Discover these positive parenting quotes that can help you through tough times and be your best.
There’s no shortage of parenting advice out there. But sometimes, you just need a quick boost of encouragement to get you through another day of potty training or a long road trip.
Your kids WILL go out of control, you WILL feel overwhelmed, and things WILL not always go your way.
We all need reminders.
That’s why we’ve collected these positive parenting quotes to help you treat your kids with more understanding and compassion.
From Dr. Seuss to Oprah Winfrey, these motivational quotes will remind you that being a parent is one of the most challenging – and rewarding – jobs in the world.
These positive parenting quotes would give you insight and perspective.
So read on, soak up the wisdom, and enjoy raising your little ones!
Here are 120+ Positive Parenting Quotes To Help You Raise Strong but Kind and Loving Kids.
Our team reviewed over 7 research papers that suggest positive parenting has both short and long-term effects as well as combing the Internet for the most inspiring parenting quotes and stories to assist you.
Table of Contents
45 Positive Parenting Quotes Regarding Kids
“Every day in a hundred small ways our children ask us, ‘Do you see me? Do you hear me? Do I matter?’ This behavior often reflects our response.” — L.R. Knost
Every day our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. We should tread softly. –Sir Ken Robinson
Remember you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being. -Kittie Franz
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
To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is. – Fred Rogers
There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one. – Sue Atkins
“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” — Jane D. Hull
“Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” — Riney Jordan
“What we sometimes see as annoying, incessant questions from a child may be a plea for recognition. Maybe they do not need an answer as much as attention.”― Dr. Rand Olson
“Play is the language of childhood. Speaking our children’s language may sound like nonsense to us, but it sounds like love to them.” — L.R. Knost
“Childhood is fleeting, so let kids be kids and cherish the time you have together.” — Abraham Lincoln
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
Nothing that grieves us can be called little. By the eternal law of proportions, a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of his crown are events of the same size. – Mark Twain
“By making eye contact, getting down to your child’s level, offering a touch, or using a tone of your voice that conveys a desire to genuinely connect, you disarm yourself. You make it possible to reach your child more deeply and truly move forward together.” — Hilary Flowers
“Kids raised from birth to feel safe expressing their emotions, who feel their parents are on their side, aren’t perfect. They’re easier to parent, though, because they’re better at managing their emotions, and therefore their behavior. They’re more willing to accept our guidance.” — Laura Markham
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
Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget that you already have one. –Glennon Melton
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
“Treat a child as though he already is the person he’s capable of becoming.”―Haim Ginott
“The way we talk to your children becomes their inner voice.”― Peggy O’Mara
“Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become.” — Brooke Hampton
“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” — Barbara Johnson
“If you want your children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” — Abigail Van Buren
“Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first, we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?” — Jane Nelson
“Too much love never spoils our children. Children become spoiled when we substitute presents for presence.” — Anthony Withman
You can’t teach children to behave better by making them feel worse. When children feel better, they behave better. –Pam Leo
“It is the nature of the child to be dependent, and it is the nature of dependence to be outgrown. Begrudging dependency because it is not independent is like begrudging winter because it is not spring.
