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

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

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?‘

I’ve never been a hands-on dad. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but you can’t run a restaurant and be home for tea at 4:30 and bath and change nappies.

A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.

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

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.

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

I used to carry my father’s Bible and put it on the pulpit so he could preach.

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

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.

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they will face. So it’s very important to give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country.

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.

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.

I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn’t intimidated by them.

I think daughters can change the perception of their fathers.

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

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

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

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

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.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

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

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

For the woman, the man is a means: the end is always the child.

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.

I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: ‚Checkout Time is 18 years.‘

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.

My daughter has impressions that she does of me.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable. As a result, the atmosphere of our home was super-charged with fear because you never knew if what you did would make him mad or not.

I don’t think that much about my relationship with my mother and what it did to me. I sometimes feel terrible regret about her, what her life must have been like. Often, when I’m enjoying something, I think of how meager her rewards were and how much courage, in a way, she needed to go on living.

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

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.

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.

I was an only child, and Mother was always right with me all my life. I used to get very angry at her when I was growing up-it’s a natural thing.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

I have ‚Parents‘ magazine in my home.

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

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

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.

I didn’t start sweating until I had children. That was one of the first things I realized when my daughter Violet was born – I started getting wicked BO. You know there’s a difference between basketball BO and stress BO? This was definitely stress BO. Like, new dad BO.

Like every parent, when you start your family, your life completely changes. And you completely live for someone else. I find that the most extraordinary thing. Your life is handed over to someone else. From that moment on, they come first in every choice you make. It’s the most wonderful thing.

There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.

Children make your life important.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

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

I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

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.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

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.

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

If he’s got golf clubs in his truck or a camper in his driveway, I don’t hire him.

My kids are the funniest two human beings there are.

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.

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.‘

Never have more children than you have car windows.

The kids never listen to you, especially the youngest ones.

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.