121 Best And Inspirational Parenting Quotes Of All Time

Parenting is one of the most rewarding and challenging responsibilities. It’s a long journey that requires courage, determination, and patience. Parenting quotes often serve as a guide for new parents to raise their children to be empathetic and sensible individuals. These inspirational quotes also give you insight into what it means to be a parent and how your actions can affect your child. In this post, we have combined several quotes on parenthood that will inspire you to be a great parent.

In This Article

Inspirational Parenting Quotes

These quotes on parents will reassure you that you are on the right path.

  1. “Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, every movement, and action affects. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than a parent.” – Bob Keeshan

  1. “One of the greatest titles in the world is a parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad.” – Jim DeMint
  1. “Parenting is the biggest sacrifice one can make. It’s putting your life on hold to fulfill the promise of your children’s tomorrow.”
  1. “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.” -Hodding Carter
  1. “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
  1. “To be a good father and mother requires that the parents defer many of their own needs and desires in favor of the needs of their children. As a consequence of this sacrifice, conscientious parents develop a nobility of character and learn to put into practice the selfless truths taught by the Savior Himself.”- James E. Faust
  1. “There’s nothing called a perfect parent, so just be a real one.”- Sue Atkins
  1. “The children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.” – Whitney Houston
  1. “A father’s goodness is higher than the mountain, a mother’s goodness deeper than the sea.”- Japanese proverb

  1. “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
  1. “Your children need your presence more than your presents.”- Jesse Jackson
  1. “Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth.”- Virginia Satir
  1. “If you have never been hated by your child, you’ve never been a parent.” – Bette Davis
  1. “Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.” – Harold Hubert
  1. “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.”
  1. “Be the parent today that you want your kids to remember tomorrow.”
  1. “Children learn more from what you are than what you teach them.”- WEB DuBois
  1. “The thing about parenting rules is there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult.” —Ewan McGregor

  1. “When you look at your life, the greatest happiness is family happiness.”- Joyce Brothers
  1. “Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.”- Abraham Lincoln
  1. “Praise your children openly, reprehend them secretly.”- W Cecil
  1. “If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent, and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.”- Brian Tracy

protip_icon Quick tip
Share these inspiring quotes with a new parent or someone who is expecting a baby. This will help them understand their responsibilities better and prepare for parenthood.

Quotes on Parenting Love and Care

A parent’s love comes in its purest form. It is everlasting and unconditional. Have a look at these parents quotes about love and care.

  1. “Parental love is the only love that is truly selfless, unconditional and forgiving.” – Dr. TP Chia
  1. “A parent’s love is made of deep devotion, sacrifice, and pain; It is endless and unselfish, and enduring come what may.”
  1. “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
  1. “Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world you had to earn it.”- Ann Brashares
  1. “When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on this earth.”- Mitch Albom

  1. “A parent’s love is whole no matter how many times divided.”- Robert Brault
  1. “Love is giving your kids your undivided attention and time.”- Kevin Heath
  1. “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
  1. “There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.”-Henry Ward Beecher
  1. “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
  1. “A mother is a person who is seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”-Tenneva Jordan
  1. “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”- Honore de Balzac
  1. “The most beautiful thing in the world is to see your children smiling and knowing that you’re the reason behind their smile.”
  1. “Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired; it need not be deserved.”-Erich Fromm

  1. “Love as powerful as your mother’s for you, leaves its own mark to have been loved so deeply .. will give us some protection forever.”-J.K. Rowling
  1. “There really are places in the heart you don’t even know exist until you love a child.”-Anne Lamott
  1. ”Always kiss your children goodnight – even if they’re already asleep.”-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
  1. “You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.” -Barbara Bush
  1. “A mother understands what a child does not say.” -Jewish proverb
  1. “Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you’re telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much.”-Bill Cosby
  1. “Parents hold their children’s hands for just a little while, but their hearts forever.”
  1. “First your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life.” ― Chuck Palahniuk

  1. “Parents aren’t the people you come from. They’re the people you want to be when you grow up.” ― Jodie Picoult
  1. “A good father is a source of inspiration and self-restraint. A good mother is the root of kindness and humbleness.” – Dr. TP Chia
  1. “Parents are the greatest gifts for children to help them find their talents.”
  1. “Our parent’s prayer is the most beautiful poetry and expectations.”– Aditia Rinaldi
  1. “In the happiest of our childhood memories, our parents were happy, too.”– Robert Brault

