CHILDREN / YOUTH

CHILDREN / YOUTH - 1

“These words that I am commanding you today must be on your heart, and you must inculcate them in your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” - Moses - Deut. 6:6,7 - HOLY SCRIPTURES

Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older, they judge them; sometimes they even forgive them. – Oscar Wilde

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. – Phyllis Diller

After asking my 4-year-old grandson, Zack, if he liked working in the yard with me, he said, “Yes, Paw. I wish this day would NEVER end!” – Zack Meier - (Gary Pulliam)

I’ve learned that having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful things in the world. – AndyRooney                                                           

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you gave birth. – Erma Bombeck

If your parents never had any children, chances are, neither will you. – Dick Cavett

Adopted kids are such a pain—you have to teach them to look like you. – Gilda Radner

It is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men. – Frederick Douglass

“Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness, and little things in between.  Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, and our lives.” – Scout (Jean Louise Finch) – near conclusion -(Harper Lee ) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Horton Foote - (Screenplay)

In short, the habits we form from childhood make no difference, but they rather make all the difference. – Aristotle

“Help me to do good, be good and stay good.” – My son Toby’s goodnight prayer at 4 years old

It’s not just that families have less time with their kids, we just spend more time doing battle with our own culture. – Ellen Goodman

You should never ask your three-year old brother to hold a tomato. – Alecia (age 12)

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. – James Baldwin

As much as we watch what our children do with their lives, they are watching what we do with ours. – Joyce Maynard

“I do not ponder on things over which I have no control.” – Garrett Meier (Grandson - age 9)

To often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. – Ralph Lewin

Even toddlers can start learning self-control.  “If a child cries and cries for a piece of candy at the grocery store and you give it to her, you have just taught her that crying is an effective way toget what she wants.  The next time she wants something, she will cry and whine because that worked last time.” – Dr. Jean M. Twenge – GENERATION ME

CHILDREN / YOUTH - 2

“Children, be obedient to your parents in union with the Lord. for this is righteous. Honor your father and your mother is the first commandment with a promise: that it may go well with you and you may remain a long time on the earth.” - Apostle Paul - Eph. 6:1-3 - HOLY SCRIPTURES

I wish to thank my parents for making it all possible—I wish to thank my children for making it all necessary. – Victor Borge

“Thank you for birds and grass and trees and flowers.” – My son Toby’s prayer at 3 years old. - Gary Pulliam

I’ve learned that the best classroom in the world is at the foot of some elderly person. – Andy Rooney

The illiteracy level of our children are appaling. – George W. Bush

‘They’ insisted that our schools must boot God out, and rely on Junior’s intelligence.  So we graduated a generation of juniors with refined intellects and undisciplined emotions—so school age suicides soared 92% in the last two years! – Paul Harvey in the 1970’s            

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney

The cure for boredom is curiosity—there is no cure for curiosity. – Dorothy Parker

You must floss your teeth, if you want to keep them.  You must study the Bible with your children, if you want to keep them. – Joseph Siranko (Traveling minister)

Youth is not a time in life—it is a state of mind.  Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.  People grow old by deserting their ideals. – Betty Pitzer

What’s done to children they will do to society. – Dr. Karl Menninger

Experts say you should never hit your children in anger.  When is it a good time—when you’re feeling festive? – Rosanne Barr

Adults are obsolete children. – Doctor Suess

“Western civilization took centuries to develop the idea of CHILDREN.  But television has erased it in a few decades.  What a child once learned through reading was roughly commensurate with his ability to process the information.  In the television age, however, we all get the same messages. A child of five and an adult of forty can see the same images and hear the same words simply by pushing a button.  It shows in our behavior.  Children and adult now dress alike, talk alike and play the same games.  The concept of childhood is vanishing.” – John Corry – MY TIMES

Children’s talent to endure comes from their ignorance of the alternatives. – Maya Angelou

Sometimes I’m asked by kids why I condemn marijuana when I haven’t tried it.  The greatest male obstetricians in the world have never been pregnant. – Art Linkletter

No! – Probably the most used quote in human history

We learn what our children believe by listening to their prayers. – Gary Pullaim among others

CHILDREN / YOUTH - 3

I’ve learned that you should never say “no” to a gift from a child. – Andy Rooney

It’s better to give children rules to break rather than no rules at all. – Tipper Gore

I was born and raised with crocodiles; they are a piece of cake.  But kids are so… unpredictable. – Steve Irwin

In general, my children refuse to eat anything that doesn’t dance on television. – Erma Bombeck                                                       

Infrequent verbal expressions of love are like trying to fit old shoes on a teenager—they just don’t fit.  You can never go back. – Leo Buscaglia –LOVE

