15 Charming Quotes About Fatherhood From George Clooney

The actor and his wife, Amal Clooney, have twins named Alexander and Ella.
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George Clooney may be learning the ropes of fatherhood at a later age than most men, but it’s clear he’s enjoying the ride.

The actor and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, welcomed twins Alexander and Ella in 2017. Since becoming a father in his 50s, Clooney has spoken about his experiences with sleep deprivation, diapers and more.

In honor of his May 6 birthday, here are 15 funny and relatable parenting quotes from Clooney.

On Being An Older Parent

“I feel like Tony Randall! Is there a perfect age to become a parent? Look, I left it so late that I’m the last person to talk to about child-raising because I’m no expert. All I can do is play catch-up and hope I’m not on a walker when I’m chasing my grown kids around!”

On Crying

“I cry more than they do. I cry four times a day right now because I’m so tired. Hey, remember back when you were single, before you didn’t have to worry about keeping people alive? Wasn’t that great?”

On Navigating Parenthood

“Listen, I’m scared to death, it’s terrifying. You’re afraid of breaking them. They’re so little.”

On Responsibility

“All I know is that I am at last experiencing what most people in the world get to experience, which is the incredible amount of love you gain when you have two children you are responsible for. I have always felt a great sense of responsibility to other people in the world, but when you have children of your own, you realize you are responsible for their lives in a way you haven’t been before. And you become conscious that you want to make an example of your own life that they will follow.”

On Diapers

“I changed diapers until yesterday. I was good at it. I flipped them over, I don’t care. It’s like cleaning up your dog’s poop. It’s not that big a deal. Then we introduced the children to solid food on Friday and how that goes in as a carrot and how it comes out the way it comes out is shocking. I don’t know what’s going from here to here. What happens?”

On Welcoming Babies

“It was wild. You know, everything is conceptual until it’s real. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to be parents, yeah.’ And all of a sudden you go, ‘Holy shit. I’m a parent!’”

On Parental Hopes

“The first thing you think is, ‘I hope I don’t screw this up.’ I mean, look, we are all responsible for things in life, and Amal and I are responsible for each other in a way — we look out for one another and we care about one another. But you are really responsible for two kids. I want them to be happy. I want them to have a sense of humor. I want them to be interested in things. I want them to be compassionate about other people’s plights. Because that’s the thing, you know? You have to have some sort of empathy.”

On Raising Tricksters

“I’m already trying to teach my children dirty tricks. Like the peanut-butter-on-the-tennis-shoe move. You walk into a party with peanut butter on your tennis shoe, and you look around and ask anybody if it smells like crap, and then you reach down and you actually taste the peanut butter off of your shoe with your finger. That will really throw people up. That’s a rough one.”

On Baby Names

“We figured these kids are going to be looked at a lot and watched and [have their] every move sort of judged, and we wanted them to at least have a break with the names. So we looked for some sort of normal names. We didn’t have any great inspiration. It wasn’t Alexander the Great and Ella Fitzgerald.”

On Major Life Changes

“Now my house is filled with the warm sounds of babies crying. You should see when my friends show up and see me change a diaper, the laughter that comes from them. I go, ‘I know, I know.’ I’ve given them so much shit for so many years, I deserve every bit of it.”

On Twins

“Really, they’re funny kids. He just eats and eats and sits and goes, ‘Uh-uh,’ and I have never seen anything eat so much in my life. And she’s very delicate and feminine, and she’s all eyes and looks like her mother. I suppose it makes sense that they should be so different, but I hadn’t seen it firsthand before and it really makes you realize how much nature is part of who we are.”

On Joining The Fatherhood Club

“This is an all-new adventure for me, but I’ve been through it with all my friends, so it’s not really that much of a surprise. [Fatherhood] has made me much older. It doesn’t fundamentally change you, but I’m excited to see who these two people are going to be in life. I’m very proud to be [a dad]. I feel honored to be a part of it.”

On The Circle Of Life

“I just have to clean the barf off of my tux. It used to be my barf but now it’s the twins’ barf. So it all works out.”

On Early Bonding

“All they want to do is eat, so I have nothing to give them except a bottle once in a while and they’re happy about that, but it’s mostly Amal for them at the moment. I don’t even really understand what’s going on. And I have such admiration for my wife because she’s breastfeeding them and getting about two hours of sleep per interval, and the love they have for her is a sight to see and it’s beautiful.”

On Perspective

“I want to make sure my children understand they have been given things other children haven’t been by accident of birth. They could just as easily have been born in Syria and their lives would have been completely different. It’s challenging to remind children who have been born into this glass of celebrity and money to have empathy for people who aren’t as fortunate as they are. That’s going to be Amal’s and my job to teach our children, and it’s an important one.”

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