#parenting

I've said it before, but it's absolutely true: My mother gave me my drive, but my father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future. ↗

— Liza Minelli

#absolutely #before #could #dreams #drive

That letter was your whole future, you daft prince." "It was my past. I lost that the night my parents died. But I found you, Deryn. Maybe I wasn't meant to end the war, but I was meant to find you. I know that. You've saved me from having any reason to keep going." "We save each other. That's how it works. ↗

— Scott Westerfeld

#deryn #parenting

I always wanted to be a juvenile delinquent but my parents wouldn't let me. ↗

— John Waters

#parenting

As someone very sagely said during the parricide trials of the Menendez Brothers: anytime your kids kill you, you are at least partly to blame. ↗

— Elizabeth Wurtzel

#personal-responsibility #trials

Breasts are a scandal because they shatter the border between motherhood and sexuality. ↗

— Iris Marion Young

#breastfeeding #breasts #children #feminism #motherhood

The root of impatience in discipline is really the same as that of overindulgence. In both instances, parents want to make up for lost time, to speed up a process that takes time. ↗

— Russell Moore

#discipline #parenting #timing #family

Intensive mothering is the ultimate female Olympics: We are all in powerful competition with each other, in constant danger of being trumped by the mom down the street, or in the magazine we're reading. The competition isn't just over who's a good mother--it's over who's the best. We compete with each other; we compete with ourselves. The best mothers always put their kids' needs before their own, period. The best mothers are the main caregivers. For the best mothers, their kids are the center of the universe. The best mothers always smile. They always understand. They are never tired. They never lose their temper. They never say, "Go to the neighbor's house and play while Mommy has a beer." Their love for their children is boundless, unflagging, flawless, total. Mothers today cannot just respond to their kids' needs, they must predict them--and with the telepathic accuracy of Houdini. They must memorize verbatim the books of all the child-care experts and know which approaches are developmentally appropriate at different ages. They are supposed to treat their two-year-olds with "respect." If mothers screw up and fail to do this on any given day, they should apologize to their kids, because any misstep leads to permanent psychological and/or physical damage. Anyone who questions whether this is the best and the necessary way to raise kids is an insensitive, ignorant brute. This is just common sense, right? ↗

— Susan J. Douglas

#parenting #age

You try as a parent. You love beyond reason. You fight beyond endurance. You hope beyond despair. You never think, until the very last moment, that it still might not be enough. ↗

— Lisa Gardner

#love

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. ↗

— Erma Bombeck

#anyone #birth #car #given #lend

Abortion is defended today as a means of ensuring the equality and independence of women, and as a solution to the problems of single parenting, child abuse, and the feminization of poverty. ↗

— Robert Casey

#abuse #child #child abuse #defended #ensuring