Laurence J. Peter Quotes

I'll teach my kids right from wrong, but I'm never going to teach them that they can't have fun. They'll make mistakes; they'll do things they regret, like we all have.

To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself.

I told my son, who's 11, "Look, I don't care if you curse - it's other people that care." So we tried that experiment, and he just cursed all the time. And I was like, "All right, now I care that you curse." You try to have this idealized view, and it's like, "I don't care." But it's just going to cause chaos.

You have to discipline your children, or they won't respect you, law enforcement or God or anyone else.

The important thing is that when you correct your children, they see what they've done wrong and why you're upset.

There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'

I couldn't understand what was important about school. Dropping out was the first adult decision I made. If I ever have kids, I would hate for them to drop out. But I wasn't a rebel. I never cared to be against school. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do.

I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.

I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren't any rules, how could you break them?

The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.

Mothers and children are human beings, and they will sometimes do the wrong thing.

I'm currently raising a 15 year old son and an 18 year old daughter, which a guess is my punishment for a wild youth!

Those children who have been most chastised seldom make the best men.

Even the most high-maintenance boss isn't going to sit and watch you the whole time, making sure you're paying attention to them, whereas with a child, it's like, 'Wait, what? You're not watching me right now? Really? Then I'm going to go spill this milk.' Even bosses from hell don't behave like that!

If you're going to break the rules, you have to live with the consequences.

All children will do things that you may not want them to. That's part of parenting.

When we recognize the rod of a father, should we not show ourselves docile children rather than rebelliously desperate men who have been hardened in their evil doings?

Because my parents had given me tremendous respect, trust, and freedom as a child, I knew how to take responsibility for myself. If you're constantly being told "No, don't do that" or "We don't trust you," you can't develop that responsibility.

An infallible way to make your child miserable is to satisfy all his demands.

As when my little son John offendeth: if then I should not whip him, but call him to the table unto me, and give him sugar and plums, thereby, I should make him worse, yea should quite spoil him.

Do you have any idea how stubborn you can look ? Our children better never give me that look, althought I won't mind if they give it to you. You'd deserve it.

Give your child a spanking once a day. If you don't know why, he does.

I always quoted to my parents from Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet." Your children are not your children. They come through you, but not from you. You can give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they come from a land that you cannot enter, not even in your wildest dreams.

Are you really going to catch us and take us back to Esther? We don’t belong to her, you know.” Embarrassed, Victor stared at his shoes. “Well, children all have to belong to somebody,” he muttered. “Do you belong to someone?” “That’s different.” “Because you’re a grown-up?

I think the main thing is trying to be fair, sometimes there has to be a little bit of discipline, maybe even punishment involved in trying to make your child understand, learn from bad experiences and make sure they don't happen again.