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

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

My mother did not like children.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

I have a lot of other stuff to accomplish before I get to kids. Whenever the time is right, I’ll just know. If I had a girl, she’d probably be really rebellious. She would be like a bundle of karma. I would love to bring them up in Barbados.

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud.

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.

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

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

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

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

People have told me, ‚You shouldn’t bring your daughter onto the podium, ‚cause it’s the workplace,‘ and things like that. But I’m not gonna really listen to that. I’m gonna do what I think is fun for me and my family, and everything’ll be all right.

To rule children by force is the technique of Satan, not of the Savior.

It would have been difficult to have an ugly daughter.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

I understand the importance of bondage between parent and child.

When a father puts in long hours at work, he’s praised for being dedicated and ambitious. But when a mother stays late at the office, she’s sometimes accused of being selfish, neglecting her kids.

One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

Once you have six children, you’re committed.

We’re African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we’re like the Jacksons. But I didn’t have parents using me to get out of a bad situation.

Someday I want to have children and give them all the love I never had.

I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I’m a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself – all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.

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.

If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I’d hear a loud ‚A-hem!‘ from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same.

I have spent so much time and so much energy making other people’s children stars.

A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Now that I’m a parent, I understand why my father was in a bad mood a lot.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

There’s no political point worth my son’s life.

At Columbia Law School, my professor of constitutional law and federal courts, Gerald Gunther, was determined to place me in a federal court clerkship, despite what was then viewed as a grave impediment: On graduation, I was the mother of a 4-year-old child.

I want parents to teach that academic intelligence is essential, but so is financial intelligence.

The great thing about having a bunch of kids is they just remind you that you’re the person who takes them to go poop!

Plumbers can be masters, the guy who did my patio is a master, some people are masters at raising really great children.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

Brad and I have never wanted our kids to be actors, but we also want them to be around film and be a part of Mommy and Daddy’s life and for it not to be kept from them, either. We just want them to have a good, healthy relationship with it.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

It’s true that I’ve never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

I do not raise brats!

None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.

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.

People change because of kids. They change how they eat. They change the way they think. They change the way they see one another.

I’ve told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn’t kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are.

Homework’s hard. Especially math. My kids joke with me. They tell me they have homework. I say, ‚Okay.‘ And then I sit down and they say, ‚It’s math.‘ ‚No! Not math! English, history, anything!‘

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.

No parent is perfect; we all can look back and think of things we could’ve done to help our children be better prepared for adulthood. And sometimes it’s best to admit it to them and encourage them to learn from our mistakes.

We were never intimate mother and children while she was our mother – but… when she became our child, the affection came.

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

I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.

Mum had done everything you need to educate a kid. She made me a kid who likes books and she told me about ‚Wind in the Willows‘ and read it and I thought this is weird, Rat, Mole, Toad and my first ever Bolshie thought – you know about ‚The Wind in the Willows.‘

My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

I’m not an analyzer. I’ve got a son that analyzes everything and everybody. But I don’t analyze people.

I’ve worked with children all my life.

Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.

No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.

I did have two dads; one was a socialist, and one was a capitalist. I really decided I would rather be a capitalist.