Motherhood Parenting Quotes

“I hope you never seek validation from others in any aspect of your life

I hope you are confident in your desires and remain true to your personal passions

I hope you cling to wonder and curiosity

I hope you recognize your power to manifest an intentional and tranquil life

I hope you are capable of being happy for others

I hope you understand that gratification is fleeting, as is every emotion and moment

I hope you find peace in simplicity

I hope you transform this world, but do not become lost in the trend”
― Rosalie Bardo

“Apparently, as long as I continue to feed my children, there’s nothing wrong with me. A functional mom is one who can change a diaper and remember bedtimes. I’m not falling apart, so I’m fine.”
― Eda J. Vor, Fully Functioning: a postpartum descent into obsessive fangirling

“One of the most astonishing and precious things about motherhood," writes Kathleen Norris, "is the brave way in which women consent to give birth to creatures who will one day die."

I am not so brave. Far more frightening to me than the threat of interrupted plans or endless to-do lists is the thread of loving someone as intensely as a mother loves her child. To invite in to the universe a new life, knowing full well that no one can protect thatl ife from the currents of evil that pulse through our world and through our very bloodstreams, seems a grave and awesome task that is at once unspeakably selfish and miraculously good. I am frightened enough by how fervently I love Dan, by my absolute revolt against the possibility -- no, the inevitable reality -- that he will get hurt, that he will experience loss, and that one day he will die. I'm not sure my heart is big enough to wrap itself around another breakable soul.

I was once waiting in an airport next to a woman whose six-year-old daughter suffered from a rare heart defect that could take her life at any moment. In spite of mounting medical bills and the pressures of raising both a child with special needs and another younger daughter, the woman said she and her husband planned to adopt a boy from Ethiopia later that year.

"What made you want to grow your family in the midst of all this turmoil?" I asked.

"Why did the Jews have children after the Holocaust?" she asked back. "Why do women keep trying after multiple miscarraiges? It's our way of shaking our fists at the future and saying, you know what?--we will be hopeful; things will get better; you can't scare us after all. Having children is, ultimately, an act of faith.”
― Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood

“If someone loves your child even when he's being unlikable, that person becomes your hero.”
― Rica Keenum, Petals of Rain: a Mother's Memoir

“A mother is someone who devotes her life to care for a child, whom she gave birth or not.”
― Chantelle Lambert, Life as a Mother: From the Diamonds to the Dirt of Motherhood

“Something untoward was happening to middle-class American women, an undercurrent of i change was seeping through heir ideas about duties and obligations as mothers, eroding their desire to conform to madonna-like models of unconditional devotion to the young child to adapt a more managerial concept of mother as coordinator and motivator of her child's activities and interests.”
― Nancy Rubin Stuart, Mother Mirror: How a Generation of Women Is Changing Motherhood in America

“I'm mother to a 20-year-old and I think that the best warning I can give other mothers out there, is to stop expecting and encouraging your child /children to have, or to find, partners that fill-in the missing links for you; that finish your job as a mother for you. It's lazy and selfish. I don't expect my son to ever be with someone who mothers him, treats him like an infant, coddles him, or tries to draw him closer to God. I do not expect my son to find a partner who does my jobs for me. My jobs are mine. My son ought to find a real partner, an equal, an exciting companion to spend his days with. Not a pseudo-mom or an auntie. Please stop expecting that for your children; it's narcissistic and it robs them of a well-lived experience of life.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Being a mother is the hardest thing I've ever done, but loving my child is the easiest thing I've ever done.”
― Randi Latzman, From the Heart of a Mother: Poetry and Words of Inspiration for All Stages of Motherhood