Polly Berrien Berends Quotes

United States, Author
December 1, 1939

Polly Berrien Berends is a veteran children's book author, with emphasis on books for the youngest readers, including picture books. Her titles include Ladybug and Dog & Walk (1980), The Case of the Elevator Duck (1989), and I Heard Said the Bird (1995).

Parenthood always comes as a shock. Postpartum blues? Postpartum panic is more like it. We set out to have a baby; what we get is a total take-over of our lives.

Polly Berrien Berends
- Baby
We can see that the baby is as much an instrument of nourishment for us as we are for him.

Polly Berrien Berends
- Baby

The gain is not the having of children; it is the discovery of love and how to be loving.

Polly Berrien Berends
- Children
A sense of worthiness is a child's most important need.

Polly Berrien Berends
- Important
My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.

Polly Berrien Berends
The parent is the strongest statement that the child hears regarding what it means to be alive and real. More than what we say or do, the way we are expresses what we think it means to be alive. So the articulate parent is less a telling than a listening individual.

Polly Berrien Berends
- Real
- Listening
Most of us would do more for our babies than we have ever been willing to do for anyone, even ourselves.

Polly Berrien Berends