Favorite Inspiring Quotes
Parenting
Commentary by Peter Shepherd

“The heart is to the body as the family is to the soul.” ~ Rick Beneteau
If I die tonight in my sleep: let me have hugged and told my children that I love them, and let me have told my partner how much s/he is loved and appreciated.
“I had no idea that mothering my own child would be so healing to my own sadness from my childhood.” ~ Susie Bright
When we finally have children of our own, we get to experience the problems involved in parenting, and how the child cannot perceive the responsibilities we have from our own point of view. What may seem to the child to be unfair or even cruel, we recognize to be in the child's best interest. I absolutely hated to go to school, I'd much rather have stayed at home, but whatever the weaknesses of the education I received, it was far better than none and now I am grateful that my parents insisted. Of course; but I didn't see it that way then.
“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.” ~ Barbara Bush
It's our loved ones that matter most in the world, so it's such a shame if we focus exclusively on work and neglect our home, especially if that is done to avoid taking responsibility for relationship problems within the family.
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
The child is an independent being, not only a genetic progeny. If the newly incarnated soul is recognized as such and supported by love, it will be more able to mindfully accomplish the purposes for which it joined the family.
“We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.” ~ Phyllis Diller
Children expect us to be what we say to them, to walk the talk. Eknath Easwaran said, "Those who have children can become masters of patience, endurance and steadfastness, because children will test you at every turn. The way to make our children patient and loving is to be that way ourselves, to set a good example."
