Maurice Sendak Quotes

I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.

My father once said about being a parent that it is the only thing you do that requires a very long period of learning, and at about the time that you are becoming competent, you don't need the skills anymore. Notwithstanding this modest assessment of their parenting skills, they were wonderful parents.

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

I feel that people should have a license to have children, that they have proper education how to raise children. And that nobody should be allowed to be a parent unless they can prove that they are competent enough to be a parent.

This bringing up of children is so blithely undertaken by many of us, and the vast majority have had no training. It is one of those professions that every woman thinks she can undertake, so nobody really prepares for it.

Parenting is more than a numbers game: it's a question of whether people are equipped for the toughest job they will ever be asked to do.

Sometimes I really think people ought to have to pass a proper exam before they're allowed to be parents. Not just the practical, I mean.

No matter what, it is very tricky and difficult just to be a good parent at all. I have a lot of help. And for that I'm very grateful.

There's no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student's achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here's what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children's education can also make a huge difference in a student's achievement.

We put more emphasis on who can drive a car than on who can be a parent. And I think there ought to be mandatory parenting classes starting in high school, and you should have to have a license to be able to be a parent to explain that you don't give alcohol to kids.

I married an excellent parent, but I'm not sure that I've made a great parent.

As a parent, I'd - I'd be a better father.

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

Just because you become a parent doesn't mean you grew up.

Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.

There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst.

I don't know if a mother's love and a father's love is that different.

My son's my number-one priority.

You earn the title 'parent.' I have done absolutely nothing to earn that title.

My children come first, and always will.

Because you give birth, because you impregnate someone, that does not automatically give you that title of mother or father. You earn the title.

Beforehand you think, 'Oh, changing nappies - I'm going to be up; I need to get sleep for training.' But when it happens, when you're there, as soon as you hear a wiggle or a cough or something, you're up straight away. It doesn't bother you.

I am a believer that if you bring children into this world, then you have a responsibility to do your best and support and guide them until the day you die.

We don't always know exactly what we're doing as parents. Children don't come with instruction manuals, as the saying goes. So it's important to me that I always question the choices I'm making as a father, to really stay alert and open to the balance between being too hard or too soft.

Fathers need to be made aware of their responsibilities - and that's up to all of us to communicate, as parents, as politicians and as members of a community.