Jodi Picoult Quotes

Children were strangers you loved because you could love. If they gave back love when they were grown you were ahead of the game.

Even more than we want good love for ourselves, we want it for our children, those vulnerable satellites of our hearts that we send, unsteady, into the world.

Being a good parent will necessarily break our hearts as we watch a child grow and eventually choose their own way, even through many of the same heartbreaks we have traversed.

It's not easy to let our kids be less than perfect.

The relationship between a mother and child is more than just give and take; it is magical.

When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.

All my children are my babies. They're our babies.

~Wyatt [my adopted son] is definitely all mine. Little souls find their way to you whether they're from your womb or someone else's.~

It is easy to say that you can adopt the whole human race as your children, but it is not the same as living in a home with a child and shaping all you do to help him learn to be happy and whole and good. Don't live your life without ever holding a child in your arms, on your lap, in your home, and feeling a child's arms around you and hearing his voice in your ear and seeing his smile, given to you because you put it into your heart.

No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.

He didn't come out of my belly, but my God, I've made his bones, because I've attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I'm so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

Slow parents understand that childrearing should not be a cross between a competitive sport and product-development. It is not a project; it's a journey. Slow parenting is about giving kids lots of love and attention with no conditions attached.

Everybody always tells you what an awesome and unique experience being a parent is. Words can never do the feeling justice.

The character and history of each child may be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it.

A dog is the greatest gift a parent can give a child. OK, a good education, then a dog.

I have a little baby. She knows who I am. My friends know. My family knows.

It is always fragile, being a parent.

We all think there is a formula, (but) as long as we love our children, that's really the only solid thing I know that works across the board.

It's unconditional love with your kids.

The real question isn't whether you love your kids or not, but how well you are able to demonstrate your love and caring so that your children really feel loved.

I always thought I'd be the quintessential Earth Mother, but when I had Harrison, I really wasn't the natural mother that I always thought I would be. I adore children, but I was never that interested in newborn babies.

Since the beginning of time, every child on the planet has endeavored to please their parents.

Before you have children, you mostly think about the world in terms of yourself. And when you become a parent, the focus shifts to somebody else.

I learned a lot from my Mom. My favorite lesson: remember there is no such thing as a certain way to parent and to remember that you are learning along with your child - it's ok to make mistakes.

Mom was the one who taught me unconditional love. With Dad, I'd always felt there was something to live up to - expectations. But in the last year, we had a wonderful relationship.