Erma Bombeck Quotes

I don't live through my kids. But I do know what will happen in life, and I just want them well prepared.

Becoming an adult means leaving the world of your parents and starting to make your way toward the future that you will share with your peers.

I've grown up a lot, I'm on my own, and I've learned some valuable life lessons.

You're doing your kids a disservice if they do get everything they want because that's not the way life's going to go, and I think kids have to have some reality.

I'm a grown man now, I've got a family, I understand responsibility.

You'll move from big brother to the adult world faster by cooking food for your younger siblings while your peers are playing video games.

I need to raise my kids. It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to raise kids and make men of them these days. I don't want them to be lazy and just spend their father's money.

Children should have enough freedom to be themselves - once they've learned the rules.

Through a huge duration of my life, someone has always picked up after me. And when you're on your own and you're trying to be independent, it's definitely different.

When I became a mature woman, I put both feet firmly on the side of maturity.

When you grow up your mother says, 'Wear rubbers or you'll catch cold.' When you become an adult you discover that you have the right not to wear rubbers and to see if you catch cold or not. It's something like that.

My brother and I had a lot of freedom growing up, and thankfully, we both turned out OK.

I think I am an adult.

I'm totally growing up.

Some people do need to grow up, but I don't think I'm there yet. I don't think I'm ready to do grown-up things and be a grown-up.

I was wanting to be a kid at 18 instead of being a young woman.

You think that adulthood will hit and you'll suddenly be more capable. But that doesn't happen, ever, does it?

I have to thank my mum for kicking me out at 16 and making me stand on my own two feet - that's how I got here.

You've got to grow up sometime.

The sooner you treat your son as a man, the sooner he will be one.

My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children.

I needed to grow up and do things all adults do. It was time to stop having everything spoon fed to me. It was about being independent.

Kids have been let down by adults - we've tried to give them too much, we've tried not to impose discipline. We've tried to make their lives easier and, in doing so, we've taken something away from them. Kids like boundaries, they also like to be pushed, need to learn what failure is all about, need guidance.

I'm not sure I'm adult yet.

It's depressing and scary, but he needs to know the world around him because he's fourteen now and in two years he's going to drive. He needs to know what goes on out in the world. I'm not going to always be there.