Raising Healthy Children

Kids certainly don't come with instruction manuals, but thankfully there are many quotations on raising children that come from writers, poets and parents who have somehow navigated the murky waters of child rearing and have words of wisdom to help the rest of us along the path of raising healthy children. While a simple parenting quote can't calm a colicky baby in the middle of the night or freeze a toddler's meltdown in the toy aisle, it is reassuring to read a few inspired words and know that we really are doing our best to be raising healthy children. 

Quotes about Raising Children

No matter what your parenting philosophy or style, you should be able to glean some kernels of wisdom from this selection of quotes about raising children.   

Quotes on Unconditional Love

There's no way to prepare new parents for that indescribable feeling of love that comes with the birth of a child, but here a few quotes that try to capture that emotion with words.

• "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
• "A parent's love is whole no matter how many times divided." --Robert Brault
• "Children will not remember you for the material things you provided, but for the feeling that you cherished them." --Richard L. Evans.

Bible Verses for Raising Children

There is also a lot of wisdom to be gained from the Bible, where thousands of years ago parents were struggling to raise children just as we are today.

• "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." --Proverbs 22:6
• "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord." --Psalms 127:3
• "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." --Ephesians 6:4

Quotes on Leading by Example

We've all heard parents joke that they want their children to do what they say, not what they do. Here are some quotes that remind us that our example is one of the most powerful parenting tools we have available. 

• "My father didn't tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it." --Clarence Budinton Kelland
• "If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." --C.G. Jung
• "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

Inspirational Quotations to Help Parents Raise Their Kids

The best quotes might not solve all of your parenting problems, but hopefully they provide you with just the right thought to feel better about the job that you are doing as a parent. Maybe they spark some inspiration for a solution to something you're currently dealing with. Whether you find anything useful in the words of others or not, remember that comedian Bill Cosby said this, "In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck—and, of course, courage."