Parental Regret Quotes

I never thought I was a great mom. I always worked. I fell in love with my children as they got older.

Looking back, I don't feel that I was the most brilliant mother. I was always very good at giving my children the right food, but it was one of my regrets in life that I didn't spend more time listening to them or playing with them.

I'm trying to be better for my son. And regretting every moment that I'm not spending with him.

The one thing I regret is missing the time with my older children when they were young.

I never wanted my kids to feel about me the way I felt about him.

~As a mom, you have to look at how much time you're spending with your kids. There is nothing you will regret more in your life - nothing - than not being present for your children.~

But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.

I feel lucky that I had my children late. Not that I would advise it in any shape or form. But I know friends who had children when they were young, struggled with feeling trapped. I can honestly say I've never once resented the fact that I couldn't go out because of my kids.

I work every day, and every year I spend seven months away from my family. I miss my kids' birthdays, and those are times I will never be able to go back on and share with them. That kills me.

Ignorance of the facts of life gave me my beloved son, Dickon, but at what cost to both him and me, I cannot hazard a guess.

I want to make someone walk straight, but I've left my sons nothing but wars.

I will never regret being there for my children, watching them, making sure they'll be okay. But I might regret not being there for them.

I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I've been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that's meant a life of one-nighters.

If I have regrets, it's around my sons. There is no doubt they were affected by the divorce - Carter more than Blaine, I think.

I didn't sign on to be a mom.

The biggest mistakes most parents make (and believe me, I'm guilty of these too) seem very inconsequential. They're little, day-to-day things that, at the moment, don't seem like a big deal.

If I had kids, my kids would hate me. They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them.

I had a bad conscience until I discovered that having a bad conscience about something so gravely serious as leaving your children is an affectation, a way of achieving a little suffering that can't for a moment be equal to the suffering you've caused.

My mom actually took me to get my first tattoo when I was 15. She highly regrets that choice now, as I have a lot more.

I think for Laura [Bush] it was kind of a sense of remorse because she is very close to the girls. They're busy little souls, and so we don't see them as much as we'd like to. But Laura talks to them all the time.

Honestly, I regret not having spanked my kids.

I love my son, but I was never there for him, so I understand why he hates me.

Kids think the world is about them, so if you forgot to put the right flavor yogurt in their lunch, and they have too much homework when they come home, they're like, "You know I hate peach!" There's a part of me that's like, "I'm so sorry. I could have shown my love more."

It's hard, and I don't always get to see my kids. I will never catch up on that time I've missed.