Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it.
—Haim Ginott
Because children see parents as authority figures and gods, they think that the way you treat them is the way they deserve to be treated: “What you say about me is what I am” is a literal truth to your child. Consequently, when children are treated with respect, they conclude that they deserve respect and hence develop self-respect.
—Stephanie Marston
As I grew to adolescence, I imagined, from closely observing the boredom and vexations of matrimony, that the act my parents committed and the one I so longed to commit must be two different things.
—Shirley Abbott
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children.
—Clarence Darrow
Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does.
—Evan Esar
Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.
—Ogden Nash
All good qualities in a child are the result of environment, while all the bad ones are the result of poor heredity on the side of the other parent.
—Elinor Goulding Smith
Simone Weil once said, "I would like to achieve the kind of radiance that can bring about nonviolently what other people might have to do violently." And, of course, we see teachers like that. We see parents like that, who have a kind of radiance so that they don't have to raise their voice; they don't have to beat their children.… They simply make a different atmosphere.
—Sissela Bok
There's an African proverb: "When death finds you, may it find you alive." Alive means living your own damn life, not the life that your parents wanted, or the life some cultural group or political party wanted, but the life that your own soul wants to live.
—Michael Meade
When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
—Rodney Dangerfield
The child who was happy with herself meant the parents had won the jackpot.
—Meg Wolitzer in The Interestings
It is up to us; there is no one left to blame. Neither the system, nor our leaders, nor our parents. We can't go out and hang the first amoeba.
—Rebecca McClen Novick
Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline properly.
—P. J. O'Rourke
The debt of gratitude we owe our mother and father goes forward, not backward. What we owe our parents is the bill presented to us by our children.
—Nancy Friday
We are the people our parents warned us about.
—Jimmy Buffett