65 Parenting Quotes to Inspire Parents Every Day

PARENTING

Jul 12

Parenting is one of the most challenging yet rewarding journeys a person can undertake. Whether you're navigating sleepless nights with a newborn, helping your child through school, or guiding a teen toward independence, it's a path filled with highs and lows. Sometimes, all it takes is a few words of wisdom to keep you going. Here are 65 powerful quotes to uplift, motivate, and inspire parents every single day.

1. "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice." — Peggy O’Mara

2. "Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work." — C.S. Lewis

3. "Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be." — David Bly

4. "There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one." — Sue Atkins

5. "To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today." — Barbara Johnson

6. "The best way to make children good is to make them happy." — Oscar Wilde

7. "Behind every young child who believes in themselves is a parent who believed first." — Matthew Jacobson

8. "Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." — Charles R. Swindoll

9. "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." — Theodore Hesburgh

10. "A child needs encouragement like a plant needs water." — Rudolf Dreikurs

11. "Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you." — Robert Fulghum

12. "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." — Frederick Douglass

13. "While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." — Angela Schwindt

14. "A person’s a person, no matter how small." — Dr. Seuss

15. "Parenting isn’t a practice. It’s a daily learning experience." — Angela Schwindt

16. "There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child." — Henry Ward Beecher

17. "The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." — Honore de Balzac

18. "A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother’s goodness deeper than the sea." — Japanese Proverb

19. "Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents." — Abraham Lincoln

20. "Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws." — Barbara Kingsolver

21. "Children learn more from what you are than what you teach." — W.E.B. DuBois

22. "Being a parent means loving your children more than you’ve ever loved yourself." — Unknown

23. "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." — Emilie Buchwald

24. "The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories." — Og Mandino

25. "Parenthood: the scariest hood you’ll ever go through." — Unknown

26. "A mother understands what a child does not say." — Jewish Proverb

27. "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

28. "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings." — Hodding Carter Jr.

29. "The trouble with learning to parent on the job is that your child is the teacher." — Robert Brault

30. "Parenting is not for the faint of heart." — Jennifer Aniston

31. "Children spell love T-I-M-E." — Dr. A. Witham

32. "The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day." — O. A. Battista

33. "No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you." — Marisa de los Santos

34. "There’s no blueprint for parenting. Every child is different." — Unknown

35. "Being a parent is discovering strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed." — Linda Wooten

36. "You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." — Franklin P. Jones

37. "Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life." — Sophocles

38. "It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too." — Joyce Maynard

39. "The greatest gift you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." — Denis Waitley

40. "Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare." — Ed Asner

41. "A child is a curly dimpled lunatic." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

42. "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." — Lady Bird Johnson

43. "What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all." — Benjamin Spock

44. "It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world less cruel and heartless." — L.R. Knost

45. "If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them and half as much money." — Abigail Van Buren

46. "The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." — Denis Waitley

47. "Hugs can do great amounts of good — especially for children." — Princess Diana

48. "Parenting is the greatest act of optimism." — Frank Pittman

49. "A baby is something you carry inside you for nine months, in your arms for three years and in your heart till the day you die." — Mary Mason

50. "Motherhood: All love begins and ends there." — Robert Browning

51. "Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see." — John F. Kennedy

52. "There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in." — Graham Greene

53. "Parenting is about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last." — Peter Krause

54. "The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children." — Elaine Heffner

55. "Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence." — Plato

56. "There is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood." — M. Russell Ballard

57. "The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation." — James E. Faust

58. "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." — Dr. Seuss

59. "A parent’s love is whole no matter how many times divided." — Robert Brault

60. "We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves." — Henry Ward Beecher

61. "The soul is healed by being with children." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

62. "There are hard days in motherhood. But looking at your sleeping baby reminds you why it’s all worth it." — Kara Ferwerda

63. "Before I got married, I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories." — John Wilmot

64. "Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had." — Linda Wooten

65. "A child is a beam of sunlight from the Infinite and Eternal." — Khalil Gibran

Conclusion

Parenting may not come with a manual, but words of encouragement and inspiration can provide comfort, clarity, and a sense of community. These 65 quotes remind us that although the road can be winding and uncertain, it is also filled with beauty, growth, and love. Whenever you need a moment of reflection or strength, return to these words and remember: you're not alone, and every day you're making a difference in your child’s life.