46 Parenthood Quotes

Every time I decide I want a child I get another pet. I have 3 dogs, 13 birds and 3 horses, what does that tell you?

All the time a person is a child he is both a child and learning to be a parent. After he becomes a parent he becomes predominantly a parent reliving childhood.

Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.

We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.

In considering the ledger equal, understand the greatest gift you have given your parents is the opportunity to raise you. The things a child gets from parents can't compare to the things a parent gets from raising a child. Only by experiencing this can you understand the degree to which children give meaning to parents' lives.

The idea of bringing someone into the world fills me with horror. I would curse myself if I were a father. A son of mine! Oh no, no, no! May my entire flesh perish and may I transmit to no one the aggravations and the disgrace of existence.

Some men just aren't cut out for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son.

'I never thought I had to forge a family, but it felt the most natural thing that ever happened to me - meeting someone and becoming a father.'

I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me- I was a father.'

When our baby stirs and struggles to be born it compels humility: what we began is now its own.

It's... a transcendental act. Making life. I thought about that when I was carrying Miles. 'By this act, I bring one death into the world.' One birth, one death, and all the pain and acts of will between.

The other night I told my kid 'Someday, you'll have children of your own.' He said 'So will you.'

A lot of things were lucky,' said Daddy, and suddenly, while they were walking along, brought his hand down on John's shoulder and gave it a bit of a squeeze. 'You'll be a seaman yet, my son.' And John, for one dreadful moment, felt that something was going wrong with his eyes. A sort of wetness, and hotness... Partly salt... Pleased though he was, he found himself biting his lower lip pretty hard, and looking the other way.

I did not want my son remembered by uncontrolled howls of pain. My wife and I suffered more than I can express, but to make poems merely out of the agony would have been self-pitying and dishonest. My son had been my greatest joy. His birth had left me awe-struck and humble before life. He turned me from a son into a father - and allowed me to understand my own father clearly for the first time. If I mourned him, I also wanted to preserve the joyful mystery of his existence. The sorrow could not be adequately appreciated without also expressing the joy and wonder.

My child arrived just the other day, He came to the world in the usual way. But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away. And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew, He'd say, 'I'm gonna be like you, dad. You know I'm gonna be like you.'

Anyone, no matter how ignorant, how diseased mentally or physically, how lacking in all knowledge of children, seemed to consider he or she had the right to become a parent.

My son must be honest and respect elders. That's all that I expect of him. 'Frankly, I really hated myself when I saw Gauri going through all that labour pain. In the past 13 years that I've known her, she's never fallen ill on me even once. And now because of me she had to go through labour pain.

I stayed in my van for two days outside Breach Candy hospital to be near Gauri when she delivered our second child. I left Aryan at Juhi's house. In between I would get frantic telephone calls on my cell phone about how Aryan was scandalizing the servants and members of Juhi's family by stripping and running buck naked through the house shouting 'Look at me! I'm Tarzan!' It's his favourite ploy to get attention, which he needs in a constant and undivided manner. I think he's going to grow up to be an actor.

My daughter used to think I was Aamir Khan. She could not recognise me on screen. So much so that every time I came on screen she used to call out, `Aamir Khan',' - Shahrukh (with a big grin)

Si deinde ad impulsus innatos et ad animi affectus spectamus, paternitas conscia necessariam declarat dominationem, quam ratio et voluntas in eosdem exerceant necesse est.

You know it makes me unhappy (what's that)/When brothas make babies, and leave a young mother to be a pappy

Birth: 'I am a contemplative person by nature, and as it is such, there has seldom been a period of time that has gone by wherein I did not reflect back to the moments my children were born. What I remember most; having had a true lasting impact on me are two things. Of the two, what I consider most awe-inspiring was their first breath. I have thought intently about it over the years; about its profound implications on my understanding of the mysterious world around us, and ultimately about its paradoxical beauties. There I stood in each case as they came into the world, and I witnessed their very first, amazing and miraculous breath. With that breath came the animations of life and their helpless, compelling cries. The second thing that has continued to impact me is as this happened, in that instant of their springing into being, my wife and I helplessly collapsed into an embrace, and together wept tears of utter and absolute humility and joy.'

If I don't do anything that also ruins lives Beginning with your own Maybe Because you need children. Don't you? I don't know if I could ever do that again. Now that I know what it does to you when you lose one. Is it worse than losing a parent? Yes Worse than losing yourself? I've never lost myself

The birth of his son, Aryan: I've lost my parents in hospitals -- so I don't like being in hospitals. And Gauri is quite fragile -- and I've never seen her fall really sick, or seen her unwell. When I saw her in the hospital, they had put in tubes and stuff. And she was becoming delirious and she was really cold. I went with her to the operation theatre for her Caesarean... And ( takes a deep breath ) I thought she'd die. Didn't even think about the kid at that point in time. It wasn't important to me. She was shivering so much and I know logically that you don't die while giving birth to babies... But still... ( Lost in thought )... I just got a little scared.

Aryan has brought about a big change in our lives, especially in Shahrukh's lifestyle. Now, Shahrukh thinks twice if he has to go on an outdoor shoot. He wants to make most of his films in Mumbai. He has cut down on his work quite a bit. Double shifts are completely out. He is not signing too many films. And with the second baby due soon, the future for Shahrukh would be spending more time at home. He is crazy about children. - Gauri

Gauri is going to be a mother soon. If it's a boy, I want him to be a badmash. He should do all the bad things by the time he is 16, so that he can sober down after that. If I have a daughter, I'll give her all the love that's stored within me. - Shahrukh

Kurt and I weren't the closest of friends, but I knew him well enough to be devastated by his death. For such a quiet person, he was so excited about having a child.

Out on the street, you never know what you're getting, and suddenly two days later you're beating yourself in the head with a tennis racket, wearing a towel, quoting Poe. You don't want that for your kid. You really don't want that. (2003)

I feel like there was a fog in front of my eyes for 36 years, and the second [Lily-Rose] was born, that fog just lifted and everything became totally clear and focused. To say it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me is the understatement of the century. Look at me, I've become a cliche. (1999)

Being with Vanessa and having children has made things very easy and clear for me. There's nothing dark about my world anymore. I watch our son and daughter playing around the house or learning new things and I wonder what on earth could be more beautiful than that. (2004)

I just kind of stumbled around for 35 years. And then when my daughter arrived, it was like Now, I see. Suddenly everything else is just kind of shavings, morsels, little tidbits. And this is what it's all about. This is real life. Boy, it couldn't have come at a better time. (2004)

It took kind of meeting that right girl, her getting pregnant, and that whole beauty of nine months waiting for the kid and then BOOM - there's your baby and you go, 'My God, there is my life.' (2006)

The same moment your child is born, you're born. You're brand-new, because you are revealed finally to yourself. You're meeting yourself for the first time. And it's about being okay with yourself, not hating yourself anymore. (2006)

[One of my friends] was in labor for 36 hours. (I don't even want to do anything that feels good for 36 hours.)

Nell teaches aspects of parenthood never understood before. If she cries or makes a mess or decides to be contrary (and these are relatively rare), it doesn't bother. There is always Chris's silence to compare it to. What is seen now so much more clearly is that although the names keep changing and the bodies keep changing, the larger pattern that holds us all together goes on and on. In terms of this larger pattern the lines at the end of this book still stand. We have won it. Things are better now. You can sort of tell these things. ooolo99ikl;i.,pyknulmmmmmmmmmm 111 (This last line is by Nell. She reached around the corner of the machine and banged on the keys and then watched with the same gleam Chris used to have. If the editors preserve it, it will be her first published work.)

It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself... It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do - or don't do.

'I did used to like trampolining, but I'm probably past it, I think. You need to have a really strong pelvic floor to be good at trampolining, and I've had three children.'

This is it, folks. This is the idea which has kept me virtually unknown for the past 16 years. I have watched my crowds dwindle. I am going nowhere, and nowhere quick, but, those of you who have children, I am sorry to tell you this, but they are not special. Wait! I know some of you are going: 'What, what?' Let me just clarify: I know you think they're special : ha ha ha! I'm aware of that. I'm just here to tell you that they're not! Ha ha ha ha! Sorry. Did you know that every time a guy comes, he comes two-hundred million sperm? One out of two-hundred million - that load, we're only talking about one load - connected: Gee, what are the fucking odds? Do you know what that means? I've wiped nations off of my chest with a grey gym sock. Entire civilizations have flaked and crusted in the hair around my navel! [:] I've tossed universes in my underpants while napping. Boom! A Milkyway shoots into my jockeyshorts: 'Unngh : what's for fucking breakfast?!'

I think it just wakes you up and kind of gives you the opportunity to be who you really are. Before my kids came along I was freaked out to hold a kid. When I was a teenager and my brother had babies, I was always freaked out to hold them. They just seemed so fragile. I'd hold them for a minute and then, 'Okay, here. Take the kid.' So I was surprised how quickly, almost instantly, I was okay with my own baby. Within 24 hours I was fine with it all the diapers, everything. One of the most amazing moments in my life was holding my brand-new baby, Lily-Rose, just after she was born. She wasn't three hours old, and I was holding her. Her little eyes were kind of half open. She was drifting into sleep. Looking into those little eyes, I thought, 'My God, I'll never be closer to another human being in my life. And you're not, until your second one comes. Before the second one came, there was this strange thing, a snippet of worry. I thought, 'How can I love the second as much as the first? Is it possible?' And when little Jack arrived, it was instant. Instant. They just seem so fragile. (2004)