I understand the importance of bondage between parent and child.

I don’t pick up toys. I crush them.

What I tell my kids is, ‚I’m preparing you for college and for life. So, having independence, knowing how to set your own boundaries, figuring out how to make that balance. We still have screen-time rules.‘

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

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

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 would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

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.

Children make your life important.

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

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

Our lifestyle was not in any way a negative. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

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.

The only time my records are going to be broken is by my own spawn. I’m going be training that child out the womb.

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

It takes three to make a child.

For an Ethiopian mother, if you have a chubby kid, it means you’re doing something good.

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

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.

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn’t have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.

I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

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.

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.

You definitely want your kids to understand their heritage, but I don’t want my kids to just focus on being black. They are people. I don’t want them to judge other people or to be judged. I want them to be good people, so good people will treat them accordingly. I preach that to my kids and everything else falls into place.

When I was a kid at four years old, that’s when I started amateur wrestling with my dad and family. And when that’s instilled in you, it never goes away.

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.

The moment you have a child, in an instant your life is not for you, and your life is completely, 100 percent dedicated to another human being, and they will always come first. It changes you forever. It changes your perspective, and it gives you a nice purpose and focus.

There is a ‚sanctity‘ involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.

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

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.

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.

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.

My son is becoming me – just a silly, silly prankster guy.

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

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

I have no problem yelling at anybody’s kid – free of charge!

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.

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.

I read to my kid, but I can’t stand reading.

My kids are coming up in a different time then me. Interracial couples are of the norm. With me, it’s about making sure my kids understand the importance of education and having opportunities that I didn’t. My goal as a parent is to make sure they don’t take what they have for granted.

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.

Treat your children like the blessings they are or don’t have them at all.

My parents were just constantly affirming me in everything that I did. Late at night, I’d wake up and hear my mother talking over my bed, saying, ‚You’re going to do great on this test. You can do anything you want.‘

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

All parents are concerned about their children’s well-being. As a parent of three kids, I’m very concerned about their well-being.

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

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.

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.

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.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to say yes to that extra snack or dessert, because frankly, it is exhausting to keep saying no. It’s exhausting to plead with our kids to eat just one more bite of vegetables.

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

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

My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God – I thank God every time I think of it – I was sent to my paternal grandmother. Ah, but my mother was a great parent of a young adult.

My pops and my mom started playing Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers and all these people, but at the same time, they always had Snoop on right behind it in the same mix.

I do not raise brats!