“Pushing children into something when they’re not ready only pushes them away. Let them know that waiting and observing is an option. Doing something when they are comfortable and ready is perfectly acceptable. It develops self-awareness and self-respect.” — Kristy Lee
“You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else.” — Amanda Morgan
“Children do not need us to shape them; they need us to respond to who they are.” — Naomi Aldort
“So often, children are punished for being human. They are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes. Yet, we adults have them all the time. None of us is perfect. We must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves.” — Rebecca Eanes
“Trust children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we should not be trusted.” — John Holt
Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow. –Thomas Bray
If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. –Ignacio Estrada
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
A child seldom needs a good talking to as much as a good listening to. –Robert Brault
If your children fear you, they cannot trust you. If they don’t trust you, they cannot learn from you. –Lori Petro
Children do not need us to shape them; they need us to respond to who they are. –Naomi Aldort
Feeling heard and understood allows children to release their feelings, let go and move on. –Janet Lansbury
It is better to find your children to you by a feeling of respect and by gentleness, than by fear. –Terence
Children must never work for our love, they must rest in it. –Gordon Neufeld
Children do well if they can, if they can’t we need to figure out why so we can help. –Ross Greene
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
The most powerful way to change the world is to live in front of our children the way we would like the world to be. – Graham R White
You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else. – Amanda Morgan
40 Positive Parenting Quotes For Parents
“The hardest part of parenting is pretending that you know what you’re doing.” -Unknown
“Parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do.” – j.d. Vance
“There’s no manual for parenting, so you just have to wing it and hope for the best.” -Unknown
“A parent’s love is never ending.” – Unknown
“Your words as a parent have great power. Use them wisely and make sure they come from the heart.” — Carolina King
One generation of deeply loving parents would change the brain of the next generation, and with that, the world.– Charles Raison
“We’re all imperfect parents and that’s perfectly okay. Tiny humans need connection, not perfection.” —L. R. Knost
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
“Train up a child in the way he should go – but be sure you go that way yourself.” — Charles Spurgeon
“How do we communicate worthiness to our children? Only through our presence. Our full-on, engaged, attuned presence.” — Dr Shefali Tsabary
“I wholeheartedly believe that when we are fully engaged in parenting regardless of how imperfect, vulnerable, and messy it is, we are creating something sacred.” — Brene Brown
“Nurturing never happens in a rush.” — Emma Scheib
“Children should not be burdened with making us happy, nor blamed for making us sad or angry. Children are not responsible for how we feel. We are.” — Larissa Dan
“We all need someone who understands.” — Magda Gerber
“The best security blanket a child can have is parents who respect each other.” — Janet Blaustone
“The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other.” – Dr. Phil
“A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves.” — Banksy
“There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.” — Marianne Williamson
“If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money.” — Abigail Van Buren
“Each day of our lives we make deposits into the memory banks of our children.” — Charles R. Swindoll
“Most things are good, and they are the strongest things, but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.” — Walt Disney
“I looked on child-rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best that I could bring to it.” — Rose Kennedy
“One day, your child will make a mistake or a bad choice and run to you instead of away from you and in that moment you will know the immense value of peaceful, positive, respectful parenting.” — L.R. Knost
“Remember that the most important thing is not your child’s behavior. The most important thing is your child. Look beyond behavior and connect with your child.” — Issa Waters
“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.” — W.E.B. DuBois
Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first. -Mathew L Jacobson
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
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
“If you can control your behavior when everything around you is out of control, you can model for your children a valuable lesson in patience and understanding….and snap an opportunity to shape up the character.” — Jane Clayson Johnson
“Adults who are respectful of children are not just modeling a skill or behavior, they are meeting the emotional needs of those children, thereby helping to create the psychological conditions for children to treat others respectfully.” — Alfie Kohn
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
Gentle parenting doesn’t involve instantaneous results but naturally achieved, life-long lasting results. –Kirsty Lee
“The greatest happiness is family happiness.” — Joyce Brothers
“The golden rule of parenting is to always show your children the kind of person you want them to be.” — Elizabeth Roxas
“Provide plenty of love balanced by structure and discipline.” — Barack Obama
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
“Release your attachment to how things ‘ought’ to be and instead surrender to how they actually are.” — Dr Shefali Tsabary
“Don’t tell your kids, ‘I’m proud of you.’ Tell them, ‘You should be proud of yourself.’” — Kristen Welch
“Peaceful parenting is simply treating our tiny humans with the same humanity that we like to be treated with ourselves.” — L.R. Knost
