By Nicol Natale, Woman's Day
If parenting came with a guidebook that everyone followed perfectly, what childhood stories would you and your family laugh about at Sunday night dinner? Sure, you can prepare by reading the latest parenting books, but raising kids is a learn-as-you-go process that differs from family to family. Here are hilarious and inspirational parenting quotes that show exactly what life with kids is really like.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr
"Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they're already asleep."
Sue Atkins
"There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one."
Gena Lee Nolin
“My children are the reason I laugh, smile, and want to get up every morning."
Elizabeth Gilbert
"Having a child is like getting a tattoo ... on your face. You better be committed."
Anne Lamott
"There really are places in the heart you don't even know exist until you love a child."
Nora Ephron
“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”
Bill Ayers
"Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them."
Franklin P. Adams
"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance."
Ray Romano
"Having children is like living in a frat house - nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up."
Henry Ward Beecher
"We never know the love of the parent till we become parents ourselves."
Jill Churchill
"There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."
Ewan McGregor
"The thing about parenting rules is there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future."
Alyson Hannigan
"Why don’t kids understand their nap is not for them, but for us?"
Carrie Underwood
"It just occurred to me that the majority of my diet is made up of the foods that my kid didn’t finish."
Barbara Kingsolver
"Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws."
William Galvin
"Mother Nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love a love for our children before turning them into teenagers."
Wayne Dyer
"Your children are not your children, they come through you, but they are life itself, wanting to express itself."
Ryan Reynolds
"On our 6 a.m. walk, my daughter asked where the moon goes each morning. I let her know it’s in heaven, visiting Daddy’s freedom."
Mitch Albom
"I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know."
