Elizabeth Edwards Quotes

I think about that with kids - you want to do everything for them, but you realize if you do everything, and you make it easy on them, they won't learn anything, and then they will walk around life needing their mamas all the time, and that isn't attractive.

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

It's important to let children fly on their own. I understood that they needed to create their own life and not be my shadow. Let them make their own decisions, and support them along the way.

In the end, it's not what you do for your children but what you've taught them to do for themselves.

My kids learned to be independent.

I think the most important thing my wife Cynthia and I can do for Kristen is to teach her how to grow up to be a woman and make her own decisions. Meanwhile, we sometimes have to guide her.

I think our job as parents is to give our kids roots to grow and wings to fly.

Encourage independence in your children by regularly losing them in the supermarket.

Our aim is to help the clients help themselves, not to tell them what to think.

Grow up and let anyone try to contend with the adult you.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I've had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm's way until they could be their own guides.

My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children.

Listen to the desires of your children. Encourage them and then give them the autonomy to make their own decision.

Freedom comes from strength and self-reliance.

Let your children go if you want to keep them.

I have three girls, and I say the same thing to them. I'm not involved in their careers because I've learned that it's important for them to stand on their own two feet. They'll feel better and prouder of themselves if they do.

A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnessary.

The finest inheritance you can give to a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet.

It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'

I think the best thing your parents can do for you is to let you be yourself.

In order that she may be able to give her hand with dignity, she must be able to stand alone.

The most important thing, I've found, is to be self-reliant.

If you're trying to raise a son, it gives you a chance to say things like, 'Chop your own wood; it will warm you twice.'

I was ironing my own clothes when I was 11 years old. My mental strength goes back to those days.