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubts, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fears, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.  In the central place of every heart is a recording chamber, so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, you are young. – Betty Pitzer

Talk is not wasted affection.  Affection is never wasted. – Henry W. Longfellow

Feelings of worth can flourish in an atmosphere when individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible—the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family. – Virginia Satir (American writer) - Psychotherapist (Family Therapy)

Three things that children must know—who’s the boss, what the rules are, and who is going to enforce them. – Lew Powers

I wrote a few children’s books, but not on purpose. – Steven Wright

You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime. – Gary Pulliam

Although today there are many trial marriages, there is no such thing as a trial child. – Gary Wills, quoted by Gail Sheehy in PASSAGES                                   

The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults. – Peter DeVries

If you never want to see a man again, say, “I love you, I want to marry you, and I want to have children.” They leave skid marks! – Rita Rudner

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose. – Woody Allen

Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare. – Ed Asner

Discipline is learned through the seat of the pants—that’s what buns are for.  Many parents train their dogs more than their kids. – Paul Harvey

CHILDREN / YOUTH - 4

Just remember, I know a whole lot more about being young than you know about being old. – A father to his teenage son

Every book is a children’s book if the kid can read. – Mitch Hedberg

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen. – Mark Twain                                                   

We are only young once.  That’s all society can stand. – Bob Bowen                

What we inherit from previous generations, not materially, but spiritually, emotionally and intellectually, is our real legacy. – Gary Pulliam

When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son. – Jewish Talmud

“The self-esteem movement has done little except make children feel entitled, as if the experts just learned the secret of good parenting, and it was this—make you children feel good about themselves.  Avoid using negative words such as ‘no’ and ‘bad.’ Keep telling your children that they are special; they can be anything they want to be.  It was as if feeling good was more important than being good.” – Dr. Jean M. Twenge (Phd) – GENERATION ME

Because of their size parents are difficult to discipline. – P. J. O’Rourke

We basically go back to children when we’re in the dentist’s chair. – Arthur Benjamin

Talking to some kids is like trying to put socks on an octopus. – Personal experience

We never really grow up; we just learn how to act in public. – Bryan White

Never idealize them.  They will never live up to your expectations. – Leo Buscaglia – LOVE

We don’t stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing. – George Bernard Shaw

A family is a unit composed not only of children, but of men, women, and occasional animal, and the common cold. – Ogden Nash

When I was young, I was kidnapped.  My parents snapped into action.  They rented out my room. – Woody Allen

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light. – Socrates

“Life leaves all looking a little ridiculous at times, so we might as well relax and enjoy it when the laugh is on us.” – Art Linkletter – OOPS! OR LIFE’S AWFUL MOMENTS

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they are going. – P. J. O’Rourke

CHILDREN / YOUTH - 5

A mother’s love is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, even though her heart is breaking. – Helen Steiner Rice

Growing old is mandatory—growing up is optional. – Chili Davis

Youth is a wonderful thing.  What a crime to waste it on children. – George Bernard Shaw

“To remember is to understand.  I have never forgotten it.  A good judge remembers what it was like to be a good lawyer.  A good editor remembers being a writer.  A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child.” – Anna Quindlen – THINKING OUT LOUD

The first sign of maturity is the discovery that the volume knob also turns to the left. – Jerry M. Wright

Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. – Herbert Asquith

“If we overindulge our children, if we don’t make them learn how to wait their turn, delay gratification, and resist temptation, the neural changes that we associate with strong character may not take place.” – Dr. Dan Kindlon – TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING—RAISING CHILDREN OF CHARACTER IN AN INDULGENT AGE

The purpose for school is for children to learn, not to feel good about themselves.  – Dr. Jean M. Twenge – GENERATION ME

A happy family is but an earlier heaven. – George Bernard Shaw

The love of family and admiration of friends is a lot more important than wealth and privilege.   – Charles Kuralt

Sisters are probable the most competitive relationship, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. – Margaret Mead

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy of each other’s life. – Richard Bach

What the vast majority of American children need is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered too.  In the final analysis, it is not about what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings. – Ann Landers

Family is not the important thing.  It’s everything. – Michael J. Fox

The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution that really works, is the family. – Lee Iacocca

Children are not a right, they are a privaledged obligation. - Dr. Laura Schlessinger

 CHILDREN / YOUTH - 6

Who are the ‘They’ that have been misleading us? ‘They’ are the materialists who defy the finite sciences.  Every ugly headline in today’s newspapers—yesterday’s and tomorrow’s—is somebody’s emotion gone out of whack.  Many of today’s youths are unguided missiles destined to inevitably self-destruct. – Paul Harvey