“Since parents have conferred life on their children, they have a most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it. For it devolves on parents to create a family atmosphere so animated with love and reverence for God and others that a well-rounded personal and social development will be fostered among children. Hence, the family is the first school of those social virtues which every society needs.”

from Gravissimum Educationis (one of the documents of the Second Vatican Council)
Via Prayerfully Expecting: A Nine-Month Novena for Mothers To Be, by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle