Being a parent is the best thing in the world, but it’s not without its challenges and bad days. Everyone needs some words of inspiration and encouragement, and we as parents are no different. Fortunately, there are plenty of words of wisdom and quotes for parents out there that can really give you an extra boost. The best parent quotes are ones that inspire us, encourage us, and make us laugh! Here I’ve included over 70 of the best parent quotes. Including inspirational parenting quotes for hard times, parent to be quotes, quotes about parenting and more!
Even great parents need support from time to time and guidance to help see them through the rough challenges of parenting. An inspirational parenting quote can really help during those hard days and in the trenches moments of parenting, like when you’re running on sleep deprivation or worrying that you’re little humans are taking over. Of course, our own children bring such joy to our lives and being a parent is, for many, the greatest gift but that doesn’t mean that you’re not still a human being and sometimes may need some positive parenting quotes or funny parenting quotes to remind you that you aren’t alone!
Whether you’re a new parent or a seasoned veteran of parenthood, we all have our struggles and doubts. There are times when we may seem lost or worried that we may fail. Some of us may deal with Mom Guilt or feel like we’re yelling all the time.
This list of inspirational quotes is here to both comfort and instruct those in the different stages of parenthood. If you’re going through a hard time as a parent or even if you’re just having an off day, sometimes the best way to cheer up is with a little bit of encouragement or a word of affirmation! We spent so much time pouring into our babies and good parenting isn’t always about having a higher standard of perfection – sometimes our highest aspiration is just making it through the day and being the best kind of parent we can be without getting near enough sleep 😉
Read on to pick up some of the best parenting quotes you may want to implement into your life as well as some inspirational parenting quotes about having children (or great parenting advice for before you have children too!). Some of these are funny quotes, some are just good advice, but all of them are sure to put a smile on your face!
Best Parent Quotes – Parenting Quotes for Hard Times
These are some of the best quotes about parents. Sometimes parents need a little encouragement from their kids and others. And it’s important to remember to keep a check on our own mental health throughout our parenting journey. I love that so many of these inspiring parenting quotes aren’t just about fluff stuff or focused on the fact that children need love from parents but are also realistic in the hard times parenting can bring and how difficult times and bring about inspiring parenting moments for us all. Remember – you are a person not “just a parent”!
These quotes will hopefully offer that encouragement in times of need:
“One of the greatest titles in the world is ‘parent,’ and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.” – Jim DeMint
“The most valuable investment we can make is in our children’s education. When we make education a priority, we give our children opportunity. Opportunity to learn at higher levels than their parents were able to learn; to earn at higher levels than we were able to earn.” – Martin O’Malley
“Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent.” – Bob Keeshan
“Children learn to smile from their parents.” – Shinichi Suzuki
“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” – Carl Jung
“Parents must lead by example. Don’t use the cliche; do as I say and not as I do. We are our children’s first and most important role models.” – Lee Haney
“A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain. A mother’s goodness is deeper than the sea.” – Japanese proverb
“A mother’s love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking. It never fails or falters even though the heart is breaking.” – Helen Rice
“Love your parents and treat them with loving care. For you will only know their value when you see their empty chair.” – Anonymous
“Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.” – Matthew Jacobson
“No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.” – Edwin Hubbell Chapin
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulghum
“When I’m with my parents, that’s the place I can unplug. That’s the place I can shut down and not worry about work or what’s going on. I go home and hang out with them. I sleep more there than any place else ever.” – Carrie Underwood
“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.” – Honore de Balzac
“Encourage and support your kids because children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” – Lady Bird Johnson
“My biggest parenting conundrum: why it is so hard to put someone who is already sleepy to sleep.” – Chrissy Teigen
“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
“I don’t have any romantic views of parenting. Every step of the way it’s really hard. It’s a dangerous world, physically and psychologically.” – Anne Lamott
“Parents. They didn’t leave you when you were young. So don’t leave them when they are old.” – Anonymous
“We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“Motherhood has completely changed me. It’s just about the most completely humbling experience that I’ve ever had. I think that it puts you in your place because it really forces you to address the issues that you claim to believe in and if you can’t stand up to those principles when you’re raising a child, forget it.” – Diane Keaton
“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
“I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you’ll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn’t.” – Mitch Albom
“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” – Barbara Johnson
These parents quotes aren’t just for mom and dad. With insight and levity, they can also help children, especially young people entering adulthood, inspire and understand their parents at once.