Funny Parenting Quotes

Sometimes, the frustrations of parenting can actually make you funny. Here are some funny parenting quotes:

  1. “That’s what children are for—that their parents may not be bored.” ― Ivan Turgenev
  1. “My biggest parenting conundrum: why is it so hard to put someone who is already sleepy to sleep.” – Chrissy Teigen
  1. “Parents had some kind of sin radar. They always called when you were in the middle of something you just knew they’d consider wrong. Or at least risky.”― Rachel Caine
  1. “Having children is like living in a frat house- nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.”- Ray Romano

  1. “I thought I’d never be the annoying person, but as soon as Winnie was born, I was showing iPhone snaps to a cab driver.” – Jimmy Fallon
  1. “A 2-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don’t have a top for it.”- Jerry Seinfeld
  1. “My kid is turning out just like me. Well played, karma. Well played.”
  1. “Nobody is hungrier than the kid who has been told it’s time for bed.”
  1. “90% of parenting is about when you can lie down again.”
  1. “I love when my kids tell me they’re bored. As if the lady standing in front of a full sink of dirty dishes is where you go to get ideas about how to have a good time.”
  1. “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.”- Phyllis Diller
  1. “Not all who wander are lost. Some are just moms in target, hiding from their kids.”
  1. “The quickest way for a parent to get a child’s attention is to sit down and look comfortable.”- Lane Olinghouse
  1. “The easiest way to shop with kids is not to.”
  1. “The perfect time for kids to ask questions, need to go to the bathroom, request more food is bedtime.”
  1. “The only thing kids wear out faster than their shoes is their parents.”

  1. “I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.”
  1. “Having one child makes you a parent; having two makes you a referee.”
  1. “People who say they sleep like babies usually don’t have them.”
  1. “Toddlers should come with their own clean-up crew.”
protip_icon Quick tip
Share funny parenting quotes with new parents who are flabbergasted by their brand-new responsibilities and brighten up their day. You can also send a hand-written note along with some cupcakes to congratulate the new parents.

Positive Parenting Quotes

Positive parenting will help raise your child as a responsible and loving individual. It will also help them develop a positive outlook on life and live their best life.

  1. I wish children could grow according to their natural pace: sleep when sleepy, wake up when rested, eat when hungry, cry when upset, play and explore without being unnecessarily interrupted; in other words, be allowed to grow and blossom as each was meant to. -Magda Gerber
  1. It’s not only children who grow. Parents do, too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself. -Joyce Maynard
  1. I’m always amazed when adults say that children “just did that to get attention”. Naturally, children who need attention will do all kinds of things to get it. Why not just give it to them? -Lawrence J Cohen
  1. Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow. -Thomas Bray
  1. If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. -Ignacio Estrada
  1. The point of parenting isn’t to have all the answers before we start out but instead to figure it out on the go as our children grow, because as they do, so will we. -Bridgett Miller
  1. If your children fear you, they cannot trust you. If they don’t trust you, they cannot learn from you. -Lori Petro
  1. A child seldom needs a good talking to as much as a good listening to. -Robert Brault
  1. Feeling heard and understood allows children to release their feelings, let go and move on. -Janet Lansbury
  1. Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first. -Mathew L Jacobson
  1. 112. If your children fear you, they cannot trust you. If they don’t trust you, they cannot learn from you. -Lori Petro
  1. Children do well if they can, if they can’t we need to figure out why so we can help. -Ross Greene
  1. You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else. -Amanda Morgan
  1. Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them, all of it has always been big stuff. -Catherine M Wallace
  1. Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously. -Alfie Kohn
  1. There are times as a parent when you realize that your job is not to be the parent you always imagined you’d be, the parent you always wished you had. Your job is to be the parent your child needs, given the particulars of his or her own life and nature. -Ayelet Waldman
  1. Gentle parenting doesn’t involve instantaneous results but naturally achieved, life-long lasting results. -Kirsty Lee
  1. You can’t teach children to behave better by making them feel worse. When children feel better, they behave better. -Pam Leo
  1. It’s time we stop buying the lie that we need to be hard on kids because “the world is hard”. Love them as hard as you can. That’s what they need. -Tara Vogler
  1. My message is very simple. Love your kids. Just love them. Love, appreciate, show that you value them, remind them of their greatness, encourage them, respect, honor, trust, and treat them with dignity. -Eric D Greene

Parent-Child Relationship Quotes

There is no relationship on earth as safe, selfless, and limitless as a parent-child’s. These wise words celebrate the same.

  1. “Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.”- Plato
  1. “Children learn to smile from their parents.”- Shinichi Suzuki
  1. “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
  1. “The parenting journey holds the potential to be a spiritually regenerative experience for both the parent and the child, where every moment is a meeting of spirits. And both parent and child appreciate that each dances on a spiritual path that’s unique, holding hands and yet alone”. – Dr. Shefali Tsabary

  1. “I got a lot of support from my parents. That’s the one thing I always appreciated. They didn’t tell me I was being stupid; they told me I was being funny.” – Jim Carrey
  1. “The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.”- Frank A. Clark
  1. “He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”-Bible
  1. “Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”-Charles R. Swindoll
  1. “There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.”
  1. “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
  1. “It is better to bind your children to you by a feeling of respect and by gentleness than by fear.”-Terence
  1. “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


  1. “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother.”- Abraham Lincoln
  1. “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”- Theodore Hesburgh
  1. “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulghum
  1. “Children are just different from one another, especially in temperament. Some are shy, others bold; some active, some quiet; some confident, others less so. Respect for individual differences is in my view the cornerstone of good parent-child relationships.”- Sandra Scarr
  1.  “Romance fails us, and so do friendships, but the relationship of a parent and child, less noisy than all the others, remains indelible and indestructible, the strongest relationship on earth.”- Theodor Reik
  1. “”As a single mom, I’m juggling a lot and working long hours. Yes, it costs them a little, but what my children get in return is a mother who is energized and content.” — Edie Falco
  1. “The best way to advise your children is to find out what they want and then advice them to do it.”- Harry S. Truman
  1. “Children do learn what they live. Then they grow up to live what they’ve learned.”- Dorothy Nolte
  1. “The best kind of parent you can be is to lead by example.”- Drew Barrymore
  1. “There’s always the syndrome of the parent-child relationship: when someone has known you since you were very young, it doesn’t matter how much more independent, how much older or more mature you get – there is still that element, the dynamic of the relationship that is very hard to transform successfully.” – Helene Grimaud

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do parenting quotes remind the importance of cherishing our time with our children?

Parenting quotes can be powerful reminders of cherishing the time and family values with your children. They can help you to appreciate the moments you have with your children and remind you that childhood is fleeting and soon they’ll become teens and adults.

2. How can parenting quotes guide and support parents struggling to navigate the complexities of raising a child?

Many parenting quotes can help you find inspiration and encouragement amidst all your struggles while child rearing. These quotes can assure you that it is just a passing phase of your child’s growth and encourage you to enjoy these times with your child positively.

3. How can a quote about parenting help me to be a better parent?

Different parenting quotes depict various aspects and themes of a parent-child relationship and other parenting aspects. These may include encouragement and support during the parenting journey, ways to handle pressure with a stubborn child, and different approaches you can try when raising a child. Therefore, parenting wisdom can help you become a better parent by providing encouragement and positive aspects of parenting.

The bond between parents and children is one of unconditional love. Parents are the first teachers and role models for their children. However, this great relationship needs to be nurtured like a plant in a garden to make it grow into a strong and beautiful tree. While parents do their best to bring up their children, their roles need to be expressed and appreciated on different occasions or every day through words. These heartfelt quotes for parents are sure to describe their journey and make all their efforts special. You can also use one of these quotes as a caption for parents’ photos shared on social media.

Infographic: Motivational Parenting Quotes

Whoever said parenting is easy must have come from Pluto. It is in equal parts challenging and rewarding, and a little motivation to keep you going wouldn’t hurt. Keeping this infographic on inspirational parenting quotes may help you enjoy this roller coaster ride with your children.

101 best and inspirational parenting quotes of all time (infographic)

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Get the high-quality PDF version of this infographic.

Download Infographic in PDF version

Key Pointers

  • Writing your favorite quotes can be a good reminder of the kind of parent you aspire to be.
  • When parenting gets tough, inspirational quotes can be a friendly voice to cheer you and help you stay motivated.
  • Parents may try to explore quotes from various sources like books, movies, and speeches as they offer fresh perspectives that can bring new insights to their parenting journey.

parenting quotes_illustration

Image: Stable Diffusion/MomJunction Design Team


The importance of parenting is sometimes overlooked. Reflect upon the unconditional and selfless love provided by the parents, as mentioned in this video, to understand their sacrifices.

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