As a child, I can remember seeing the First Lady, Barbara Bush, in her white pearls, and thinking to myself, “That’s just how all First Ladies look. It must be a ‘First Lady’ thing” 😉
In addition to her being a great First Lady, Barbara was a great wife and mother as well. And in her own candid way, she shared numerous words of wisdom in her years, many of them quotes about the home and family.
Here are 10 of my favorites that may challenge you as they have me:
“A question I’m asked all the time: Did anyone tell you what to do, or give you any guidelines, when your husband was in government? The answer is no. Certainly I was given advice on protocol, and occasionally on what to wear or not to wear, but, for the most part, I just depended on the manners my mother taught me.”
“Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick to your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.”
“Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.”
“I’m a believer that the most important years are the sort of early years, but the preschool years, and then into the first and second grades. If you get a good base in the first and second grade and you can read, you can do anything.”
“I’m worried about parents who aren’t parenting.”
“To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.”
“You have to love your children unselfishly. That’s hard. But it’s the only way.”
“The home is the child’s first school. The parent is the child’s first teacher.”
“You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens inside your house.”
“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.”
Rest in peace, Former First Lady. Thank you for your words of wisdom and the difference you made.
