Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

Unhappy parents teach you a lesson that lasts a lifetime.

Wars are waged by people
who were parented by someone.
Crimes are committed by people
who were parented by someone.
Brutality is inflicted by people
who were parented by someone.
Nations are led by people
who were parented by someone.
Hope, help, and healing are all
shared by people who were
parented by someone.
We, the parents of today, are
that someone for our children,
and our children will one day be
that someone for their children.
We may not be able to eliminate
all war, end all crime, or stop all
brutality, but sowing peace,
kindness, compassion, and
empathy into our children
is the single most powerful
way we can each be someone who
changes the world for the better.

"The real questions for parents should be: "Are you engaged? Are you paying attention?" If so, plan to make lots of mistakes and bad decisions. Imperfect parenting moments turn into gifts as our children watch us try to figure out what went wrong and how we can do better next time. The mandate is not to be perfect and raise happy children. Perfection doesn't exist, and I've found what makes children happy doesn't always prepare them to be courageous, engaged adults."

Instead, parents just have to be good enough. They have to provide their kids with stable and predictable rhythms. They need to be able to fall in tune with their kids’ needs, combining warmth and discipline. They need to establish the secure emotional bonds that kids can fall back upon in the face of stress. They need to be there to provide living examples of how to cope with the problems of the world so that their children can develop unconscious models in their heads.

We're raising children who have little tolerance for disappointment

Then if children make so much trouble, why do people have 'em?

Everybody has it wrong way round. Parents don't make children — children make parents. They shape our behavior from the first wail. Mold us into what they need. It can be a pretty rough process, too

A boy, by the age of 3 years, senses that his destiny is to be a man, so he watches his father particularly-his interests, manner, speech, pleasures, his attitude toward work.

The fact is that child rearing is a long, hard job, the rewards are not always immediately obvious, the work is undervalued, and parents are just as human and almost as vulnerable as their children.

Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.

Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people.

Physical punishment teaches children that the larger, stronger person has the power to get his way, whether or not he is in the right, and they may resent this in the parent-for

The goal of parenting shouldn't be to prepare children to withstand the world, but to grow children who will change the world.

When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: A stodgy parent is not fun at all! What a child wants - and DESERVES - is a parent who is SPARKY!

If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture.

No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves.

"I feel that if you live life in pursuit of 'certification,' 'appreciation’, or ‘compensation' in any form from your parents, you're making a big mistake. The sooner you can say, “Okay, they're them and I'm me, and let's make the best of it," the better off you're going to be.
We could improve worldwide mental health if we acknowledged that parents can make you crazy.
I believe that, to a certain extent, kids get weird because their parents made them weird. Parents have more to do with making their children weird than TV or rock and roll records.
The only other thing that makes them weirder than TV and parents is religion and drugs.