You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  ~Elizabeth Stone

Always kiss your children goodnight - even if they're already asleep.  ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Parenthood:  That state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.  ~Marcelene Cox

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.  ~John Wilmot

It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.  ~Phyllis Diller

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.  ~Josh Billings

There comes a time when a woman needs to stop thinking about her looks and focus her energies on raising her children.  This time comes at the moment of conception.  A child needs a role model, not a supermodel.  ~Astrid Alauda, on the "hot mom" trend

Your children need your presence more than your presents.  ~Jesse Jackson

It's not only children who grow.  Parents do too.  As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours.  I can't tell my children to reach for the sun.  All I can do is reach for it, myself.  ~Joyce Maynard

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  ~Robert Fulghum