Mommy Lessons

The following are a list of quotes about parenting that I strive (and stretch, and fail, and try again) to live by:

Brigham Young, whose daughter described him as an ideal father, taught the following:

Study their [your children's] dispositions and their temperaments, and deal with them accordingly, never allowing yourself to correct them in the heat of passion; teach them to love you rather than to fear you.

Children who have lived in the sunbeams of parental kindness and affection, when made aware of a parent’s displeasure, and receive a kind reproof from parental lips, are more thoroughly chastened than by any physical punishment that could be applied to their persons.

Kind looks, kind actions, kind words, and a lovely, holy deportment towards them will bind our children to us with bands that cannot easily be broken.


On teaching reverence and respect Margaret Lifferth said:

Often the child who is the most disruptive needs your love the most.

...reverence is rooted in love, so is the teaching of it. Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence. So begin early and have reasonable expectations. [In my experience harshness in any training builds resentment].

We encourage reverence when we take a crying child out of the chapel and find another room where we continue to listen to the meeting until the baby is calmed or a disruptive toddler is soothed. [The choice of the word soothed went straight to my heart- so many other words might have been used (disciplined, taught, distracted- is there a message in the choice of that particular word?)].

Obviously there are all kinds of quotes about parenting. Today I'm focusing on kindness. It is so easy to think about, and in the hustle & bustle of a day, so hard to do!