25 Positive Parenting Quotes For Mothers
“Being a mom means choosing to show up day after day and love day after day and give day after day and try day after day and not having all the answers and not being perfect but simply doing your best.” –Rachel Martin
“Motherhood has taught me the meaning of living in the moment and being at peace. Children don’t think about yesterday, and they don’t think about tomorrow. They just exist at the moment.” — Jessalyn Gilsig
“A mother’s love never fails.” – Unknown
“The most important thing a mother can do for her children is to love their father.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“A mother’s work is never done.” – Unknown
“There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill
“There is no such thing as a perfect mother, and I am not one. But I am a good mother, and I love my children with all my heart.” – Unknown
“The best thing a mother can do for her children is to love their father.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“My mother always said that the hardest part of having kids is watching them grow up and leave home.” – Unknown
“A mother’s love is the light that guides us through life’s darkest moments.” – Unknown
“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you never knew existed.” – Linda Wooten
“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” – Sophia Loren
“Motherhood is the hardest job in the world, but it is also the best job in the world.” – Unknown
“A girl ‘s best friend is her mother.” – Unknown
“A mother is a boy’s first lover and a boy the mother’s last.” – Unknown
“God gave those little children to you, mama. No one else can mother them like you can. You may have your work cut out for you, but you’re the one cut out to accomplish it.” – Erin Odom
“You’re always going to wonder if you’re doing things wrong. But that’s what it means to be a mom, to care so much about someone else that you just want to be as perfect as possible.” — Naya Rivera
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” — Jill Churchill
“Being a mama isn’t a job, a hobby or a task. It’s a calling. A calling to love well. A calling to instruct hearts. A calling to be present.” – Unknown
“There are many things in life I have taken for granted, but the opportunity and ability to be a mama will never be one of them.” – Unknown
“I’m not a good mom. I’m not a bad mom. I’m the mama I am and I try very hard, and when I fail, that’s ok.” – Kristen Bell
Counteract conflict by connection and communicating calmly. -Kirsty Lee
“Mother is a verb. It’s something you do. Not just who you are.” – Dorothy Canfield Fisher
“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
“I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.” — Mitch Albom
20 Best Positive Parenting Quotes For Fathers
“Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice.” — Charles F. Kettering
“A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.” – Frank A. Clark
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
“One of the most important things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” – Clarence Budington Kelland
“Fathers, be your daughter’s first love and she’ll never settle for anything less.” – Unknown
“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.” – Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles
“A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.” – Unknown
“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” — Billy Graham
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” – Jim Valvano
“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“A father’s smile has been known to light up a child’s entire day.” – Susan Gale
“There’s no substitute for a great father. fathers, be there for your children while they’re still young, so you’ll be there for them forever.” – Unknown
“The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” – Theodore Hesburgh
“A father’s hug lasts long after he lets go.” – Unknown
“My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.” – Michael Jordan
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” – Sigmund Freud
“The most important thing in the world is family and love.” – John Wooden
One day, they’ll walk in your shoes. Make sure they’re pointed in the right direction. – Unknown
“A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.” – Frank A. Clark
Top 10 Common Misconceptions About Positive Parenting
Positive parenting is a parenting style that is focused on building a strong, emotional bond between parent and child while also teaching life skills. Although there are many misconceptions about positive parenting, the style has been shown to be effective in helping children develop into well-rounded, responsible adults.
Below are the top 10 in summary.
- Positive Parenting is permissive and allows children to do whatever they want
- Positive Parenting means spoiling children and giving them everything they want
- Positive Parenting means never disciplining or correcting children’s behavior
- Positive Parenting is only concerned with building children’s self-esteem and not with teaching them life skills
- Positive Parenting is only for children who are already behaving well and not for those who need help with behavior problems
- Positive Parenting means never saying “no” to children
- Positive Parenting is only concerned with the present moment and not with preparing children for the future
- Positive Parenting is only about making children happy and not about teaching them to be responsible and mature
- Positive Parenting is only concerned with the child’s point of view and not with the parents’ needs or wants
- Positive Parenting means never using negative consequences or punishment with children
Final Thoughts
These are the 90 positive parenting quotes to inspire you as you navigate your parenting journey. Which is your favorite and which would you like to add? Each of these positive parenting quotes highlights new perspectives that can help improve your parenting if you implement them daily.
