The 61 Best Motherhood Quotes from Celebrities Who Totally Get It
Motherhood: It’s a special club. (Come on, who else is going to understand the lack of sleep and the tantrums and the fact that conversations about poop are now a daily occurrence?) With Mother’s Day right around the corner, now’s the perfect time to celebrate your membership via these celeb quotes that perfectly define the highs and lows—and the quirks—of being a mom.
Keep reading for 61 motherhood quotes that are bound to bring a smile to every mom’s face, whether you write them in a card, share them on Instagram or use them for a DIY project.
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1. “My mother has always been my emotional barometer and my guidance. I was lucky enough to get to have one woman who truly helped me through everything.” — Emma Stone
2. “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” — Jill Churchill
3. “Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.” — Meryl Streep
4. “Sometimes, when I want to take on the world, I try to remember that it’s just as important to sit down and ask my son how he’s feeling or talk to him about life.” — Angelina Jolie
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5. “You don't ever balance it completely. [Motherhood] is a constant struggle of a little more time there, a little more time here, and feeling a little bit guilty all the time.” — Halle Berry
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6. “Having a baby is just living in the constant unexpected. You never know when you’re gonna get crapped on or when you’re gonna get a big smile or when that smile immediately turns into hysterics.” — Blake Lively
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7. “Only I can understand my kid. She’s like ‘bdidkdkodkdhjxudhejslosjdhdusjmsozuzusjsixoj’ and I’m like, ‘Ok, I will get you a piece of sausage in just a minute.’” — Chrissy Teigen
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8. “I’ve learned the value of absorbing the moment.” — Thandie Newton
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9. “Every day when you’re raising kids, you feel like you could cry or crack up and just scream ‘This is ridiculous!’ because there's so much nonsense, whether it’s what they’re saying to you or the fact that there's avocado or poop on every surface.” — Kristen Bell
10. “Becoming a mother has made me next-level confident. I’ve never felt more empowered.” — Kelly Clarkson
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11. “I can be covered in spit-up on a conference call while I’m pumping and that's ok because this is my perfect. It may not be somebody else’s, but this is mine.” — Kerry Washington
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12. “Nothing can really prepare you for it because you never again have a day where you don’t think of your kids first.” — Zooey Deschanel
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13. “We have rules around the house. I always say, if you’re not yelling at your kids, you’re not spending enough time with them.” — Reese Witherspoon
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14. “I think twice about traveling now, because it needs to be for a damn good reason if I’m going to leave my kid.” — Connie Britton
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15. “You have those moments: exhaustion, the stress of having an exuberant child, and you don’t want to be judged by your worst mistakes. It’s a part of life, and it’s a part of what makes us who we are.” — Viola Davis
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16. “I use humor instead of getting into that whole yes and no thing all the time. It’s about just getting them to laugh rather than getting in power struggles.” — Marcia Cross
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17. “Stars are just like us. We all got lice. It’s making me itchy just to talk about it.” — Jennifer Garner
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18. “I tell my daughter every morning, ‘Now, what are the two most important parts of you?’ And she says, ‘My head and my heart.’ Because that's what I’ve learned in the foxhole: What gets you through life is strength of character and strength of spirit and love.” - Viola Davis
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19. “I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: You go through big chunks of time where you're just thinking, ‘This is impossible—oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going and you sort of do the impossible.” - Tina Fey
20. “It’s not about what we can do, it’s what we must do as working moms and working dads. Anything is possible...if it means warming up and stretching while holding my baby that’s what #thismama will do.” — Serena Williams
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21. “Sleep at this point is just a concept. Something I’m looking forward to investigating in the future.” — Amy Poehler
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22. “As a new mom myself, it really was important to hear positive compliments from people just being like, ‘Hey, you’re doing a great job.’” — Shay Mitchell
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23. “Why don’t kids understand that their nap is not for them, it’s for us?” — Alyson Hannigan
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24. “When I had my children and I felt that type of love, which I know you understand and every mom out there understands, it made me understand that there was a purity to love. That there is an unconditional love.” — Jennifer Lopez
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25. “Get rid of the guilt. When you’re at one place, don’t feel bad that you’re not at work. When you’re at work, don’t feel bad that you’re not at home.” — Katie Couric
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26. “It just occurred to me that the majority of my diet is made up of the foods my kid did not finish.” — Carrie Underwood
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27. “When my daughter is awake, I want her to sleep. When she’s asleep, I want her awake. This is my parenting life.” — Chrissy Teigen
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28. “I’ve never met a 2-year-old who is terrible. I’m so cool with every stage my daughter goes through. I just think she’s amazing. I hope she’s not looking at me thinking, ‘Mom, are the terrible 30s coming on with you?’” — Katie Holmes
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29. “The one thing you’ve got to be prepared to do as a parent is not to be liked from time to time.” — Emma Thompson
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30. “Children are f--king crazy. They’re also suicidal. Like, at the park, certain jungle gyms have an opening for older kids to jump out of. My daughter can’t jump. She just walks off it as if she’s on a pirate ship.” — Mila Kunis
