Judith Viorst Quotes

Different parents have different standards for their children.

Parents can make us distrust ourselves. To them, we seem always to be works-in-progress.

My own parents were very un-neurotic, so I never thought that I had to change enormously in order to become a parent.

I think people nowadays do tend to blame their parents for everything.

It's interesting as a mom to reflect on your own parenting skills. The core of our beliefs may stay the same, but our perspective changes over the years and evolves with each child that comes through us.

I always feel like the odd mom out, because trust me when I tell you I'm on my girls. And every time I am, I know from the outside it looks like I'm an overbearing, controlling parent. But I don't think we have any responsibility to anybody else but our kids and ourselves.

Most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.

While having two biological parents at home is, the statistics tell us, best for children, a single-parent household is almost as good.

Parents have to understand: if your kid isn't you, don't blame the kid.

Parents, you know, can be terrible.

The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.

It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to what's good parenting or just projecting your own expectations on your kids. That's the hardest.

Most children turn out badly because they have the wrong parental image. This doesn't mean their parents are criminal. It means they are boring and cruel.

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.

While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.

The fate of a child is in the hands of his parents.

When my children were young, I was very cocky. I thought I could maintain total control.

We're living in a time when parenting is not at all mirroring the way I was parented. For me, I just followed my parents around on their errands; when they were busy on the phone, I was quiet. It's a different kettle of fish these days: They run the house, and you listen to their music, and you go to their appointments.

When I wrote 'Runaways,' I was a naive kid who thought that all parents were evil. Now that I'm a wise old man with children of my own, I am certain that all parents are evil.

We all work hard to understand the dynamic relationship we have with a parent.

Today's accent may be on youth, but the stress is still on the parents.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

When you have children, your perspective on the parent-child relationship alters.

As kids, we grow up thinking our parents are perfect and flawless - well, some of us - but they're trying to do the best they can.