According to Ethiopian custom, parents wait to name a baby because children often die in the first weeks of life.

I used to meditate all the time in bed. That was when I was raising my daughter, and I’d get her up and off to school, and then I would go back to bed and meditate. And then I would do the same in the evening, and that was very good for that period because I had so many things to juggle as a single mother.

I’m just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. That’s my passion. At the request of my kids, I’m taking cooking classes. As I go to sleep at night, I think, ‚Did I do a great job as a mom, or was that an average day?‘

My parents pretty much realized that I would do whatever I wanted, and that was it, really.

The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.

As a father, safety is always a top of mind issue for me.

As a father and now a grandfather to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes. Being able to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones is absolutely vital, especially early on.

If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

I’ve never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn’t mean for me to have kids so that everybody else’s children could be mine.

Never have more children than you have car windows.

When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It’s inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting.

A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.

I’m dying to be a great dad one day, whenever that day comes.

You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

Ultimately this issue is on us. We’re the ones who make the decisions about what our kids eat.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

When I take my kid to school, all the parents stop and stare.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

My kids are the funniest two human beings there are.

I love our daughters more than anything in the world – more than life itself. And while that may not be the first thing that some folks want to hear from an Ivy-league-educated lawyer, it is truly who I am. So for me, being Mom-in-Chief is, and always will be, job number one.

These wretched babies don’t come until they are ready.

I always joke that my kids‘ favorite holiday is Father’s Day. They love the way I celebrate the occasion by writing each of them a thank-you letter and a generous check. It’s my way of letting them know how much I appreciate the great pleasure and privilege of being their dad.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.

The reason children accept discipline from their parents is because they know their parents love them.

Too many people treat parenting like it’s the 20th item on their to-do list.

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.

I always tried to do things by example, even though I was not a very good mother regarding routines and family life.

Be nice to your children. After all, they are going to choose your nursing home.

If you’ve ever hauled a 28-pound two-year-old around New York, you’ll find that men fold at the knees a lot quicker than women.

I’ve always put everybody else’s child first before my own health, before my own outfit, before my own time frame.

It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows.

I wasn’t going to shy away from getting married when I did and having a baby young and starting a family, even with the job that I chose.

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

I actually feel like women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling and don’t have the means or support. Many people are single, raising children. That’s hard.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

Kids will remind you that, even though you’ve gone down a road 100 times, it’s brand new for them – and that’s healthy.

My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

Just talk to me as a father – not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?

But I was the most unashamed lone parent you were ever going to meet.

My mom, she was a very, very soft woman. It was hard for her to yell or even curse. But when it came to fighting for her kids, she found a strength she didn’t always know she had.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.

You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‚mom-in-chief.‘ My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

My friends ask me if I want more kids, and I always say yes, I want more; it’s the best thing you can have in your life.

I take my kids to school. And if I go to work, I go to work, and they visit me on set. I come home. I have dinner with my family. I have breakfast with my family. I have a very solid, very warm home.

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

My son’s full real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood. As a toddler, he was called by his second name Zowie. But it was such an identifiable name during the Seventies that if I called him loudly in public places, everyone would turn to stare, so I started calling him Joey to take the pressure off.

I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.