To show a child what once delighted you, to find the child’s delight added to your own – this is happiness. 595
Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults. 612
As a child is indulged or checked in its early follies, a ground is generally laid for the happiness or misery of the future man. 646
Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes. 624
From their teenage years on, children are considerably more capable of causing parents unhappiness than bringing them happiness. That is one reason parents who rely on their children for happiness make both their children and themselves miserable 653
Maturity – among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates. 640
I decided that it’s either, you know, if I want to have children, have a family and – and live a long life, I’ve got to make some real, real serious changes. 649
To me, money is the ability to create lifelong experiences for my family and myself, to educate my children and a way to give back to humanity. 592
I come from a massive family, and the youngest is twentysomething years younger than I am, so I grew up with children. 645
We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children. 1.6K
I was the oldest of the children in my family. I had to do a lot of diaper-changing and lunch-making. I was taking my little sister to ballet, picking up my brother, sort of being a super-nanny. 846
Combined families often get bad reviews, but the family my children got when they traded away ‘the suffocating four-person’ nuclear one is one that has benefited all of them. 621
I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying busy pleasures. 2.48K
It has to be real, and I think a lot of the problems we have as a society is because we don’t acknowledge that family is important, and it has to be people who are present, you know, and mothers and fathers, both are not present enough with children. 643
I wish I had an extra day with my mom sometimes. Or another hour in the day with my family, husband and children. 552
A loving family provides the foundation children need to succeed, and strong families with a man and a woman – bonded together for life – always have been, and always will be, the key to such families. 700
As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual, even exceptional, family, but the effect was different on each of us. 2.25K