Best Parent to be Quotes
Becoming a new parent can seem like a daunting challenge for many. New parents also need words of inspiration and guidance to help them find the right paths as loving parents. Inspirational parenting quotes can offer words of wisdom as you begin your parenting journey! I love quotes that offer wisdom in children happy advice as well as hit on the loneliness that parenting can sometimes bring about – it can feel like you’re never having anyone who understands you and these love quotes remind us we aren’t the only ones who sometimes worry or struggle in the bigness of parenting.
If you are a new parent seeking a good quote, these will work best:
“A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for.” – Anonymous
“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.” – Leo J. Burke
“A perfect example of minority rule is a baby in the house.” – Milwaukee Journal
“A baby fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty.” – Anonymous
“If your baby is beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time – you’re the grandma.” – Theresa Bloomingdale
“Having kids made me clearer about who I was as a woman” – Reese Witherspoon
“Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can’t poke enough holes in it to make it dry.” – Alvin Price
“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
“It is easier to build stronger children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass
“Babies are always a lot more trouble than you thought – and more wonderful.” – Charles Osgood
“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone” – Billy Graham
“Perhaps it takes courage to raise children.” – John Steinbeck
“If you can’t take a joke, don’t have children.” – Anonymous
“Your children need your presence more than your presents.” – Jesse Jackson
“It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.” – Roald Dahl
“What good mothers and fathers feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.” – Benjamin Spock
“Having children is like living in a frat house – nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.” – Ray Romano
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” – James Baldwin
“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” – Elizabeth Stone
“Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.” – Harold Hulbert
“Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.” – Thomas S. Monson
“Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world you had to earn it.” – Ann Brashares
“One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.” – Jane Goodall
“A parent’s love is whole no matter how many times divided.” – Robert Brault
“To be a good parent, you need to take care of yourself so that you can have the physical and emotional energy to take care of your family.” – Michelle Obama
“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 a little less cruel and heartless.” – L.R. Knost
“Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.” – Barbara Walters
New parents need words of inspiration. These quotes are great for new parents, showing that even though tough, raising children is rewarding and brings great purpose with it.
Best Quotes About Parenting
There are many parents who need guidance and inspiration in their parenting. Parenting can be tough and seem daunting.
These parent quotes should help parents in their quest to find the best ways to be a parent:
“Parental love is the only love that is truly selfless, unconditional and forgiving.” – T.P. Chia
“We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“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
“Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
“There is no such thing as a perfect parent, so just be a real one.” – Sue Atkins
“Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget you already have one.” – Glennon Melton
“Having a child is like getting a tattoo on your face. You better be committed.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so someone in the house is happy to see you.” – Nora Ephron
“It’s not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns into compassion and understanding.” – Erma Bombeck
“Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.” – Abraham Lincoln
“My favorite thing about being a mom is just what a better person it makes you on a daily basis.” – Drew Barrymore
“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have for instance.” – Franklin P. Adams
“If you’ve never been hated by your child, you’ve never been a parent.” – Bette Davis
“I came to parenting the way most of us do – knowing nothing and trying to learn everything.” – Mayim Bialik
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill
“The thing about parenting rules is there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult.” – Ewan McGregor
“Mother nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers.” – William Galvin
“Your children are not just your children, they come through you, but they are life itself, wanting to express itself.” – Wayne Dyer
“Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver
“Kids should understand that naptime is more for the parents than it is for them.” – Anonymous
“Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.” – Jodi Picoult
“Your goal in disciplining your child is actually to help him develop self-discipline, meaning to assume responsibility for his actions, whether the authority figure is present or not.” – Dr. Laura Markham
“Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth.” – Peter Ustinov
“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
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou
“A man should never neglect his family for business.” – Walt Disney
Quotes for Parents: Final Thoughts
Many parents seek to find the perfect techniques to raise children. However, at the end of the day, we as parents know that there is no “perfect” way to be a parent, though being good parents is a constant effort of trying. The important thing is to keep trying and learning every day of our lives, and trust me – it’s an ongoing learning process!
But words of encouragement and inspiration can really help you, especially, when times get hard, so I like how so many of these parent quotes give both advice and a new perspective that could be helpful to you on your journey of parenthood! As a mama myself parent quotes are most often my favorite quotes.
Are there any quotes for parents that you live by that weren’t on this list? Share them in the comments!