Caroline Fraser Quotes

When I was a kid, my mother's parenting style teetered between benign neglect and intense bouts of violence.

I remember my uncle and my father telling me that my mother didn't want me because I was blind. She thought being blind was a disgrace and a punishment from God. I understand that a lot of young mothers probably wouldn't know what to do in that situation, but over your life you learn to forgive everything.

I don't want to make a cheap analysis, but when you have, like I did, a father incapable of showing emotion, who spends his life telling you that no one will love you if you aren't perfect, it leaves scars.

The real demon in my life is my father.

If your parents ignored you, or if they are just not emotionally available, or if they yell a lot, that is a type of trauma.

I probably gave up on my dad when I was born.

I have to be very careful, however, because I have no intention of providing an excuse for this behavior. It's an attempt to explain how so many women come from backgrounds where the pressure to be a good mother is so severe that if they can't do it, something really snaps.

My Father had a profound influence on me. He was a lunatic.

My childhood was marked by a tension between privilege on the one hand and emotional dysfunction on the other.

There is a psychic cost children bear when they grow up in fear.

I can only hope that neither of my daughters was scarred by their upbringing.

My father was a very unhappy person, very sarcastic, and my mother was very nervous and worried about what people thought. They weren't monsters, but it wasn't a good childhood.

I grew up in a house of no love or emotion - it kind of sticks with you.

I'm not saying my mother didn't like me, but she kept looking for loopholes in my birth certificate.

I hated Chris, my brother. I would pull his hair and kick him, until one day my father gave him permission to fight back. I'll be apologizing to him for the rest of my life.

I was never taught how to raise a child, because I wasn't raised properly.

My parents broke up when I was six. Before, I was a very active, naughty child, but after my father left me, I stopped talking. I became very good at hiding my emotions. I felt so ashamed of telling others that I didn't have a father, because that was not common in the 1960s.

What must it be like for a little boy to read that daddy never loved mummy?

Kids who don't have moms suffer a lifetime.

When I was young, I told my sister that she had chunky thighs. She slapped me and I cried. She feels bad about it to this day, but I feel worse.

This is an old family secret, and I just found this out recently, and it almost broke my heart. My mother said to me, 'I had never told you this, but God, you were an ugly baby'.

I've got a lot of issues. I've got a whole lot of daddy issues.

Mother had committed me for life. This is where I felt betrayed the most.

My brother and I tortured my mother growing up.

My mother sent me to psychiatrists since the age of four because she didn't think little boys should be sad. When my brother was born, I stared out the window for days. Can you imagine that?