God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.

But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.

When you're given a brilliant child you polish her and let her shine.
Pigs in Heaven

A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out. You examine every turn of flesh for precocity, and crow it to the world. But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after--oh, that' s love by a different name.

Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments.

Unless there was an open heart, and caring hands, and listening ears, the children will not be able to correct their steps alone, or overcome their wrong habits that still need their parents’ efforts, patience and big and continuous support.