L.R. Knost

"It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless."

- L.R. Knost

"Every day, in a 100 small ways, our children ask, ‘Do you hear me? Do you see me? Do I matter?’ Their behavior often reflects our response."

- L.R. Knost

"Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful."

- L.R. Knost

"It’s ok to be grumpy sometimes, to have bad days to struggle, to make mistakes, to say the wrong thing, feel overwhelmed and under-appreciated, to be out-of-sorts and sort-of-over-it all. It’s ok for us big humans, and it’s ok for our little humans, too. After all, we’re all humans, right? How else will our little humans learn that it’s okay to be human? Remember, we’re imperfect humans growing imperfect humans in an imperfect world, and that’s perfectly okay."

- L.R. Knost

"It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless."

- L.R. Knost

""It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.""

- L.R. Knost

"Fairy tales in childhood are stepping stones throughout life, leading the way through trouble and trial. The value of fairy tales lies not in a brief literary escape from reality, but in the gift of hope that goodness truly is more powerful than evil and that even the darkest reality can lead to a Happily Ever After. Do not take that gift of hope lightly. It has the power to conquer despair in the midst of sorrow, to light the darkness in the valleys of life, to whisper “One more time” in the face of failure. Hope is what gives life to dreams, making the fairy tale the reality."

- L.R. Knost

"We don’t lose ourselves in parenthood. We find parts of ourselves we never knew existed."

- L.R. Knost

"Many believe parenting is about controlling children’s behavior and training them to act like adults. I believe that parenting is about controlling my own behavior and acting like an adult myself. Children learn what they live and live what they learn."

- L.R. Knost

"One day, your child will make a mistake or a bad choice and run to you instead of away from you, and in that moment, you will know the immense value of peaceful, positive, respectful parenting."

- L.R. Knost

"The ultimate gift we can give the world is to grow our tiny humans into adult humans who are independent thinkers, compassionate doers, conscious questioners, radical innovators, and passionate peacemakers. Our world doesn’t need more adults who blindly serve the powerful because they’ve been trained to obey authority without question. Our world needs more adults who challenge and question and hold the powerful accountable."

- L.R. Knost

"The ultimate gift we can give the world is to grow our tiny humans into adult humans who are independent thinkers, compassionate doers, conscious questioners, radical innovators, and passionate peacemakers. Our world doesn't need more adults who blindly serve the powerful because they've been trained to obey authority without question. Our world needs more adults who challenge and question and hold the powerful accountable."

- L.R. Knost

""Parenting has nothing to do with perfection. Perfection isn’t even the goal, not for us, not for our children.""

- L.R. Knost

"There are no bad children. There are bad choices. There are bad moments. There are bad days. There are bad situations. But there are no bad children. Period."

- L.R. Knost

"Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem. To raise problem solvers, focus on solutions, not retribution."

- L.R. Knost

"Fairy tales in childhood are stepping stones throughout life, leading the way through trouble and trial."

- L.R. Knost

"Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem. To raise problem-solvers, focus on solutions not retribution."

- L.R. Knost

"Discipline is helping a child solve a problem. Punishment is making a child suffer for having a problem."

- L.R. Knost

"Taking care of yourself doesn't mean me first, it means me too."

- L.R. Knost

"When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos."

- L.R. Knost

"When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it's our job to share our calm, not join their chaos."

- L.R. Knost

"Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean me first, it means me too."

- L.R. Knost

"Taking care of myself doesn't mean 'me first.' It means 'me, too."

- L.R. Knost

"Taking care of myself doesn’t mean ‘me first.’ It means ‘me, too.'"

- L.R. Knost

"One day your child will make a mistake or a bad choice and run to you instead of away from you and at that moment you will know the immense value of peaceful, positive, respectful parenting."

- L.R. Knost

"When our little people are overwhelmed by big emotions it is our job to share our calm, not join their chaos."

- L.R. Knost