John F. Kennedy Quotes

If you're going to send the mothers out into the work force, what are you going to do about the children they leave at home?

We want to make sure children aren't left without any books. We want to make sure our children have the books, that they have a place in the castle. We want to make sure that their mothers have affordable day care. We want to make sure we give the older people the care that they need.

Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children.

The welfare of our children is our main concern, and their best interests are our first priority.

Working moms, and increasingly working dads, don't want a government handout, but they do need a hand up.

The safety of these children is the paramount issue. The ongoing situation is drastic, and we need to take drastic measures. We insist that these children be taken into care immediately

Is there anything more important than a child?

I spent most of my adult life as someone's mother and the rest of my life trying to make sure that children are safe. So this to me is - we wrote Hell Is For Children in 1979.

We also need the provisions in the tax bill that will permit working mothers to increase the deduction from income tax liability for costs incurred in providing care for their children while the mothers are working. In October the Commission on the Status of Women will report to me. This problem should have a high priority, and I think that whatever we leave undone this year we must move on this in January.

I'm going to do everything I can to bring our policies in line with the way families live and work today by guaranteeing paid family leave and making child care affordable.

It is extremely important that adequate provision be made for reasonable levels of income to them, for the care of the children which they must leave at home or in school, and for protection of the family unit. One of the prime objectives of the Commission on the Status of Women, which I appointed 18 months ago, is to develop a program to accomplish these purposes.

Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being. The well-being and welfare of children should always be our focus.

The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe.

I believe we need affordable child care. I believe we need flexibility. I believe we need institutional reform and public policy reform.

If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the quality of child care more than by lifting the heavy burden of taxation that forces so many families to have both parents working.

We routinely leave our small children in day care among strangers. At the same time, in our guilt we evince paranoia about strangers and foster fear in children.

The rearing of children is considered too important to be left to the individual and should be the responsibility of the state.

If you really care about children then why would you want to keep families from adopting them?

I think this is every mother's worst nightmare - something dreadful happening to her child.

I want us to do more to support people who are struggling to balance family and work. I've heard from so many of you about the difficult choices you face and the stresses that you're under. So let's have paid family leave, earned sick days. Let's be sure we have affordable child care and debt-free college.

Each and every child in this country is valuable because they are our future as a society. We cannot afford to lose a single child to ill-health, under-education, abuse, addiction, jail, or gun violence. America's highest goal should be for every child to grow up to be a successful young adult -- healthy, educated, free, secure, and a good citizen.

I won't give up until the exploitation of all children has ended and all children have their rights.

In a way, every parent is sort of dependent on the benevolence of the society around them to take care of their children.

You've got to keep the child alive; you can't create without it.

I have always admired organizations that help children grow and learn, and organizations that protect and shelter children when no one else does. And I wanted to draw attention to these organizations and recognize the contributions they were making to the country and to our children in particular.