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.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

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.

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.

An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children.

I had my first baby at twenty-one.

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

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

We must, I believe, start teaching our children the sanity of nonviolence much earlier.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

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.

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

I had real plans for my next decade and felt I’d worked hard enough to earn it. Will I really not live to see my children married? To watch the World Trade Center rise again? To read – if not indeed write – the obituaries of elderly villains like Henry Kissinger and Joseph Ratzinger?

We can’t form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

It takes three to make a child.

Part of our tradition as black women is that we are universalists. Black children, yellow children, red children, brown children, that is the black woman’s normal, day-to-day relationship. In my family alone, we are about four different colors.

I love being a dad. I just love it.

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.

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.

If a woman can, by careful selection of a father and nourishment of herself, produce a citizen with efficient senses, sound organs and a good digestion, she should clearly be secured a sufficient reward for that natural service to make her willing to undertake and repeat it.

I’m not great at bedtime stories. Bedtime stories are supposed to put the kid to sleep. My kid gets riled up and then my wife has to come in and go, ‚All right! Get out of the room.‘

Even if we give parents all the information they need and we improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can’t make a healthy choice.

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

I had one incident where my daughter said that a girl asked if she was a brown person. I said, ‚We’re black. You have black people, white people, Chinese people, Hispanic people; we’re all brought up differently.‘

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

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

When I tell a child something the first time, I’m nice. The 15th time, I start to get aggravated.

Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you.

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.

Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics.

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

When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment’s notice.

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.

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.

The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny.

When I was a kid, there were no credit cards. Instead, retailers offered layaway plans. My mom would go to a store, such as a furniture outlet, choose the sofa she wanted, and put it on layaway. That meant she put a little money down to hold the sofa, and every payday she’d pay a little toward the purchase.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the weather service. And we can’t just do it by making seniors pay more for Medicare.

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.

Men are what their mothers made them.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

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

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

Do you know what you call those who use towels and never wash them, eat meals and never do the dishes, sit in rooms they never clean, and are entertained till they drop? If you have just answered, ‚A house guest,‘ you’re wrong because I have just described my kids.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

I was very worried about my mother, growing up – a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.

If I was a billionaire, I’d be smart with my money.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

There’s something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she’s only measured water in it.

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.

Of course, to have money is just great because you can do what you think is important to you.

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.

I do not think that I am a natural born mother… If I ever wanted to mother anyone, it was my father.

If I ever had twins, I’d use one for parts.

Most of us are raised to believe we are ordinary. The anchor of the universe is present in every child. A parent only needs to guide and step aside and let them fulfill their dharma. Help children remember that they can do or be anything.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

Heavenly Father loves every one of His children. After all, He is their Father.

Everywhere I go, the kids call me ‚the book lady.‘ The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the ‚book lady‘ title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I’ve done something good with my life and with my success.