The Blame Game

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, the responsibility lies with you. - J. K. Rowling

It's called growing up.

Forgiving

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right. - J. K. Rowling

  Don't gloat; it makes forgiveness even more difficult.

Commendations

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools. - Sir Richard Steele

Like the advice but love the language.

Diminished Enthusiasm

To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg


Be sure your praise is well placed and proportionate.

Going Gaga

Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga. - David Ogilvy


Might drive your parents nuts though......

Love of Books

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. - Anna Quindlen


I sure hope e-books don't make a full bookshelf obsolete.

Essential Foods

A food is not necessarily essential just because your child hates it. - Katherine Whitehorn


Unless they hate everything but pizza.

Unusual <> Exceptional

The weirder you are going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person. - P.J. O'Rourke


Unusual doesn't equate to exceptional.

Parenting Prosperity

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States. - Harry S. Truman


Parenting success can outweigh fiscal failure.

Jump At The Sun

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground. - Zora Neale Hurston

And off the couch.

Limitless Learning

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. - Rabbinical Saying

..... Don't limit your child by failing to teach what you have learned.

Lonely

If we don't teach our children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely. - Sherry Turkle

..... You will know you are successful when your kid forgets their cell phone at home.

Beautiful Dreams

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt

..... Never quash someones dreams - you may be dooming their future.

The Arts

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children. - Elain Heffner

..... The art of living is to teach the art of living to children.

Here, Tommy

What we learn with pleasure we never forget. - Alfred Mercier


That is pleasure of the mind, not of the senses. This is often confused - hence treats for performance. It works on dogs, not kids.

Excellence and Virtue

Excellence is an art won by training and habitation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit. - Aristotle


Expect excellence and virtue every time.

Earning The Win

How little a thing can make us happy when we feel we have earned it. - Mark Twain


That is why there should be a winners and a losers in kids games. Trophies we get, but do not earn, fail to ignite the spirit.

Capable of a Lot!

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. - Thomas A. Edison


Never accept less than possible from you and yours.

Perfect Bureaucrats

The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. - Brooks Atkinson


Remember, public school teachers are essentially bureaucrats.

Time Out!

Parenting does not require martyrdom. - Jenn Casey


Though it feels like it sometimes.