parenthood

par·ent  (pârnt, pr-)

n.

1. One who begets, gives birth to, or nurtures and raises a child; a father or mother.

2. An ancestor; a progenitor.

3. An organism that produces or generates offspring.

4. A guardian; a protector.

5. A parent company.

6. A source or cause; an origin: Despair is the parent of rebellion.

v. par·ent·ed, par·ent·ing, par·ents

v.tr.

1. To act as a parent to; raise and nurture: "A genitor who does not parent the child is not its parent" (Ashley Montagu).

2. To cause to come into existence; originate.

v.intr.

To act as a parent.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin parns, parent-, from past active participle of parere, to give birth; see per-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

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parent·hood n.

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Parenthood 

1. A childless person is like dead —Talmud
2. The honor due to parents is like the honor due to God —The Holy Bible/Exodus
3. Children, grown up, now, and moved away … though they had once occupied her like a house, possessing her to the fingertips —Helen Hudson
4. The ideal mother, like the ideal marriage, is a fiction —Milton R. Sapirstein
5. (Maybe I’ve got this secret kid. Chances are I have, ‘cause) I probably got a sperm count like the national deficit —Jane Wagner
6. Love them [daughters] as sheep are loved by the shepherd —Phyllis McGinley
7. Marriage without children … like a garden without fruit —Phyllis Bottome

   Compare this with the German proverb below, beginning with Wedlock.

   See Also: INCOMPLETENESS

8. Mother’s virtues … like a graft of a late fruit on an early apple or pear tree, do not ripen in her children until very late in the season —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
9. A mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law in one house are like two cats in a bag —Yiddish proverb
10. A mother-in-law is like the dry rot; far easier to get into a house than to get out again —Punch
11. Not to bear children … was like a hen that did not lay eggs or a cow that was sterile or a tree that never came into blossom. —H. E. Bates
12. Raising a child is like reading a very long mystery story; you have to wait for a generation to see how it turns out —Anon
13. Realised [after giving birth] the responsibility of launching the little creature labelled by name not of its own choosing, like launching a battleship, only instead of turrets and decks and guns she had to do with the miraculous tissue of flesh and brain —Vita Sackville-West
14. Sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child —William Shakespeare

    This is King Lear’s famous lament.

    See Also: PAIN, SHARPNESS

15. The umbilical cord stretches like a nine-hundred-and-some-mile leash —Peter De Vries
16. Wedlock without children [is like] a world without sun —German proverb
17. A woman … her heart is like an empty nest, if she has not a child —Henry Van Dyke

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

parenthood - the state of being a parent; "to everyone's surprise, parenthood reformed the man" parentage adulthood - the state (and responsibilities) of a person who has attained maturity

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parenthood

noun fatherhood or motherhood, parenting, rearing, bringing up, nurturing, upbringing, child rearing, baby or child care, fathering or mothering She may not feel ready for the responsibilities of parenthood.

Quotations
"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories" [John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester]

Translations

parenthood [ˈpɛərənthʊd] N → paternidad f
planned parenthood → planificación f familiar, paternidad f responsable

parenthood [ˈpɛərənthʊd] n → parentalité f
young people facing the new responsibility of parenthood → les jeunes face aux responsabilités de la parentalité

parenthood

n → Elternschaft f; the joys of parenthood → die Vater-/Mutterfreuden pl; the idea of parenthood frightened her → sie schrak zurück vor dem Gedanken, Mutter zu sein

parenthood [ˈpɛər/ənthʊd] n → paternità (or maternità)