#parent

Oh, Zoeybird, did I call your mother's husband a damn turd monkey outloud?' 'Yes, Grandma, you did.' She looked at me, her dark eyes sparkling. 'Good. ↗

— P.C. Cast

#chosen #funny-things-grandparents-say #house-of-night #turd-monkey #funny

My parents taught us it's important to give back. ↗

— Jenna Bush

#give #important #parents #taught #us

Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks, smoking a Chesterfield. The dessert dishes were still on the table. My sisters were nowhere in evidence. It was a warm evening; the big dining-room windows gave onto blooming rhododendrons. Mother regarded me warmly. She gave me to understand that she was glad I had found what I had been looking for, but that she and father were happy to sit with their coffee, and would not be coming down. She did not say, but I understood at once, that they had their pursuits (coffee?) and I had mine. She did not say, but I began to understand then, that you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself. I had essentially been handed my own life. In subsequent years my parents would praise my drawings and poems, and supply me with books, art supplies, and sports equipment, and listen to my troubles and enthusiasms, and supervise my hours, and discuss and inform, but they would not get involved with my detective work, nor hear about my reading, nor inquire about my homework or term papers or exams, nor visit the salamanders I caught, nor listen to me play the piano, nor attend my field hockey games, nor fuss over my insect collection with me, or my poetry collection or stamp collection or rock collection. My days and nights were my own to plan and fill. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#benign-neglect #childhood #curiosity #imagination #parenting

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted. ↗

— Garrison Keillor

#children #ever #eyes #hovering #never

The bond between a parent and child is the primary bond, the foundation for the rest of the child's life. The presence or absence of this bond determines much about the child's resiliency and what kind of adult they will grow up to be. ↗

— Jane Fonda

#absence #adult #between #bond #child

My parents thought it was nice to develop my imagination, but they never seriously thought that anything would ever come of it. They said that I couldn't be an actress because I would be taller than all my leading men, so I thought I would be a writer instead. ↗

— Nicole Kidman

#anything #because #come #develop #ever

The death tax robs parents of the opportunity to pass something along to their children, and it is responsible for destroying a lot of family-owned businesses. ↗

— Mac Thornberry

#businesses #children #death #death tax #destroying

When I was prosecutor we had truancy and curfew issues and we made a refrigerator magnet, and that was hot with parents. They loved putting it up on the wall and saying, you know, if you don't follow these rules, you could get prosecuted. Whether or not it actually happens, it changes a culture, and that's part of what we're trying to do here. ↗

— Amy Klobuchar

#changes #could #culture #follow #get

Apparently tired of waiting for clear direction from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico have used the tools provided by their own local constitution to schedule a vote for Dec. 13 on the status of the island. ↗

— Dick Thornburgh

#clear #congress #constitution #dec #direction

I would like to see every parent either directly - if they are comfortable with the technology - or through a personal tutor, being able to access real-time information about their child. ↗

— Jim Knight

#about #access #being #child #comfortable