100 Parenting Quotes To Encourage And Inspire You

Here are 100 of the most inspiring parenting quotes I could find.

The goal?

To encourage you and help you raise wise, loving, and happy kids.

You’ll discover quotes by Fred Rogers, Jordan Peterson, Dalai Lama, and more.

Enjoy!

We have to prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child. Tim Elmore

When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son. The Talmud

To be a parent is to be chief designer of a product more advanced than any technology and more interesting than the greatest work of art. Alain de Botton

Evidence of good parenting: the child has no desire to be famous. Alain de Botton

Your children need your presence more than your presents. Jesse Jackson

My goal is not to be liked, it’s to raise loving and responsible kids. Maxime Lagacé

A lot of parents will do anything for their kids, except let them be themselves. Banksy

I don’t think anyone can grow unless he’s loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be. Fred Rogers

Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy. Robert A. Heinlein

Your children will reap what you sow. Virgil

Instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach them all the things you were never taught. Material wears out but knowledge stays. Bruce Lee

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. Franklin D. Roosevelt

A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take. Cardinal Meymillod

Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett

It is a wise father that knows his own child. William Shakespeare

Related

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The Best Parenting Quotes

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Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. Maria Montessori

We’re a nation of exhausted and overstressed adults raising overscheduled children. Brené Brown

Question for parents: do you want to make your children safe, or strong? Jordan Peterson (12 Rules for Life, Amazon book)

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be. Frank A. Clark

My understanding of the way a child grows is that you create the garden, you don’t grow the flower. You can merely fertilize the earth and keep it soft and moist, and then the flower grows as best it can. Ram Dass

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children. Sam Levenson

Every child should be taught that life is unfair so that we don’t end up with a bunch of adults who act like the world owes them something. Preethi Kasireddy

The task isn’t to tell children that they are amazing, it’s to model for them how one might live a very decent, self-accepting, humour filled and confident life knowing one isn’t anything of the sort – but fortunately, no one else is either. Alain de Botton (Related: How to Lend a Child Confidence, theschooloflife.com)

The task of a parent: to acclimatise the child to the true (often horrific) nature of reality without it giving up hope or the will to live. Alain de Botton

Tell kids stories about your failures. Tim Elmore

The best way, perhaps the only way, to change others is to become an example. Naval Ravikant

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

The experience of raising young children – when they’re happy, you’re happy. Naval Ravikant

True, unconditional, love is the province of parents and saints. Naval Ravikant

You can’t be wrong if you teach your kids playing, creating, listening, but most of all, loving. Maxime Lagacé

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. James Baldwin

You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once. Polish proverb

Love is at the root of everything. All learning. All parenting. All relationships. Love, or the lack of it. Fred Rogers

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. Fred Rogers

6-year-olds should play outside and ask questions, not sit on a chair and memorize answers. Johnny Uzan

The best way of killing a rose is to force it open when it is still only the promise of a bud. José Saramago (The Cave)

You’re only as happy as your unhappiest child. Andrew Rae

Parenting is not just raising children — it’s the sacred task of preparing them for the chaos they will inevitably encounter throughout their life. Jordan Peterson

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. Albert Einstein

Every father should remember one day his son will follow his example, not his advice. Charles Kettering

Children are a poor man’s riches. English proverb

Part 2. Parenting Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Parenting Quotes

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Searching for a famous parenting quote or author? Check out those by Anne Frank, Dalai Lama, Victor Hugo, Michelle Obama, etc.

At the end of the day my most important job is still mom-in-chief. Michelle Obama

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. Victor Hugo

Spend more time smiling than frowning and more time praising than criticizing. Richard Branson (Virgin)

Your child will learn more from your beautiful thinking, talking and behaviour than anything else in the world. Yoko Ono

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. Maya Angelou

Use your success, wealth and influence to put them in the best position to realize their own dreams and find their true purpose. Put them through school, set them up with job interviews and help them become leaders in their own right. Hold them to the same level of hard work and dedication that it took for you to get to where you are now, and where you will eventually go. Kobe Bryant

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

I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure: If they don’t make up their minds, someone will do it for them. Eleanor Roosevelt

I wish with all my heart that every child could be so imbued with a sense of the adventure of life that each change, each readjustment, each surprise – good or bad – that came along would be welcomed as part of the whole enthralling experience. Eleanor Roosevelt

When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value. Thomas Edison

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. Chinese proverb

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet)

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

Modern education is premised strongly on materialistic values. It is vital that when educating our children’s brains that we do not neglect to educate their hearts, a key element of which has to be the nurturing of our compassionate nature. 14th Dalai Lama

More kids are ruined by the behavior of their parents than by the amount they inherit. Children learn from your actions. Warren Buffett

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglas

We must do everything in our power to cease the behaviour that makes children everywhere feel afraid. Alice Walker

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. Friedrich Nietzsche (The Dawn)

I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection. Sigmund Freud

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

Do I want to be a hero to my son? No, I would like to be a very real human being. That’s hard enough. Robert Downey Jr

If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent. Bette Davis

Short Parenting Quotes

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One-liners, short parenting quotes, sayings, thoughts, and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, and backgrounds.

