I became the kind of parent my mother was to me.

But now, being a parent, I go home and see my son and I forget about any mistake I ever made or the reason I’m upset. I get home and my son is smiling or he comes running to me. It has just made me grow as an individual and grow as a man.

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.

When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.

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.

My experiences in life are getting bigger and better. The more stuff I do, the more stuff I talk about – having kids, traveling, going through relationship problems, dealing with things in my own family. All that stuff builds character.

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

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

Being a kid’s not easy. You’re transforming and becoming a human being. At some point, you have everyone taking care of you, and then, all of a sudden, you’re out in the world.

There’s nothing better than having a baby. I’ve always loved children. I used to work summers at the YMCA and be in charge of, like, 30 preschool kids. I knew that when I had a child, I’d be overwhelmed, and it’s true… I can’t tell you how much my attitude has changed since we’ve got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world.

In my divorce, I stood up and said to my ex-wife, ‚Hey, I messed up. This had nothing to do with you. I didn’t understand what marriage was. I cheated. I was wrong. We couldn’t fix it; it got worse. I stepped away because I didn’t want it to get any worse. You’re the mother of my kids – I don’t want to hate you.‘

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.

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

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

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!‘

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

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

I’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

When you have two busy kids running around the house, returning e-mails is a task, let alone surfing the web.

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

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.

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.

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.

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.

Creative people don’t behave very well generally. If you’re looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you’re gonna be depressed real fast. I don’t have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She’s my first priority.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

I wish I had been home more when the children were growing up. I missed a lot.

As a mom, I know it is my responsibility, and no one else’s, to raise my kids. But we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when so many parents are finding their best efforts undermined by an avalanche of advertisements aimed at our kids.

I think any activity you have your kids in, you’re all trying to live vicariously through them. And you’re jealous of the kid that’s naturally more talented or has the facility, the body, the genes, or the God-given talent. People get jealous of that.

Without Cambodia, I may never have become a mother. Part of my heart is and will always be in this country. And part of this country is always with me: Maddox.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

I’ve never lived my life in the opinion of others. I believe I’m a good person. I believe I’m a good mom. But that’s for my kids to decide, not for the world.

People wonder aloud about whether I am an okay mother. That is obviously painful because it’s so important to me. It’s hard to hear that people think I’m not a capable mother and a good person, that they just think I’m nuts.

Kids are watching us. I experience it every single day. They hang on my every word, what I wear, what I say.

We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God has given them to us.

Women have always been the strong ones of the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them as infants.

I remember thinking quite logically that I didn’t want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

The loss of a child is my greatest nightmare.

If your mom cries a lot, you probably cry a lot. It’s what you learn.

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.

It’s true; once you are a father, there’s no turning back. Your heart strings as well as your purse strings are never again the same.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

It takes three to make a child.

I’ve worked with children all my life.

When your mother asks, ‚Do you want a piece of advice?‘ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

My kids are the funniest two human beings there are.

Your children will see what you’re all about by what you live rather than what you say.

You send a boy to school in order to make friends – the right sort.

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

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

Men are what their mothers made them.

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.

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

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.

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.