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31. “I don’t think there’s been an hour of my life since Ava was born that I don’t think of my kids. I call it my CNN ticker tape: Is Ava OK? Yes. Is Deacon OK? Yes. Is Tennessee OK? Yes. Back to Ava.” — Reese Witherspoon
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32. “Becoming a mom to me means you have accepted that for the next 16 years of your life, you will have a sticky purse.” — Nia Vardalos
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33. “Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It is full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love and worry, all mixed together. Your fundamental identity changes overnight.” — Kate Middleton
34. “People know not to call me before 8:15. Because 8:15 is when everybody has to either be on the bus or at school and then my whole life starts at 8:15.” — Reese Witherspoon
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35. “Parenting shifts as your kids shift. The best thing for me has been throwing any kind of parenting manual out of the window.” — Kate Hudson
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36. “Motherhood is the most completely humbling experience I’ve ever had. It puts you in your place because it really forces you to address the issues that you claim to believe in—and if you can’t stand up to those principles when you're raising a child, forget it.” — Diane Keaton
37. “I never understand why mothers judge other mothers, like, ‘What do you mean you didn’t breastfeed? What do you mean you didn’t do this?’ It’s like, ‘Can’t we all just be on each other’s side?’” — Gwyneth Paltrow
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38. “It’s not difficult to take care of a child; it’s difficult to do anything else while taking care of a child. Trying to clean up the kitchen after you’ve had a baby is a nightmare.” — Julianne Moore
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39. “The sleep deprivation after children is so real. I liken it to what it must feel like to walk on the moon and cry the whole time because you had heard that the moon was supposed to be great but in truth it totally sucks.” — Amy Poehler
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40. “I’ve conquered a lot of things...blood clots in my lungs—twice. Knee and foot surgeries. Winning Grand Slams being down match point. But I found out by far the hardest is figuring out a stroller.” — Serena Williams
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41. “I try to call my mother with more regularity because I think, what if Hazel didn’t call me for two weeks? I’m able to see her mothering now from a different vantage point.” — Julia Roberts
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42. “It’s not easy being a mom. If it were easy, fathers would do it.” — Betty White
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43. “I don’t think empathy is something you can drill in someone’s head. You have to have faith that while your kids can seem to be selfish and concerned only about the word ‘mine’ sometimes, overall, they are watching you really carefully. And if you care about other people, they will too.” — Jennifer Garner
44. “In the beginning, I didn’t want to think of myself as a mother. I was like, ‘Wait a minute! Ain’t no hollaback girl is who I am!’ I had to learn to accept it.” — Gwen Stefani
45. “My favorite thing about being a mom is just what a better person it makes you on a daily basis.” — Drew Barrymore
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46. “Little souls find their way to you whether they’re from your womb or someone else’s.” — Sheryl Crow
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47. “You’re going to get advice from a lot of people, and you can take bits and pieces, but you know innately what your child needs. You should trust that.” — Lucy Liu
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45. “My mother and I are so close, and I always prayed that I would have that type of relationship with my daughter.” — Beyoncé Knowles
46. “Sometimes we try to protect our children so much that when something doesn’t go right in their lives, they're unprepared to deal with adversity. I don’t think that does our kids any favors.” — Taraji P. Henson
47. “Before, my career came first. All I had to think about was myself. Now my children prevail. It doesn’t mean my career is less important; I just have to position things differently.” — Faith Hill
48. “I love our daughters more than anything in the world―more than life itself. And while that may not be the first thing that some folks want to hear from an Ivy-league-educated lawyer, it is truly who I am.” — Michelle Obama
49. “They love you. They want to help you. So in the end, it’s the team you build. And in a way, they are raising you up too. You grow together.” — Angelina Jolie
50. “You cannot imagine what it’s like to be a mom until you are a mom. I used to give my friends who have kids advice all the time, and they would look at me like I had three heads. And then, when I had you two, the minute I had you two, I literally apologized to all my friends.” — Jennifer Lopez
51. “I’m just obsessed with my kids.” — Blake Lively
52. “When you’re a mother, there’s a love that you experience with your kids that’s deeper than anything you can imagine. The love is beyond earth.” — Beyoncé Knowles
53. “I just love being a mom. It’s exhausting, it’s grueling, but it’s the best.” — Kim Kardashian
54. “I have to keep reminding myself that I created life, and there’s no cooler thing than being able to create life inside of you. So if the repercussions of that are extra stretch marks, saggy skin and more weight on my body, so be it.” — Ashley Graham
55. “After six months of being a full-time mom, I was ready to get back to me.” — Diana Kruger
56. “As a parent, you’re the wall. They want to hold onto you and know you’re there, and then when they kick off, they want to know you’re there, too.” — Nicole Kidman
57. “If you’re confident with what you’re doing even if that’s some weird, bizarre parenting technique that you know works for your kid or you feel happy about, do it! Don’t let anyone tell you you shouldn’t be doing that.” — Kristen Bell
58. “Kids humble us.” — Serena Williams
59. “I am completely changed since being a mom. I’m much more open, I’m much more accepting of myself, I’m much more thoughtful. I think about the world more, and what we’re leaving for these kids, and the direction we’re headed in.” — Pink
60. “You think you’re topped out. But your heart’s ability to expand blows my mind.” — Hoda Kotb
61. “Twelve years later the memories of those nights, of that sleep deprivation, still make me rock back and forth a little bit. You want to torture someone? Hand them an adorable baby they love who doesn’t sleep.” — Shonda Rhimes
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