Elizabeth Berg Quotes

I think it's harder - much harder - to be a good parent than to write a book.

Parenting is more than a numbers game: it's a question of whether people are equipped for the toughest job they will ever be asked to do.

It is a fundamental truth that the responsibilities of motherhood cannot be successfully delegated. No, not to day-care centers, not to schools, not to nurseries, not to babysitters.

Parents are the designated caregivers and are best suited for being able to raise children.

Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur.

Nobody can raise your kids like you can yourself.

My youngest is 26, and so I hardly remember life not being a father, but my wife and I were hands on-parents.

Not that we didn't have close relationships with our parents - I'm very close to my mom - but parents didn't think anything of going off for a few weeks and leaving their kids.

Different parents have different standards for their children.

As a nonparent, I stand in awe of parents.

Mothers - especially single mothers - are heroic in their efforts to raise our nation's children, but men must also take responsibility for their children and recognize the impact they have on their families' well-being.

A lot of things in 'Parents' I find very truthful.

And part of that is, what is the point of having children if you don't have the privilege of bringing them up?

As a parent, I'd - I'd be a better father.

This whole head of the home thing has been blown way out of proportion. Some guys just take it way too far. Some parents take it way too far. Yet children need guidance. They need a parent to help and guide them. They also need a friend. They need a confidant.

This bringing up of children is so blithely undertaken by many of us, and the vast majority have had no training. It is one of those professions that every woman thinks she can undertake, so nobody really prepares for it.

What I continue to learn as a parent is to be mindful of the fact that I am responsible for being the parent that my children need me to be and not necessarily the parent I want to be.

I am a believer that if you bring children into this world, then you have a responsibility to do your best and support and guide them until the day you die.

When it comes down to it, I believe that, having made the decision to bring children into the world, I owe it to them to be as present as I can in their daily lives and to try my best to stay alive until they've made it through to adulthood.

I always feel like the odd mom out, because trust me when I tell you I'm on my girls. And every time I am, I know from the outside it looks like I'm an overbearing, controlling parent. But I don't think we have any responsibility to anybody else but our kids and ourselves.

I think all kinds of parents are different in what they're seeking.

There comes a moment as a parent when you realize you will no longer be the center of your child's universe.

I'm not a parent, but it seems to me the nature of parenting is contingent, full of unexpected challenges - which is one of the wonderful and amazing things about it.

You want to be a good parent and you want to be a friend, and it's hard to be both. You have to balance it as well as you can.

No matter what, it is very tricky and difficult just to be a good parent at all. I have a lot of help. And for that I'm very grateful.