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 o…

- Polly Berrien Berends

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

- Polly Berrien Berends

A child needs both to be hugged and unhugged. The hug lets her know she is valuable. The unhug lets her know that she is viable. If you're always sho…

- Polly Berrien Berends

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

- Polly Berrien Berends

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

- Polly Berrien Berends

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…

- Polly Berrien Berends

If we allow our one-and-a-half year old to "help" us fold laundry he will learn something about buttons, zippers, snaps, where things go, the physica…

- Polly Berrien Berends

Especially with our first child, we tend to take too much responsibility--both credit and blame--for everything. The more we wantto be good parents, …

- Polly Berrien Berends

Awareness of having better things to do with their lives is the secret to immunizing our children against false values--whether presented on televisi…

- Polly Berrien Berends