Peter Shaffer Quotes

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.

Parents, you know, can be terrible.

Because we believe ourselves to be better parents than our parents, we expect to produce better children than they produced.

I've only recently realized that I have a radically different relationship with my parents than a lot of people.

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.

Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.

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

Different parents have different standards for their children.

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.

A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have anything to do with it.

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.

My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.

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

I refrain from blaming anything on my parents.

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.

There is a lot of parenting that's completely out of your control, but I think we live in an era right now where we think if, God forbid, you couldn't talk to someone, you would flip out - you know what I mean?

As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.

I'm way more influenced by my children than I was by my parents.

The way I was parented did affect my parenting - probably in the reverse. My dad was pretty strict, and the next generation probably wants to be less strict.

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.

You learn that there's no right way to do it, no wrong way to do it. It's just what you feel comfortable with, to trust that, and don't let anybody box you in to a certain style of parenting or make you feel a certain way about what your kids do.

I think a lot of people want to blame their fathers for not being good enough when they were growing up. I think it can be an excuse for not coming to terms with your own problems.

Some parents want to be popular, but that's not their job.