13 Quotes That Will Get You Through The Toughest Days Of Motherhood

I could tell you motherhood is hard, but you know that. It’s stressful and exhausting, not to mention the lesser talked-about adjectives, like lonely, isolating, frustrating, depleting. But do any of those words really capture those tougher days and the wide spectrum of emotions? For instance, what’s a word for the experience of watching a piece of you that came from you and is so much like you, but isn’t you? How do you describe the feeling of watching your toddler take his first steps away from you? That’s where supportive and inspirational motherhood quotes come in. These quotes gives us words to borrow when we can’t summon our mommy brains to eloquently describe our feelings. 

Motherhood is difficult in indescribable ways, beyond the laundry, and diapers, and tedious to-dos. There are deep emotional resonances that can only be described through experience. But there are certain people — authors, philosophers, comedians — who can craft just the right words to hit just the right notes, especially around something as universal as parenting. So on those tougher days when your patience is shot and you’re feeling insecure or scared or rage-y, borrow someone else’s words for a new perspective. Because we’re all just trying to get through the day with as much love and clarity as humanly possible.

“Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.” — Catherine M. Wallace, author

“Making the decision to have a child — it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” — Elizabeth Stone, author

“Cleaning the house while the children are home is like shoveling while it’s still snowing.”— Erma Bombeck, humorist

“The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.” — Elaine Heffner, author

“I think it’s worth trying to be a mother who delights in who her children are, in their knock-knock jokes and earnest questions. A mother who spends less time obsessing about what will happen, or what has happened, and more time reveling in what is.” — Ayelet Waldman, author

“Motherhood is a choice you make every day, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is. And to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.” — Donna Ball, author

“The fact that you worry about being a good mom means that you already are one.” — Jodi Picoult, author

“Motherhood is the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary — it’s an act of infinite optimism.” — Gilda Radner, comedienne and actress

“Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There’s no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving.” — Gail Tsukiyama, author

“The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” — Peggy O’Mara, editor and writer

“The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that — a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.”—Debra Ginsberg, author

“Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children.” — Sam Levenson, humorist

“You will never be this loved again. So on those days when you are feeling stressed out, touched out, and depleted, just remember that you will never be this loved again. One day you will long for their affection. So choose a soft voice, choose gentle hands, choose love.” — AK

Images: EarlyMama/Instagram; Courtesy of  Michelle Horton (13)