Anne Enright Quotes

It’s funny – my married friends tell me all the time, 'What you have is so much easier.' When you’re doing it on your own, you don't have to [argue over] how you're raising the kids.

When you're a father in a marriage, you sort of become the mother's assistant, and you sort of get a list from her every day, and you do, you know, you run down the list, and it feels very much like a chore. And a lot of fathers live in kind of an avoidance. They sit on the toilet for several hours a day... Oh, honey, it took me 40 minutes to go to the post office... But once you become a dad without the mom there, you have to take it all on, and you sort of activate male skills that you didn't know you could apply to fatherhood.

I think that the idea of wanting to fight for your kids, but also knowing that your wife is probably better at it, is something that rings very true for me.

Those who have gone through a divorce know the pain and special challenges of raising a child under such circumstances.

It's a different experience to be with your kids when your spouse isn't around.

I think it is important to say that though, of course, it is wonderful to have children, it is a disservice to others not to also say how hard it is to do it alone.

It has been tough being a mother of two daughters without a co-parent because I think I was a child myself, as my mother was.

I'm a fun father, but not a good father. The hard decisions always went to my wife.

I don't want to raise a child by myself. I could do it. But I definitely don't want to. I want to be a mother who has the original father there.

Divorce is challenging. When your kids go through things, it's tough. But it's no different for any other woman. And I have great compassion for single moms. It's lousy out there for them. I had the ability to work. I have always been the provider anyway, but there are a lot of women who can't support themselves.

Of the many horrors of divorce, the most egregious is that it robs a kid of the best of both worlds. Dads can do many things that even the best moms can't, and vice versa.

That thing, 'You must stay together for the kids', is out of fashion but is right. It's not arguing parents that children don't like, it is having one parent.

I don't know if I could date a single dad. It would depend on the guy.

I feel like a semi-single mum.

My own husband was divorced when we met, but without kids. I don't know what I would have done if he'd had them. I got the message very early on that the worst mistake a woman can make is marrying a man with children.

To all you mothers out there who are raising your children alone either by choice or necessity, don't let anyone tell you you're not a family.

I have a partner who can be there alongside me, who's taking up a huge part of that joint responsibility, because he's a parent, too - he's not a babysitter.

I refuse to be held up as some kind of superwoman because, in my mind, the superwomen are the ones who do it on their own. I have my partner, who will be a stay-at-home father. I will do as much as I can, but I will have a village around me, and there's lots of people who don't have that.

I have a husband who didn't just resign himself to staying home but was happy to be the primary parent.

When I had my daughter and split up with her father six months later, I had a really hard time.

I was able to draw a lot from my own childhood, my friends' childhoods as well and my daughters' friends who are like my children as well. They multiply all the time. So you can have everything and say I can get all this done and then late at night one of your kids have a freak out about school or an assignment you end up staying up til 3 in morning helping them through it. Or somebody gets sick or has a crisis.

Keeping your ex close took three people who were willing to be incredibly generous, grown-up and mature. I give enormous credit to Michael and Len for the way they've handled things. As a result, I have an amazing child with three great parents. I feel slightly sorry for kids who've got only two!

I love gay and lesbian parents. But I think we need a law that says lesbians and gay men have to raise their children together. This way, the kids would not only know how to build bookshelves, but they'd also instinctively know how to decorate them.

I think part of being a parent is trying to kill your kids.

I get sick of that old rationalization, "We're staying together because of the children." Kids couldn't be more miserable living with parents who can't stand each other. They're far better off if there's an honest, clean divorce.