Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
If I had my child to raise all over again,I'd finger paint more, and point the finger less.I'd do less correcting, and more connecting.I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.I would care to know less, and know to care more.I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.I'd run through more fields, and gaze at more stars.I'd do more hugging, and less tugging.I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.I'd build self esteem first, and the house later.I'd teach less about the love of power, and more about the power of love.
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.
The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil...
Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow
There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.
There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.
The best way to make children good is to make them happy.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.
Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.
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.
What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.
The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all.
Being a good psychoanalyst has the same disadvantage as being a good parent: The children desert one as they grow up.
I take the academic education as seriously as the physical education. That's why I tell parents that the schools can't do it all themselves. The parents can't come home from work and turn on the TV. That's not being a good parent.
We found ... that being a good parent to one's own child was never and in no way enough; until we were all responsible for all the children of the world, no child would ever be safe, no society could survive.
99.9% of being a good parent is just being present with your child. On the flipside of that, 100% of being happy is just being present.
Obviously, I feel a great sense of responsibility being a good parent and raising my children. I don't take that job very lightly. Who they are, what they become and what they contribute to the world is very important to me.
or simply:
