50 Parenting Quotes to Remember

Perhaps you’re looking for some Monday morning motivation. Or there’s a major milestone happening in your household. Or maybe you’re simply searching for a little inspiration to get you through bath-time. Wherever you’re at, consider your prescription of parenting quotes filled. In this article: 📝

What are the best parenting quotes?

Quotes about parenthood come in all shapes and sizes.

Whether you’re doing this parenting thing on your own, with your partner at your side, or with someone miles away, the good news is you are not the first one to navigate this terrain, and you won’t be the last.

We can rest on the wisdom of those who have come before and those who we travel alongside.

With that in mind, let’s dive into our favorite being a parent quotes.

Quotes about becoming a parent

1. “There are no words that can describe the euphoria you feel when your baby recognizes you for the first time and smiles.” — Jared Padalecki
2. “A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.” — Carl Sandburg
3. “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” — A.A. Milne
4. “A new baby is like the beginning of all things—wonder, hope, and dream of possibilities.” — Eda J. LeShan
5. “Every parent is different and so is every child, so you can read all the books and scribble down all the advice you want, but you’re not going to know what to do until you’ve got that baby in your arms. And even then you still might not know — and that’s totally OK!” — Kelly Rowland
6. “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” — Peggy O'Mara
7. “Children should have enough freedom to be themselves — once they've learned the rules.” — Anna Quindlen
8. “Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.” — Khaled Hosseini
9. “One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.” — Jane Goodall.
10. “The soul is healed by being with children.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky.
11. “We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson.
12. “Parenthood…it’s about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last.” — Peter Krause
13. “For me, being a mother made me a better professional, because coming home every night to my girls reminded me what I was working for. And being a professional made me a better mother, because by pursuing my dreams, I was modeling for my girls how to pursue their dreams.” — Michelle Obama
14. “It is time for parents to teach young people that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” — Maya Angelou

Funny parenting quotes

15. “Having a child is like getting a tattoo ... on your face. You better be committed.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
16. “People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.” — Leo J. Burke
17. “You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” — Franklin P. Jones
18. “There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” — Chinese Proverb
19. “Ah, babies! They’re more than just adorable little creatures on whom you can blame your farts.” — Tina Fey
20. “A good way to prepare yourself for parenthood is to talk to rocks because they have similar listening habits.” — Rodney Lacroix
21. "Why don’t kids understand their nap is not for them, but for us?" — Alyson Hannigan
22. “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
23. “Before I got married, I had six theories about bringing up children. Now, I have six children and no theories.” — John Wilmot
24. “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
25. "Having children is like living in a frat house — nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up." — Ray Ramano
26. “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
27. “I've been outsmarted by a toddler, how's your Thursday going?” — Mindy Kaling
28. “All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.” — Erma Bombeck
29. “When your first baby drops her pacifier, you sterilize it. When your second baby drops her pacifier, you tell the dog: ‘Fetch!’” — Bruce Lansky

Parenting quotes for hard times

1. “Saying 'no' to your children, when appropriate, is an act of love.” — Frank Sonnenberg
2. “If your baby is beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time—you’re the grandma.” — Theresa Bloomingdale
3. “There is no such thing as a perfect parent, so just be a real one.” — Sue Atkins
4. “The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” — Jill Churchill
5. “The beauty of motherhood is in the folds and creases of our lives, the grimaces, and tantrums, the moments when we have to grit our teeth to get through when we pound on windows and yell and scream and demand better of each other and ourselves.” — Robyn Passante
6. “Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.” — Tina Fey.
7. “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
8. “The thing about parenting rules is that there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult.” — Ewan McGregor
9. “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” — Barbara Kingsolver
10. “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” — Milton Berle
11. “Usually the triumph of my day is, you know, everybody making it to the potty.” — Julia Roberts

Co-parenting quotes

42. “At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents.” — Jane D. Hull.
43. “Your children need your presence more than your presents.” — Jesse Jackson
44. “Your children are not your children, they come through you, but they are life itself, wanting to express itself.” — Wayne Dyer
45. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” — Frederick Douglass
46. “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
47. “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” — James Baldwin
48. “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” — Oprah Winfrey
49. “You don’t have to give birth to someone to have a family.” — Sandra Bullock
50. “Each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” — Charles R. Swindoll
    And if you’re looking for quotes to help you on your journey to parenthood, check out our list of amazing pregnancy quotes.