Let kids be kids. David Perell

Encourage talking. David Perell

Kids spell love T-I-M-E. John Crudele

Everything depends on upbringing. Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace)

Teach your kids that talent doesn’t exist and that people who persevere are the wise ones. Maxime Lagacé

Noble fathers have noble children. Euripides

Their lives should be good, not easy. @DailyDadEmail

Strengthen a parent and you strengthen a child. Fred Rogers

A parents words become the children’s thoughts. Bill Masur

Children empty our pockets and fill our souls. Tim Fargo

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. George Herbert

A boy needs a father to show him how to be in the world. Ian Morgan Cron

Parenting is hard. You did, and are still doing, a great job. Becky Kennedy

Most parents : “Be safe”. Wise parents : “Become strong”. Fateh Singh

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

There are not perfect parents just as there are no perfect children. Fred Rogers

How do you celebrate your kids’ failures? Maxime Lagacé

The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering. Benjamin Spock

No amount of money will buy back missed time with your kids. Save Your Sons (Source)

Your kids are wildflowers. Give them the right environment. Maxime Lagacé

My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it. Clarence Budington Kelland

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

The love you give your kids will travel several generations into the future. Thibaut

Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors. Khaled Hosseini

Helpful Parenting Sayings (Tips For Parents)

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High standards, consistency, but most importantly, unconditional love, is what will help you raise good kids. Maxime Lagacé

You really have to be yourself. The best thing that you can do, for anybody, is just to offer one more honest adult in their lives. Fred Rogers

Letting your kid be bored isn’t lazy – it’s one of the best things you can do as a parent. Becky Kennedy

Stop telling children what to think and start teaching them how to think. Anthony Pompliano

Make your kids think otherwise society will do it for them. Maxime Lagacé

We need adults who are willing to guide children, and guard them against their worst impulses. Who are authoritative not because they want children to fear them but because they have faith in them, in who they could become. We need adults who act like adults. It’s the least children are owed. Freya India

Snowplow parents prepare the road for kids. Responsible parents prepare kids for the road. Resilience is built not by eliminating struggle, but by normalizing it. Teach kids to see obstacles as temporary hurdles. Adam Grant

Parents focus too much on grades and goals, and too little on generosity. Kids raised to be kind are more successful in school and work — and happier too. At family dinner, don’t just ask kids what they achieved. Ask who they helped and who helped them. Adam Grant

These six words can save your child so much unnecessary pain: “I love you as you are”. Scott Barry Kaufman

Teach your kids about money before they’re old enough to earn their own. Morgan Housel

There’s someone around you who looks up to you. They may be struggling, full of doubt or afraid. You can change their life with four words. “I believe in you”. Said at the right time, those are the most powerful words in the world. Johnny Uzan

If you want to inhibit kids’ growth, keep telling them they are smart. If you want to give compliments and nurture growth, praise their curiosity and efforts. Unknown

Best parenting advice I can give: Get your own sh*t together so you pass on as little of your own baggage as possible. The less weight your kids start with the more opportunities they’ll have. Mark Allan Bovair

Kids will follow your example. Not your advice. Don’t just tell them to: do more physical activity, eat healthier food, get outside more, do the right thing, be kind to others, read books. Make sure you are doing these things so your kids will follow. Lead by example. Jack Coulson

Being in shape is one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever give your children. Dan Go

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Related: Positive Parenting Tips (Organized by age, cdc.gov)

Conclusion

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Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service. Fred Rogers

Your parents miss you and wish you’d call. Later you’ll miss them and wish you could. Paul Graham

Key Takeaways

• The true present is your whole presence
• Help your kids by not helping them too much
• Your kids are wildflowers, not bonsai trees: let them play, let them make mistakes, and let them grow as they are
• Great mindsets to teach:
  • Perseverance is more important than talent
  • Humility is beautiful
  • Failing is useful
• Best parenting style? Authoritative Parenting (In other words, “be firm, but warm”)

Further Readings

• Topic: Relationships
• 139 Relationship Quotes To Level Up Your Bonding With Others
• 100 Respect Quotes To Create More Unity In The World
• 83 Listening Quotes To Help You Be A Better Listener
• Guide to Parenting (psychologytoday.com)
• How to Be a Modern Parent (nytimes.com)
• 100 Trust Quotes To Bring More Certainty (In Life and Work)
• 70 Kindness Quotes To Make The World Better
• 62 Tolerance Quotes To Inspire Harmony

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful parenting quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

Do you consider yourself a good parent? What’s your favorite parenting quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.