The more parents try to make their children happy, the more they prevent their children from learning how to make themselves happy.
— John Rosemond
To show a child what has once delighted you, to find the child’s delight added to your own, so that there is now a double delight seen in the glow of trust and affection, this is happiness.
— J.B. Priestley
Your most important goal as a parent is not to make your children happy on a short-term basis. It’s to raise capable, responsible human beings. There are many times when your children will be unhappy with your decisions. Usually, this means you’ve made the right decision.
— Elizabeth Pantley
Parents who don’t make happiness a goal but who concentrate on the basics – making sure their child works hard in school and takes his chores and responsibilities seriously – will produce a child whose talents and values will bring him success.
— Marilu Henner
Mother had a lot to say. This does not mean she was always talking but that we children felt the wells she drew upon were deep, deep, deep. Her theme was happiness: what it was, what it was not; where we might find it, where not; and how, if found, it must be guarded. Never must we confound it with pleasure. Nor think sorrow its exact opposite.
— Mary Lavin
