A single parent is one of the hardest roles to fill. From taking them to school to making sure they eat right to vetting their potential dates, it’s hard to remember that you can still date, too. Which is why there’s this handy list of single-parent quotes to inspire some conversation. From the painfully funny Louis C.K. to the soccer superstar Dave Beckham to quirky television mom Lorelai Gilmore, this list includes something for every parent.
I can’t believe you won’t flirt with me in front of my own daughter. She’s going to think somethings wrong with me. – Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls)
Well, I took a sabbatical. I walked away from shooting movies because I couldn’t handle the travel. I’m a single parent. I had young kids, and I found that keeping in touch with them from hotel rooms and airports wasn’t working for me. So I stopped. –Rick Moranis (actor)
It is the greatest irony of my life that losing my husband helped me find deeper gratitude—gratitude for the kindness of my friends, the love of my family, the laughter of my children. My hope for you is that you can find that gratitude—not just on the good days, like today, but on the hard ones, when you will really need it. – Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO)
I used to like people more, but now I have children and that changes your life in a lot of ways. Like you spend time with people you never would have chosen to spend time with, not in a million years. I spend whole days with people, I’m like, “I never would have hung out with you. I didn’t choose you. Our children chose each other based on no criteria by the way. They’re the same size. They don’t care who they make me hang out with.” – Louis C.K. (Comedian/Actor)
The most difficult part of dating as a single parent is deciding how much risk your own child’s heart is worth. –Dan Pearce (Blogger at Single Dad Laughing)
For me it is a mixture of real, heart, and funny. When you are living with three kids by yourself that is basically how you have to approach life. You have to look for the comedy wherever you can. If not then you will be a heavy drinker and I wasn’t ready for that. –Josh Wolf (Actor/Writer/Comedian)
Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it’s what you want before you commit. –Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat Pray Love)
God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. –Psalm 68:6
Bedtime makes you realize how completely incapable you are of being in charge of another human being. –Jim Gaffagin (Comedian/Actor/Writer)
In my career there’s many things I’ve won, and many things I’ve achieved. But my greatest achievement is my family. –David Beckham (Soccer Superstar)
Just because a single-mom usually can’t be bothered to spend much time on her make-up doesn’t mean that she has given up on romance. —Kemmy Nola (Blogger)
Single parenting is sometimes just a case of sitting around by yourself in mild despair, not knowing what to do. –Simon Van Booy (Author)
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 (Actor)
Some have said that Frankenstein is a story of a bad parenting giving rise to a troubled child. –Dave Morris (Storyteller)
As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves. –Haruki Murakami (Author)
Instead of asking if I’ll ever find love again, I remember that I already have the purest love when those two sets of blue eyes look up at me. –Lindsey Light (Writer/English Professor)
There are times that things just don’t seem fair and you know what, it’s probably because they aren’t. But you rise above, anyways. –Regan Long (Writer)
Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be. –J.K. Rowling (Writer)
You can’t regret the life you didn’t lead. –Junot Diaz (Author)
Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you. –Cheryl Strayed (Author)
You go through big chunks of time where you’re just thinking, ‘This is impossible—oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going, and you sort of do the impossible. –Tina Fey (Comedian/Actor/Writer)
Sleep at this point is just a concept, something I’m looking forward to investigating in the future. –Amy Poehler (Comedian/Actor/Writer)
When you’re a father in a marriage, you sort of become the mother’s assistant. And you sort of get a list from her every day and you run down the list and it feels very much like a chore. And a lot of fathers live very much in avoidance, and they sit on the toilet. Or they say ‘Oh honey, it took me 40 minutes to go to the post office.’ And they just sort of sit in the driveway and heave a big sigh — ‘Oh, I have to go back in.’ But then once you take it out on your own … you have to take it all on. And you sort of activate male skills that you didn’t know you could apply to fatherhood. –Louis C.K. (Comedian/Actor/Writer)
Everyone has these two visions when they hold their child for the first time. The first is your child as an adult saying “I want to thank the Nobel Committee for this award.” The other is “You want fries with that?” –Robin Williams (Comedian/Actor)
Has anyone ever noticed that parenting is more like an exercise in crisis management? –Jill Shalvis (author)
I knew going in that being a single parent would be one of the toughest jobs I’d ever have. I’d been a talk-show host, actor, comic, and on and on, but this gig was going to be my defining moment. –Arsenio Hall (comedian/actor)
There are men who have scaled Everest who wouldn’t dare to travel with two kids under 3. –Dax Shephard (Comedian/Actor)
I’m comfortable with the unknown. On expeditions, you have to adapt all the time and be prepared for anything, and that’s what it’s like to be a parent with your first child. On an expedition, things can go sideways pretty quickly, and there are always blank spaces on the map. You can know how you’re getting from Point A to Point B, but Point C – you’re going to have to figure that out. You have think on your toes, which is the beauty of an expedition. And that’s the adventure of having children – there’s all these unknowns and spontaneously beautiful moments that you wouldn’t ever get to experience if you didn’t go on this expedition. –Jimmy Chin (adventure photographer)
Kids can be a pain in the neck when they’re not a lump in your throat. –Barbara Johnson (Writer)
You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they’re going. –P.J. O’Rourke (Journalist)
Parenthood is a lot easier to get into than out of. –Bruce Lansky (Children’s author)
Show, don’t tell your kids. Let them see that you actually believe in them, and do not give them a bunch of false praise. –Megyn Kelly (Journalist)
Never underestimate kids’ tenacity. Raising a child is like wrestling a small but relentless opponent. –Stephen Colbert (Comedian/Writer/Host of The Late Show)
Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory bank of our children. – Charles R. Swindoll (Pastor/Author/Educator)
To be a good father and mother requires that the parents defer many of their own needs and desires in favor of the needs of their children. As a consequence of this sacrifice, conscientious parents develop a nobility of character and learn to put into practice the selfless truths taught by the Savior Himself. –James E. Faust (Lawyer/Politician/Religious Leader)
You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. –Franklin P. Jones (Journalist)
The child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering. –Benjamin Spock (Author/Pediatrician)
Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur. –Alvin Toffler (Writer/Futurist)
