Non-Traditional Parenting Quotes

Our parents were a test tube and a turkey baster.

I think my dad is a lot cooler than other dads. He still acts like he's still 17.

I'm always telling people who say two men can't make a baby: 'Anything is possible for God. I'm going to keep inseminating my husband and keep my fingers crossed.'

I was fascinated to think about a place where men could be the mothers and I thought of my own song-writing and I decided to have a relationship with their daughters.

I'm not the kind of person who needs to be a mother no matter what. Life brings you people. Maybe I'll nurture someone who's not my child, like a friend, or an actor I'm working with who needs some love.

I was born in Manhattan on West 12th. My parents were kind of hippies and they did a home birth.

I guess I had what you could call an unconventional upbringing.

What makes Will the best father in the world to me is that he's there, not just there in a way that's traditional. The emotional support he offers his children is immeasurable.

My mother raised me and there was some painful and difficult times, because she was pursuing a career and also very actively involved in expressing her political views. But, looking back, I wouldnt switch her for a normal mom, even though there were moments when Id come back from school and wish shed just be there in a gingham dress putting dinner on the table. I never had that. But now Im really glad I have her.

My parents couldn't be looser. It was the ultimate laissez faire upbringing.

I was raised by drag queens, practically ... my mother died when I was four-years-old, so I was effectively raised by a bunch of different people. A lot of those people were friends of my sister, Kathleen, who had all these gay friends. She would baby-sit me everyday, and she would take me over to her friend's houses with all kinds of things going on: tucking, and eyebrow drawing, waxing, all sorts of things. I was literally raised by gay men.

I have lots of friends and, like me, they're not married. So my kids have lots of godparents - men and women, gay and straight. My loft is always filled with people helping me out with them and loving them.

I do have a somewhat unique upbringing.

Mothering is just so different now from the way it was before. Especially with my mom. She was like the anti-helicopter mom. She was like an inflatable-tube, blow-up-flamingo-in-the-pool mom. Her philosophy was, the situation will declare itself.

I'm the most inappropriate dad. I curse in front of my kids and their friends. I let my kids watch R-rated movies. I'll walk by the movie theater and say, 'Let's go see that,' and my kids will say, 'No, it's rated R. It's not appropriate for kids.' I'm like Uncle Dad. We have fun. I don't live with them, but I drive over four days a week.

I think my dad's rebellion is that he's super accepting - I mean, he, like, encouraged me to drop out of university. And to do acting.

It wasn't a typical 'Let's go play catch in the backyard' sort of father-son relationship. We always went to job sites with him.

I think the fact that my parents weren't conventional - especially considering their position - had a big influence on the way that I conduct myself now in design and business. It had a huge impact on my wanting to do something a bit more than just designing a pretty dress and putting it on a runway and making it glamorous.

I don't know what it's like to have a typical father figure. He's not the dad who's going to take me to the beach and go swimming, but he's such a motivational person.

I think it's helped me to have two unconventional parents, who have always encouraged me to be myself.

My mom comes from a really out-there upbringing, so for her, the way she raised me is pretty disciplined. I was home-schooled but more really unschooled, really.

My real fantasy if I was to drop out would be to live in a mobile home and be a hippie and drive around festivals and have millions of children - children with dreadlocks and nose rings - and play the flute.

My parents were just searching for an alternative way of raising their children.

So many gay men are mothers to so many young people, me included. I've had gay men who were more mother to me than my own mother ever was.

I've had a lot of mother figures. But by the time my mom came into my life, it wasn't a 'mommy' thing. It's more of an adult relationship.