Do you ever feel like parenting isn’t the easiest assignment? You’re not alone! Raising our little ones to become responsible adults is probably one of the most difficult things we can ever do as adults.
You might feel other parents are doing it better than you, or they’re judging you. Sometimes it can feel as if your kids are just testing your limits. And while there are times when children can be sweet little angels, those moments tend to be far apart.
The good news is that a word of encouragement here and there can get you through, especially when it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulder. At such times, one or more of these inspirational parenting quotes for hard times can come in handy.
Inspirational Parenting Quotes for Hard Times When You Feel Overwhelmed
- “Have patience with all things, But, first of all with yourself.” – Saint Francis de Sales
- “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “Not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry.” – Anonymous
- “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” – A. A. Milne
- “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” – Charlotte Bronte
- “There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” – Epictetus
- “The man who moves a mountain does so by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius
- “Motherhood has taught me the meaning of living in the moment and being at peace. Children don’t think about yesterday, and they don’t think about tomorrow. They just exist in the moment.” – Jessalyn Gilsig
- “Everything that happens to me in a day enhances my parenting.” – Pamela Adlon
- “If you are stuck in a rut, do something different. Just pick one small thing.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means, keep moving.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” – Saadi
- “Micro changes in your body language can send soothing and calming messages to your brain. Take a deep breath into your belly, soften your shoulders and relax your muscles.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “Any child in his right mind will test the limits. That’s his job. He’s pretty new on the planet, after all, and he’s figuring out the rules. The most common reason children test the limits is that they really want to find out where those limits are. Children need the security of knowing that someone more experienced and knowledgeable is looking out for them. They don’t feel safe when we don’t guide and nurture them. That’s why we often say that children will keep pushing until they find our limits.” – Dr. Laura Markham
- “If you take a baby step and it doesn’t work out, don’t worry. Try again another day.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “So don’t ask yourself at the end of the day if you did everything right. Ask yourself what you learned and how well you loved, then grow from your answer. That is perfect parenting.” – L. R. Knost
- “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Perhaps one day, they’ll understand all the sacrifices she gladly made out of love for them.” – John Mark Green
- “All thoughts pass. All emotions pass. There is blue sky above the clouds. The blue sky represents happiness and calmness. When thought or emotion clouds are directly above us, we cannot see the blue sky. The cloud dominates, and it is hard to think of anything else. But we must remember that the cloud will pass. There is blue sky beyond the cloud.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end!” – John Lennon
Positive Parenting Quotes for Hard Times When You Feel Imperfect
- “The universe doesn’t allow perfection.” – Stephen Hawking
- “Don’t try to be perfect. Life isn’t, no one is. Use mistakes and mishaps as opportunities to grow tolerance and to teach.” – Teri Hatcher
- “Parenting has nothing to do with perfection. Perfection isn’t even the goal, not for us, not for our children.” – L. R. Knost
- “Don’t let yourself become so concerned with raising a good kid that you forget you already have one.” – Glennon Melton-Doyle
- “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” – Anne Frank
- “There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one.” – Sue Atkins
- “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchhill
- “As a mother, my job is to take care of the possible and trust God with the impossible.” – Ruth Bell Graham
- “The most powerful way to change the world is to live in front of our children the way we would like the world to be.” – Graham R White
- “You’re always going to wonder if you’re doing things wrong. But that’s what it means to be a mom, to care so much about someone else that you just want to be as perfect as possible.” – Naya Rivera
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
- “No matter how much time you spend reading books or following your intuition, you’re gonna screw it up. Fifty times. You can’t do parenting right.” – Alan Arkin
- “No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” – Virginia Woolf
- “The thing about parenting rules is there aren’t any. That’s what makes it so difficult.” – Ewan McGregor
- “It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.” – L. R. Knost
- “The trick is to enjoy life. Don’t wish away your days waiting for better ones ahead.”– Marjorie Pay Hinkley
Inspiring Parenting Quotes for a Hard Time to Help Nurture Your Parent-Child Relationship
- “You must first teach a child he is loved. Only then is he ready to learn everything else.” – Amanda Morgan
- “As your kids grow up, they may forget what you said, but they won’t forget how you made them feel.” – Kevin Heath
- “Remember you are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being.” – Kittie Franz
- “Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.” – Mathew L Jacobson
- “Encourage and support your kids, because children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.”– Lady Bird Johnson
- “Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.” – Bill Ayers
- “Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first, we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better?” – Jane Nelson
- “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulghum
- “The kids who need the most love will ask for it in the most unloving ways.” – Unknown
- “So often, children are punished for being human. Children are not allowed to have grumpy moods, bad days, disrespectful tones, or bad attitudes, yet we adults have them all the time. None of us are perfect, and we must stop holding our children to a higher standard of perfection than we can attain ourselves.” – Rebecca Eanes
- “Optimists focus more on the problem itself rather than on managing emotions that may result from the problem and are less likely to simply ignore the problem. Optimists have a greater sense of control and ownership.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.” – Mary Karr
- “What good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.” – Benjamin Spock
- “The reality is that most of us communicate the same way that we grew up. That communication style becomes our normal way of dealing with issues, our blueprint for communication. It’s what we know and passes on to our own children. We either become our childhood, or we make a conscious choice to change it.” – Kristen Crockett
- “Play helps build a warm relationship between family members and create a bank of positive feelings and experiences that can be drawn upon in times of conflict. Through play, you can help your children solve problems, test out ideas, and explore their imaginations.” – Carolyn Webster-Stratton
- “God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers” – Jewish Proverb
- “If we don’t shape our kids, they will be shaped by outside forces that don’t care what shape our kids are in.” – Dr. Louise Hart
- “Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good affections grow.” – Thomas Bray
- “It would be unhealthy for a child not to feel they could present their point of view. If your child is argumentative, congratulate yourself that they feel safe enough to share their views openly and passionately with you.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful, and magical humans on earth. For what they believe is what they will become.” – Brooke Hampton
- “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 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
- “Indeed – judicious, consistent parenting is a dream of mine. No judgments, learning space, and listening carefully are my goals.” – Emma Thompson
- “Play is the language of childhood. Speaking our children’s language may sound like nonsense to us, but it sounds like love to them.” – L. R. Knost
- “It is time for parents to teach young people that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” – Maya Angelou
- “If you have an argumentative or defiant child be proud that they: are practicing skills for becoming a confident leader; feel safe enough to express their views; often have advanced reasoning and logic skills; and are passionate about their points of view.” – Dr Lucy Russell
- “Learning together to live well in an imperfect world, loving each other despite or even because of our imperfections, and growing as humans while we grow our little humans, those are the goals of gentle parenting.” – L. R. Knost
- “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
- “Children need love especially when they do not deserve it.” – Harold Hulbert
- “You will never look back on life and think, ‘I spent too much time with my kids.’” – Unknown
Consider printing out a few of these inspiring parenting quotes for hard times that resonate with you. Stick them somewhere you can easily see them often during your parenting journey, especially when going through a difficult time.
The more times you see, read, and repeat these inspirational quotes to yourself, the easier it is to alter your mindset and make it easy to handle those times when parenting seems tough and you feel unappreciated.
