Many people long for a better world, but we can’t build it with just words and ideas. We need to do the hard work of raising our children and teaching them how to be decent human beings.
And that starts with setting an example as parents: learning from our mistakes, forgiving ourselves, staying positive even when life is tough.
Here are some inspiring quotes on positive parenting which will help you keep your head up through the toughest moments as a parent.
Our Favorite Positive Parenting Quotes
“When you’ve had one call after another and your little one is tugging on your shirt, remember what really matters. When the milk is splattered all over the floor and those little eyes are looking at you for your reaction, remember what really matters. It takes 5 minutes to clean up spilled milk; it takes much longer to clean up a broken spirit.”
― Rebecca Eanes, The Newbie’s Guide to Positive Parenting
Finding the balance between our responsibilities is one of the biggest parenting struggles. We don’t have all the answers. But we can choose how we handle the little things.
Teaching them that “spilled milk” happens, and it isn’t a big deal shows them love and compassion. It also helps them to understand when they’ve made a mistake and you need to address it.
They can learn from their mistakes with kindness and love, instead of fear and frustration.
Many times in life we all will slip and fall, but that doesn’t mean we give up. We get back up and do our best to pick ourselves back up
“There are many different ways of approaching parenting as there are cultures. However, in non-industrialized cultures, the similarities are also striking. Extended nursing, co-sleeping, carrying the baby in close physical contact, responding promptly to cries or distress, never leaving a baby alone, are all virtually universal in traditional societies that have not become overly “westernized”.
― Ingrid Bauer, Diaper Free: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene
This attachment parenting quote his hard for a lot of new mothers.
We are often given the advice to let them “cry it out” and “holding them too much will spoil them.”
But we can’t spoil babies with lots of love and meeting their essential needs.
“What would it be like to feel so attached, so intrinsically bonded, so protective of one’s own best connection with time and the ages, of generations past and future, of another human life, of their time?”
― J.R. Tompkins, Price of the Child
This beautiful quote points out that the emotions that we could provide as parents. That naturally children just want to feel love and connected. Imagine the future we could have if everyone felt this.
“The very matrix of our ability to love and bond in later life, maternal sensitivity – or lack thereof – also determines cultural tenor.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Mama: Love, Motherhood and Revolution
“Motherwhelm isn’t a problem, it’s a rite of passage. Once we recognize it as such and honor these intense times (and intense seasons of our lives) for the potential they have to help us get clear on what we want and what no longer serves us, we can use that intensity to our advantage. We can learn to direct our energy toward choices that create the connections, experiences, and ways of life we most deeply desire. We can learn to cultivate healthier, kinder relationships with ourselves and, in doing so, model healing and health and empowerment for generations to come.”
Beth Berry, Motherwhelmed
Beth Berry is the author of a Motherwhelmed. A book that shines light on why so many mothers feel overwhelmed in today’s society.
She has a beautiful perspective on what causes mother’s everywhere to feel so defeated on the messy frontier of modern motherhood and how they can take their power back.
“Tantrums are not bad behavior. Tantrums are an expression of emotion that became too much for the child to bear. No punishment is required. What your child needs is compassion and safe, loving arms to unload in.”
― Rebecca Eanes, The Newbie’s Guide to Positive Parenting
Parents are often conflicted about what to do when their child is having a tantrum or meltdown.
But truth is, tantrums are just a child’s way of expressing their intense emotions.
When you shift the perspective from “they’re manipulating you” to “they’re having a hard time” it makes dealing with temper tantrums so much easier.
“Do not berate, scold or criticize your child when they are sharing their heart and conscience.”
Asa Don Brown
“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway… let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.”
C. JoyBell C.
Allowing children to learn and explore on their own can give them tons of confidence. And exposing them to different lifestyles, norms and experiences will broaden their horizons and help them think outside the box.
“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
“Never attempt to cover true feelings. Don’t expect it from your children and don’t expect it from other adults. There are no right feelings and no wrong feelings. To be human, one must feel the full range of emotions, not just preferred ones, not just tolerated ones. Do not raise your children feeling like they need to fight for the freedom to feel.”
C. JoyBell C.
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
Benjamin Spock
This may be one of my favorite positive parenting quotes. As human beings are filled with self doubt, especially when it comes to parenting.
But if we tap into our inner instincts and listen to our hearts we will always make the right choices. We know our children and what they truly need.
We just have to listen.
“The child is born free of fear. But it is the feelings or actions of the parents, or those around, that instill the spirit of fear in the child.”
Mitta Xinindlu
“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
“In sum, secure attachment at all ages depends on the sensitivity of attachment figures. The results of intervention studies with infants, parents, and couples provide compelling evidence that sensitivity is a skill that can be taught and learned, and that can transform troubled relationships into well-functioning, satisfying ones.”
Christopher Peterson
Being present and involved while raising your child is the biggest gift you can give yourself and them. Children grow quickly.
Our time to have a positive impact on them is short. If you are struggling on your parenting journey, the first step is awareness and decision for change.
“Children are precious. When you love them, don’t love them as if their love lacks.
Love them as if their love is already full.
When you teach them, don’t teach them as if ignorance defines them. Teach them as if their soul is already full.”
Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
James Baldwin
“When my kids tell me “I can’t do this dad”, I smile and say it’s okay.
We sit down and we talk about it, I share some of my experiences with them and also let them know it’s okay to fail but it is not okay to give before you have tried.
One of the primary roles of a parent is to lend your kids some of your confidence enabling them to get their own.”
Sope Agbelusi
“Parenthood is a lesson on its own. But the best lessons in parenthood are from our children. Let’s cherish them, appreciate them, and recognize their special roles in our lives.”
Mitta Xinindlu
As parents we like to think we have it all understood by the time we have little ones. But on the contrary.
We are always learning from our children, our actions and our choices. We see the outcomes and realize where we are going right and where we are going wrong.
These are our lessons.
Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life and it’s like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.
Gary Smalley
Words of affirmation is like food to the soul. We could all use a daily dose of these words, especially as children. Eventually our voice helps mold their inner voice.
The depth of the love of parents for their children cannot be measured. It is like no other relationship. It exceeds concern for life itself. The love of a parent for a child is continuous and transcends heartbreak and disappointment.
James E. Faust
By loving them for more than their abilities we show our children that they are much more than the sum of their accomplishments.
Eileen Kennedy-Moore
“Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can’t poke enough holes to drain it dry”
Alvin Price
“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”
Richard L. Evans
Another one of my favorite parenting quotes. Many parents feel guilty for not being able to give their children all the possessions they might ask for or desire.
But truth is, they’ll hardly remember any of that stuff. What they will remember is how you felt for them and that you made them feel loved and cherished.
We must love them for themselves, and not for the best of ourselves in them, and that is a great deal harder to do. Loving our own children is an exercise for the imagination.
Andrew Solomon
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