Inspiring Parenting Quotes
Our collection of inspiring parenting quotes may move you to look at your mother and father in a different light.
As many of you know, and some will discover, being a parent can be hard and challenging work. Feeding in the middle of a sleepless night, tending to a sick child, the terrible twos, and more are just some of the challenges parents face.
It doesn’t get any easier as children age into teenagers and older. But the rewards are off the charts!
Parenting is one of those rare things that seems to get continually better with each passing day. Check out our quotes on parents and see if you find something you can relate to, either for your parents or your children.
Best Parenting Quotes
There is no one like your parents. No one can take their place, and no one can love you like your parents. Only a parent can shower unconditional love on you.
1.) Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.
Matthew Jacobson
2.) We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.
Henry Ward Beecher
3.) God blessed me with two unbelievable parents, and I am just like both of them. I have the smile and charisma of my mother and the big heart of my mom because she wants to save the world and help the world, so I am just like her.
Magic Johnson
4.) My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.
Kobe Bryant
5.) Parental love is the only love that is truly selfless, unconditional, and forgiving.
Dr. T.P. Chia
6.) Parents are like God because you wanna know they’re out there, and you want them to think well of you, but you really only call when you need something.
Chuck Palahniuk
7.) When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.
Mitch Albom
8.) Treat your parents with loving care; you will only know their value when you see their empty chair.
Author Unknown
9.) The depth of the love of parents for their children cannot be measured. It is like no other relationship. It exceeds concern for life itself. The love of a parent for a child is continuous and transcends heartbreak and disappointment.
James E. Faust
10.) Never Complain About What Your Parents Couldn’t Give You. It Was Probably All They Had.
Unknown
Inspirational Parent Quotes
11.) No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.
Edwin Hubbell Chapin
12.) Appreciate your parents. You never know what sacrifices they went through for you.
Unknown
13.) A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother’s goodness deeper than the sea.
Japanese Proverb
14.) 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.
Umberto Eco
15.) At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.
Jane D. Hull
16.) Love is giving your kids your undivided attention and time.
Kevin Heath
17.) Parenthood… it’s about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last.
Peter Krause
Raising Kids Quotations
18.) Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.
Abraham Lincoln
19.) By the time I realized my parents were right, I had kids that didn’t believe me.
Hussein Nishah
20.) No matter how far we come, our parents are always in us.
Brad Meltzer
21.) A mother’s love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking; it never fails or falters, even though the heart is breaking.
Helen Rice
22.) Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world, you had to earn it.
Author Unknown
23.) Parents face enormous pressure from the moms and dads around them and themselves. But don’t let it get to you.
Jane Goodall
24.) There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.
Henry Ward Beecher
Heartfelt Parenting Quotes
25.) A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.
Billy Graham
26.) The best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of their time each day.
M. Grundler
27.) 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.
Walt Disney
28.) 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
29.) Parents must get across the idea that I love you always, but sometimes I do not love your behavior.
Amy Vanderbilt
30.) We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
31.) Do not educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up, they will know the value of things, not the price.
Author Unknown
32.) A good father is a source of inspiration and self-restraint. A good mother is the root of kindness and humbleness.
Dr T.P.Chia
Educating Your Children Quotations
33.) It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity, there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou
34.) Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.
Benjamin Franklin
35.) To be in your children’s memories tomorrow,
You have to be in their lives today.
Barbara Johnson
36.) If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent, and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.
Brian Tracy
37.) Teach your children to say you’re sorry and to forgive. Actions are greater teachers than words.
Andy Atticus
Funny Parenting Quotes
38.) People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.
Leo Burke
39.) 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
40.) 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
41.) Having children is like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.z
Ray Romano
42.) Parenthood: The scariest hood you’ll ever go through.
Unknown
43.) The first 40 years of parenthood are always the hardest.
Unknown
44.) One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.
Jane Goodall
You might enjoy our hilarious jokes page.
Humorous Insights on Parenting
45.) Hostage Negotiator: Another job that’s less stressful than being a parent.
Unknown
46.) Parenting without a sense of humor is like being an accountant without a sense of math.
Unknown
47.) You know you’re a mom when you understand why the mother bear’s porridge was cold.
Unknown
48.) Patience: What parents have when there are too many witnesses.
Unknown
49.) You know your life has changed when going to the grocery store by yourself is a vacation.
Unknown
50.) You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
Franklin P. Adams
Step-Parent Quotes
51.) Stepparents are not around to replace a biological parent, rather to augment a child’s life experience.
Azriel Johnson
52.) Step-parenting and being a step-sibling present a lot of exciting opportunities. When families break up and re-form, there may be less order, less certainty, and a bit more trauma involved, but kids can end up having half-a-dozen parent figures.
Morris Gleitzman
53.) If I could choose from all the stepdads in the world, I’d choose you!
Unknown
54.) It takes a strong man to accept somebody else’s children and step up to the plate another man left on the table.
Ray Johnson
55.) Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a stepdad.
Author Unknown
56.) Step-parenting is like working at a late-night convenience store…all of the responsibility and none of the authority.
Valerie J. Lewis Coleman
57.) For better or worse, step-parenting is self-conscious parenting. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Author Unknown
Single Parent Quotes
58.) 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.
Author Unknown
59.) 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.
Deniece Williams
60.) I’m a single parent, a working mother, an executive, and an author. My greatest accomplishment will be to raise three wonderful children.
Ivana Trump
61.) 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
62.) The best situation is being a single parent. The best part about is that you get time off, too, because the kids are with their mom, so it’s the best of both worlds. There’s a lot to be said for it.
Larry David
63.) I didn’t plan on being a single mom, but you have to deal with the cards you are dealt the best way you can.
Tichina Arnold
64.) I can understand why a single parent, working two jobs, would find it easier to stop at McDonald’s with the kids rather than cook something from scratch at home.
Eric Schlosser
Being a Parent Quotes
65.) It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
Roald Dahl
66.) One of the greatest titles in the world is parents, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.
Jim DeMint
67.) Parenthood: That state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.
Marcelene Cox
68.) Creating a child takes no love or skill; being a parent requires lots of both.
Michael Josephson
69.) I don’t remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don’t even know exist until you love a child.
Anne Lamott
70.) 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
71.) 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
72.) There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one.
Sue Atkins
73.) No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you.
Marisa De Los Santos
Growing Up Sayings
74.) To be a good father and mother requires that the parents defer many of their own needs and desires in favor of the needs of their children. As a consequence of this sacrifice, conscientious parents develop a nobility of character and learn to put into practice the selfless truths taught by the Savior Himself.
James E. Faust
75.) That’s the nature of being a parent, Sabine has discovered. You’ll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and — in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the depth of your love — you come to understand the tragic, unrequited love of your own parents.
Ursula Hegi
75.) Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.
Robert A. Heinlein
76.) 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
77.) Children don’t think about yesterday, and they don’t think about tomorrow. They just exist in the moment.
Jessalyn Gilsig
Guidelines for Parent-Child Relationships from the Child Development Institute
Parental Love Insights
78.) It is the sunlight of parental love and encouragement that enables a child to grow in competence and slowly gain mastery over his environment.
Felicity Bauer
79.) Parenting is a lifetime job and does not stop when a child grows up.
Jake Slope
80.) 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
81.) Good parenting is subjective, and the same tips don’t work for all people.
Brandi Rossi
82.) Remember that the most important thing is not your child’s behavior. The most important thing is your child. Look beyond behavior and connect with your child.
Issa Waters
Raising Children Quotes
83.) 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
84.) Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement, and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent.
Bob Keeshan
85.) With the amount of money I have, it’s difficult raising children the way I was raised.
Adam Sandler
86.) Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you’ve done will have mattered as much.
Lisa Wingate
87.) 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
88.) When you have brought up kids, there are memories you store directly in your tear ducts.
Robert Brault
89.) As your kids grow, they may forget what you said, but won’t forget how you made them feel.
Kevin Heath
90.) I think that enduring, committed love between a married couple, along with raising children, is the most noble act anyone can aspire to. It is not written about very much.
Nicholas Sparks
The Apple Doesn’t Fall From the Tree
91.) Children don’t need more things. The best toys a child can have is a parent who gets down on the floor and plays with them.
Bruce Perry
92.) Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.
John Wilmot
93.) To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.
Josh Billings
94.) So often, children are punished for being human. Children 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
95.) Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.
Democritus
Sentimental Parenting Quotes
96.) Don’t worry that children never listen to you: worry that they are always watching you.
Robert Fulghum
97.) Parenting is not for sissies. You have to sacrifice and grow up.
Jullian Michaels
98.) Each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.
