Elizabeth Perkins Quotes

I don't know anybody that has a teenage son or daughter who at some point hasn't been like, 'God, I hate them' just under their breath. It's not meant to be literal. It's funny.

In terms of the frustration of my character, I suppose any teenager has probably gone through that, in terms of telling their parents, I want to do one thing, and their parent says no. I think parents sometimes forget that they were children.

When you have little girls, you're the coolest person in the world. I know at some point that's going to end; in their adolescence I'll become the opposite of that, especially if I'm parked outside a high school party.

To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent.

Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.

There's no such thing as a teenager that listens to a single word their father says.

You discover two things when you're a teenager. One, that your parents are not the idols that you thought they were when you were growing up, if you had nice parents. And two, that you have power over them, and you can upset them and confront them and attack them.

Nobody at fifteen wants anybody to see how goofy their parents are.

I'm waiting for my kids to grow up and get into the Offspring and look at me like I'm a total candy-ass.

Nobody is weirder than your own family, and I think teenagers feel that particularly acutely; the fact that you can walk five steps ahead of your parents and still be in the same family, but refuse to acknowledge it.

My dad's a very sensitive man, but as the archetypal rebellious teenager, I didn't realise that.

To all those mothers and fathers who are struggling with teen-agers, I say, just be patient: even though it looks like you can't do anything right for a number of years, parents become popular again when kids reach 20.

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

I have four kids; three girls and a boy. The oldest girl is 13, and has her own social life now, so there's a bit of begrudging cooperation there. It's tough.

When I was a little kid, I used to really embarrass my parents.

I didn't rebel as a child. I missed that angry teenager thing.

If there's anything worse than being 16, it's having parents visibly reliving their own teenage years in your anguished presence.

My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.

My daughter couldn't care less about me being famous. She finds it revolting and, like a lot of teenagers, is virtually allergic to me. That started at 12 and hasn't gone anywhere yet.

I may have managed to build a successful technology startup that had gone public by the time my three kids hit their 13th birthdays, but don't think that bought my wife and me any special respect from our teenagers.

I know the world is pretty intense, but in my opinion, there's nothing more perilous than being a teenager and watching a raunchy comedy with your parents.

Whatever your age, parents generally embarrass their children. I think that's a role we have to play.

Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds?

I know parental embarrassment usually stops somewhere at fifteen, but he just kept on giving me good reasons.