Parenting Honesty Quotes

I think babies are a bit boring, actually. They're OK when they're older; they make you laugh. I think we all think that, really - we just don't say it.

Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments.

I'm not a believer in hiding things from my kids because ultimately they are going to have questions - they feel things.

When my children were little, I would chat with my husband or my mum friends about how we were superior parents to other people, or that so-and-so was lying about how their children slept through the night.

Any mom who tells you that she does it effortlessly is not telling the truth.

When my first daughter was born, my husband held her in his hands and said, 'My God, she's so beautiful.' I unwrapped the baby from her blankets. She was average size, with long thin fingers and a random assortment of toes. Her eyes were close set, and she had her father's hooked nose. It looked better on him.

Any parent who says parenting came easily to them is not being honest with themselves. Parenting is hard.

I love kids, but I have to be honest: I am that person at a dinner party who's a little relieved when the kids go to bed.

So much for the myth that motherhood is all Laura Ashley smocks and skipping through fields. People think it's rose-tinted and they don't tell the truth!

I mean, the human race wouldn't continue if anyone told you how hard it is having kids, would it?

I might be at the odd press conference with a little bit of spill on me because I'm not going to hide the imperfections of parenting. I don't think anyone needs that.

If my Catholic boyfriend and I ever have a kid, we'll just be honest with it. We'll say that Mommy is one of God's chosen people, and Daddy believes that Jesus is magic!

We do live in an unsafe world. That's the truth. I'm dealing with that now, with my seven-year-old. He's grappling with the fact that the world is unsafe, and that there are people who do harmful things. I don't think there's anything wrong with presenting that idea. We can't lie to our children and pretend that the world is perfect, and everybody's happy, and everybody's out there to do good. It's just part of a bigger conversation.