teach boys to be such men as we are. We do not teach them to aspire to be all they can. We do not give them a training as if webelieved in their noble nature. We scarce educate their bodies. We do not train the eye and the hand. We exercise their understandings to the apprehension and comparison of some facts, to a skill in numbers, in words; we aim to make accountants, attorneys, engineers; but not to make able, earnest, great- hearted men.”

“The best thing a parent can do for a child is to love his or her spouse.”

“Kids don't make up 100 percent of our population, but they do make up 100 percent of our future.”

“When there is no job related stress, you are more aware of your mate and children, if you are a parent.”

“Kids instinctively know - although they will argue to the contrary - that they really are not mature enough to make good decisions on some important issues.”

“Lectures often confuse our kids, but the example we set is crystal clear.”

“Start your child's day with love and encouragement and end the day the same way.”

“My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I've had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm's way until they could be their own guides.”

“I've always believed that parents are not for leaning upon, but rather exist to make leaning unnecessary.”

“Don't give your son money. As far as you can afford it, give him horses.”

“To raise positive kids, we as parents must identify the qualities necessary for success, convince our children that they have the potential for success, and show them how to stake their claims in life.”

“The child who has not been disciplined with love by his little world will be disciplined, generally without love, by the big world.”

“Kids go where there is excitement. They stay where there is love.”

“We need to understand the difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is what you do to someone; discipline is what you do for someone.”

“Be there for your kids. Later, when you need them, they'll be there for you.”

“I'm convinced that what kids need today are parents - not buddies. They need someone who will exercise mature judgment.”

“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”

“I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”

“The best way to raise positive children in a negative world is to have positive parents who love them unconditionally and serve as excellent role models.”

“Don't give your sons money. Give them horses. Many a good son has been ruined through the acquisition of money but no good son has been ruined through the acquisition of horses. Unless they fell and broke their neck, which when taken at the gallop is a very good death to die.”

“To a child, 'love' is spelled T-I-M-E.”

“I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.”

“When correcting a child, the goal is to apply light, not heat.”

“By giving children lots of affection, you can help fill them with love and acceptance of themselves. Then that's what they will have to give away.”

“A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.”

“If any of us had a child that we thought was as bad as we know we are, we would have cause to start to worry.”

“Your children are not your children, they come through you, but they are life itself, wanting to express itself.”

“Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions. Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.”

“Most business mistakes are irreversible setbacks, but you get another chance. There are two things in life that you don't get another chance at - marrying the wrong person and what you do with your children.”

“You can't raise a happy, more resilient kid if you're not a happy, more resilient adult.”

“My father was an angry and impatient teacher and flung the reading book at my head.”

“Your mothers get mighty shocked at you girls nowadays, but in her day, her mother was just on the verge of sending her to reform school.”

“Oh, but she never wanted James to grow a day older or Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as the way they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them grow up into long-legged monsters.”

“My kids are no different than anyone else's - they tend to disagree with everything I say!”

“I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn't make it [achieve something], they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.”

“I get a lot of parents coming up to me, telling me they are grooming their kids to be professional athletes. I'm really against that. I think it's a great life, and yeah, you can lead them in that direction. I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn't make it, they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.”

“Thankfully, in my youth I had the best financial advisor a son could ask for: my dad Walter. When I got that first signing bonus in 1978, Dad took my cheque, announced, 'This is what we're going to do,' and bought an annuity with it.”

“When people come up to me and say, "I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto," or, "I saw your first goal in the NHL," that triggers memories. But I don't sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, "You know, one year I got 92 goals."”

“I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.”

“If you're extremely rich, and you have got children, my theory was, you give them enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing.”