"

Babies don't come with instruction booklets. You'd learn the same way we all do -- you'd read up on dinosaurs, you'd Google backhoes and skidders. And...more

"

If you want to love a parent you have to understand the incredible investment he or she has in you. If you are a parent, and you want to be loved, you...more

"

At seventeen, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else's thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind; having someone...more

"

When you're pregnant, you can think of nothing but having your own body to yourself again, yet after having given birth you realize that the biggest p...more

"

What is a parent, really, but somebody who picks up the things a child leaves behind - a trail made of stripped off clothing, orphaned shoes, tiny bri...more

"

My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.

"

I thought of all the magazine article I'd read on mothers who worked and constantly felt guilty about leaving their children with someone else. I had ...more

"

I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.

"

The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following:1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog.2. The ...more

"

Everyone thinks you make mistakes when you're young. But I don't think we make any fewer when we're grown up

"

but it seems to me that growing up means you stop hoping for the best, and start expecting the worst. So how do you tell an adult that maybe everythin...more

"

We pretend that we know our children, because it's easier than admitting the truth--from the minute that cord is cut, they are strangers. It's far eas...more

"

I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as it took a new car to lose that scent, or a brand-n...more

"

Parents aren't the people you come from. They're the people you want to be, when you grow up.

"

Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deed...more