Quotes & Sayings About Fathering

A working definition of fathering might be this: fathering is the act of guiding a child to behave in ways that lead to the child's becoming a secure child in full, thus increasing his or her chances of being happy and fruitful as a young adult. — Clyde Edgerton

Fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. — Frank Pittman

But the problem with crests is that they lead downhill. From the crest I can see all the rest of my years stretched out before me. And the view doesn't please me. I see only aging, diminishment, fathering, grandfathering." "But, — Irvin D. Yalom

Let me say for now that we knew once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don't misunderstand me, both are needed- but an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence — Wm. Paul Young

Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers and fathering is a very important stage in their development. — David Gottesman

We are on the cusp of the emergence of a company of hidden men and women who with all faith and patience have been enduring great struggles and dealings, being processed by the Lord and filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. These are not those who seek a reputation for themselves, their passion is His glory and giving Him the church He has longed for. May God grant us all the heart of apostolic fathering and mothering that can release His power in the earth. Zion is once again in travail to bring forth her children. — Mark Chironna

Could it be that the great Bonaparte is incapable of fathering a child? that it is not I who am at fault but you? — Carolly Erickson

In an agricultural society, or during a time of exploration and settlement, or hunting and fathering
which is to say, most of mankind's history
energetic boys were particularly prized for their strength, speed, and agility. [ ... ] As recently as the 1950s, most families still had some kind of agricultural connection. Many of these children, girls as well as boys, would have been directing their energy and physicality in constructive ways: doing farm chores, baling hay, splashing in the swimming hole, climbing trees, racing to the sandlot for a game of baseball. Their unregimented play would have been steeped in nature. — Richard Louv

Being a father can 'unreason' your worldview, or at least make it very flexible, and that can create all sorts of fun and insights. It's sad that children's open-eyed wonder and sense of play begin to fade as they approach adolescence. One grand function of fathering is to keep the fading to a minimum. — Clyde Edgerton

When these parenting years have passed, something precious will have flickered and gone out of my life. Thus, I am resolved to enjoy every day that remains in this fathering era. — James Dobson

Fathering is the most masculine thing a man can do — Frank Pittman

With a title like this-There's a Box in the Garage You Can Beat with a Stick-is there really a whole lot left to say? With cunning and quintessential stealth, with artful restraint, with whats fathering and foxy and filled with intelligence and wit, Michael Teig goes about making what seems to be invisible and unspeakable, the most palpable and important matter in the world. — Dara Wier

When people say "to father," they generally mean that one biological act - the act of begetting a child. It is different with the verb "to mother." "To mother" implies care. A man's act of fathering can easily be that one seed sown; a woman's act of mothering can take up all the rest of her life. I — Deborah Meyler

Whatever their age, most men have never received true fathering. — John Eldredge

In colonial America, the father was the primary parent ... Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has hadless authority than the last ... Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do. — Frank Pittman

Fathering makes a man, whatever his standing in the eyes of the world, feel strong and good and important, just as he makes his child feel loved and valued. — Frank Pittman

Don't let truth and grace forsake one another. If you raise your child with only truth (or your laws), they will never live up to your rules or expectations. No one can fulfill all of the law. On the other hand , if you only give grace to your children, they will run wild without restraint. — Neil Kennedy

To exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution, Hamilton from serving as secretary of the treasury, Clay from being elected speaker of the House and Christopher Columbus from discovering America. — John F. Kennedy

There are no absolutes in raising children. In any stressful situation, fathering is always a roll of the dice. The game may be messy, but I have never found one with more joys and rewards. — Bill Cosby

Every one of the numberless religions and religious sects views the Deity after its own fashion; and, fathering on the unknown its own speculations, it enforces these purely human outgrowths of overheated imagination on the ignorant masses, and calls them "revelation." As the dogmas of every religion and sect often differ radically, they cannot be true. And if untrue, what are they? — H. P. Blavatsky

Fathering is a major job, but I need both things in my life: my job to be a director, and my kids to direct me. — Steven Spielberg

Fathering imposed an obligation that was more than your money, your body, or your time, a presence neither physical nor measurable by clocks: open-ended, eternal, and invisible, like the commitment of gravity to the stars. — Michael Chabon

The guys who fear becoming
fathers don't understand that fathering
is not something perfect men do, but something
that perfects the man. The end product of child
raising is not the child, but the parent. — Frank Pittman

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right. — Bill Cosby

There is too much fathering going on just now and there is no doubt about it fathers are depressing. — Gertrude Stein

Experience of the phenomenal capacity of our birthing body can give us an enduring sense of our own power as women. Birth is the beginning of life; the beginning of mothering, and of fathering. We all deserve a good beginning. — Sarah J. Buckley

Frequently I go to conferences and listen to speakers decry the absent father as somehow a new phenomenon. Though their recriminations against absent or emotionally distant fathers are generally meant to help society, at the same time they are built on a lie that evolution disproves generation after generation. Fathers have often gone to war, or the long hunt on the savannah, or to work in another village or city. But only in the last decade or so have manhood and fathering been trashed completely. — Michael Gurian

During the feminist seventies men were caught between a rock and a hard-on; in the fathering eighties they are caught between good hugs and bad hugs. — Florence King

Don't canonize me too soon. I'm perfectly capable of fathering a child. — Francis Of Assisi

If fathers who fear fathering and run away from it could only see how little fathering is enough. Mostly, the father just needs to be there. — Frank Pittman

This fathering is a man's second chance at living. — Angelo Patri