Martin Jacques Quotes

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

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

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.

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

I think being a parent is the most challenging thing you do. That's why we're here. It's at the heart of what it is to be a human being. It's the ultimate experience because it questions everything about who you are. But it's difficult.

Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.

It is always fragile, being a parent.

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.

Parenthood is a very, very intense experience.

Mothers play an important role as the heart of the home, but this in no way lessens the equally important role fathers should play, as head of the home, in nurturing, training, and loving their children.

I think I'm a good dad. It's hard. Ultimately, it's our kids that have the final word. So we'll have to ask them.

If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.

Speaking as a father, there is no rulebook, and you don't know how to do it. You just do the best you can.

Fatherhood didn't just happen to me. I am deliberately living it, re-imagining it, and rediscovering it every day. It is as beautiful as I make it, just like anything else in life.

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.

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.

My father realizes that he did okay with me. He did the best he could.

I always say, you never know how much your parents loved you until you have a child to love.

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 completely appreciate the importance of fathers but millions of children are without loving homes. I think a child is lucky with one parent who truly loves her.

There is no greater name for a leader than mother or father. There is no leadership more important than parenthood.

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.

Fatherhood didn't change me in the beginning very much.

It's the best thing in the world, the most challenging thing in the world, being a parent, and one of the first lessons I learned was to ask for help.