Maurice Sendak Quotes

I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents!

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

Sometimes I really think people ought to have to pass a proper exam before they're allowed to be parents. Not just the practical, I mean.

Being a parent is not a reasonable thing. It is a very hard thing. I am a parent and I know.

There's no vacation from being a parent.

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.

I love being a mum, but it's much more intensive work than being an actress - going to work feels like you've got a day off. Not that I want a day off from being a mum; it's just perhaps I had this impression before that mums don't work. But they work more than anyone.

What parent has it easy? I just never make the difficulty of it an obstacle. I just do it.

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.

We put more emphasis on who can drive a car than on who can be a parent. And I think there ought to be mandatory parenting classes starting in high school, and you should have to have a license to be able to be a parent to explain that you don't give alcohol to kids.

My father once said about being a parent that it is the only thing you do that requires a very long period of learning, and at about the time that you are becoming competent, you don't need the skills anymore. Notwithstanding this modest assessment of their parenting skills, they were wonderful parents.

I have to get a licence to drive a motorcycle to protect myself and the people around me. I am adamant there should be some sort of licensing required to have children.

Having a child is not like taking a spouse; there is no mutual agreement entered into. It is up the parent to make the commitment.

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

I feel that people should have a license to have children, that they have proper education how to raise children. And that nobody should be allowed to be a parent unless they can prove that they are competent enough to be a parent.

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.

Any parent who says parenting came easily to them is not being honest with themselves. Parenting is hard.

It triggers something in you as a human being because you forget what your parents did for you. But when you become a parent, you're like, 'Whoa! It's hard work.' No wonder your parents always tell you off! They've done a lot for you.

I take my hat off to working mums and especially single working mums. I honestly don't know how they do it.

Just because you become a parent doesn't mean you grew up.

No one tells you how hard being a parent is! We could have had a warning! It is literally the hardest thing I've ever done but I'm loving it.

Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.

Now people think it's cool to have a baby, but it ain't cool to take care of it. We have to change that. You make your life for that baby. That's the future.

Raising kids may be a thankless job with ridiculous hours, but at least the pay sucks.

Who should have children? Those who are responsible and completely dedicated to the responsibility which is actually a very small percentage of humans. Being a parent should be a career. Whereas some people are engineers, musicians, or lawyers, others with the desire and the skills can be fathers and mothers. Schools can be eliminated if the professional parent is also the educator of the child.