Charles R. Swindoll
99.) The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.
Peggy O’Mara
100.) It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglass, African-American Abolitionist and Author
101.) Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
James Baldwin
Positive Parenting Quotes
102.) 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
103.) Always kiss your children goodnight – even if they’re already asleep.
H. Jackson Brown
104.) A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to.
Robert Brault
105.) Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can’t poke enough holes to drain it dry.
Alvin Price
106.) The best kind of parent you can be is to lead by example.
Drew Barrymore
107.) You know more than you think you do.
Benjamin Spock
Amusing Parenting Quotes
108.) If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”
Milton Berle
109.) Why don’t kids understand their nap is not for them but for us?
Alyson Hannigan
110.) When your “mom voice” is so loud, even the neighbors brush their teeth and get dressed.
Unknown
111.) The quickest way for a parent to get a child’s attention is to sit down and look comfortable.
Lane Olinghouse
112.) Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.
Phyllis Diller
113.) Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
Peter Ustinov
114.) Becoming a mom to me means that you have accepted that for the next 16 years of your life, you will have a sticky purse.
Nia Vardalos
Parenting Quotes from Celebrities
115.) It just occurred to me that the majority of my diet is made up of the foods that my kid didn’t finish.
Carrie Underwood
116.) I feel very blessed to have two wonderful, healthy children who keep me completely grounded, sane and throw up on my shoes just before I go to an awards show just so I know to keep it real.
Reese Witherspoon
117.) When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.
Nora Ephron
118.) A 2-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don’t have a top for it.
Jerry Seinfeld
119.) I thought I’d never be the annoying person, but as soon as Winnie was born, I was showing iPhone snaps to a cab driver.
Jimmy Fallon
120.) I don’t know what’s more exhausting about parenting: the getting up early or acting like you know what you’re doing.
Jim Gaffigan
Parenting Rules
121.) The Golden Rule of Parenting is do unto your children as you wish your parents had done unto you!
Louise Hart
122.) There’s no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.
Jill Churchill
123.) Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.
Carl Jung
124.) Do not worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.
Robert Fulgham
125.) To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.
Barbara Johnson
126.) Having a parent who listens creates a child who believes he or she has a voice that matters in this world.
Rachel Macy Stafford
127.) Be the calm you want to see in your child.
Renee Jain
128.) Too much love never spoils children. Children become spoiled when we substitute presents for presence.
Anthony Withman
Notable Quotes on Being Parents
129.) You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.
Ray Romano
130.) At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.
Jane D. Hull
131.) The sign of great parenting is not the child’s behavior. The sign of truly great parenting is the parent’s behavior.
Andy Smithson
Parenting Proverbs
132.) An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
Spanish Proverb
133.) Children are a bridge to Heaven.
Persian Proverb
134.) Who takes the child by the hand, takes the mother by the heart.
Danish Proverb
135.) To understand your parents’ love, you must raise children yourself.
Chinese Proverb
136.) Who takes the child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.
German Proverb
137.) Like mother, like daughter.
16th-century Proverb
138.) God could not be everywhere, and therefore, he made mothers.
Jewish Proverb
139.) When the father has eaten too much salt in his lifetime, then his son thereafter will have a great thirst.
Vietnamese Proverb
140.) Tell me who your father is, and I’ll tell you who you are.
Filipino Proverb
141.) When a father praises his son, he flatters himself.
American Proverbs
142.) Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.
Traditional Proverb
143.) When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him.
Ghanaian Proverb
Short Parenting Sayings
144.) There is no such thing as being the perfect parent. So just be a real one.
Sue Atkins
145.) A parent’s love is whole, no matter how many times divided.
Robert Brault
146.) Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.
Peter Ustinov
147.) To measure the depth of a parent’s love, God has not given us any instrument.
Unknown
148.) 90% of parenting is just thinking about when you can lie down again.
Unknown
149.) The best medicine in the world is a mother’s hug.
Unknown
150.) The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.
C.A. Battista
Final Thoughts on Inspiring Parenting Quotes
Parents have the biggest impact on you. It is not the best schooling but great parenting that makes men and women great. The importance of parenting can’t be overstated.
After reviewing this collection of inspiring parenting quotes, you may have a greater appreciation for your own parents and other folks who are traveling the challenging yet rewarding path of parenthood.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is an author, editor of Greeting Card Poet, and the father to four daughters.
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