In a Nutshell -1: Pearls of Wisdom and Humor

• Cleaning the house while the children are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. (Phyllis Diller)
• Children need open-ended toys like blocks, art supplies, little cars and trucks, stuffed animals, and dolls. They can play with those kinds of toys according to whatever is important to them at that moment. After a fire destroyed our home in 1978, my three-year-old son played “Fire on Navarro Ranch” with his fire truck for nine months! (The Mister Rogers Parenting Book and Saralee)
• Children – you spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and be quiet! (email from a friend)
• Being a parent is so overwhelming, you could cry just looking at your child. It’s an overwhelming feeling of love, of wanting to protect him from any pain, any hurt. And the joy! He makes me laugh. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I feel completely fulfilled. (Kelly Preston)
• Adopted children need to know that they were born, just like every other baby in the world. It’s reassuring for them to know they had the same beginnings as everyone else. (The Mister Rogers Parenting Book)
• Babies are competent individuals who have their own agendas and should be treated with respect. (Ruth Mason)