Polly Berrien Berends

A sense of worthiness is a child’s most important need.

The parent is the strongest statement that the child hears regarding what it means to be alive and real. More than what we say or do, the way we are expresses what we think it means to be alive. So the articulate parent is less a telling than a listening individual.

My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.

The gain is not the having of children; it is the discovery of love and how to be loving.

We can see that the baby is as much an instrument of nourishment for us as we are for him.

Parenthood always comes as a shock. Postpartum blues? Postpartum panic is more like it. We set out to have a baby; what we get is a total take-over of our lives.

Most of us would do more for our babies than we have ever been willing to do for anyone, even ourselves.