Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death. Francis Bacon
Romance fails us and so do friendships, but the relationship of parent and child, less noisy than all others, remains indelible and indestructible, the strongest relationship on earth. Theodor Reik
What the mother sings in the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin. Henry Ward Beecher
A rich child often sits in a poor mothers lap. Unknown
Lucky that man, whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief the anguished disappointment of his hopes. Euripides
When a woman is twenty, a child deforms her; when she is thirty, he preserves her; and when forty, he makes her young again. Leon Blum
Our women’s bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are working-out of the process of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point. Phyllis Ginley
Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. Pearl S. Buck
You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s. He’s more particular. Robert Frost
In the mind of a woman, to give birth to a child is the short cut to omniscience. Gelett Burgess
A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children’s affection than the need they have of his assistance, if that can be called affection. Montaigne
One of the most visible effects of a child’s presence in the household is to turn the worthy parents into complete idiots when, without him, they would perhaps have remained mere imbeciles. Georges Courteline
There is not so much comfort in the having of children as there is sorrow in parting with them. Thomas Fuller
The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them. Bertrand Russell
Schoolmasters and parents exist to be grown out of. John Wolfendon
Memoirist Livia Bitton-Jackson recounts her ache for the maternal praise and affection enjoyed by her friends. Having voiced her sense of rejection, her mother replied with a smile, “I don’t believe in cuddling. Life is tough, and cuddling makes you soft. How will you face life’s difficulties if I keep cuddling you? You’re too sensitive as it is; if I would take you on my lap, you would never want to get off. You’d become as soft as butter, unable to stand up to life’s challenges.” Sadly, the author was not convinced by this explanation. She believed the lack of hugs and compliments was due to her mother’s finding her unappealing and plain. Source: I have lived a thousand years: growing up in the holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson
One of the most delightful anecdotes in Brian Jay Jones book: Jim Henson, The Biography, he recounts the way Henson dealt with his son, Brian. At five years old, Brian worked for a week on his father’s program, featuring the Muppet's. At the end of that week, Jim Henson presented his son with a check for $50, explaining that Brian had earned it. He then suggested they go to the bank, where he would set up an account, and begin earning interest. As a grown man, Brian reflects on this incident with pride in that his father had shown him the roots of both working and saving.
