Ben Stein Quotes

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

You can be chased home or hit or called names or spit on, and it's over. You have the memory of it, but it's very different from the emotional and psychological experience of feeling invisible, of not learning the confidence to stand up in class and speak.

When a child is bruised physically or emotionally, parents often reward him with a treat.

Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can kill you.

I was so ugly my mother used to feed me with a sling shot.

Talk about your negative experiences with the father, with your girlfriends. Not with your children. And bite your tongue when it comes to diminishing, denying, dismissing, name-calling.

Often I think bullying - especially in its adult, verbal forms - is the sort of thing you don't realize till the end of the day, and it's a horrible feeling to realize something wasn't just a bland statement, but was actually cruel. But then we're all capable of - of things that are breathtakingly cruel.

I hated my father long before I knew there was a word for hate.

It's no wonder the narcissistic mother will always have a place in literature: she's a freak of nature.

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.

Some of my father's fellow West Pointers once asked him why I turned out so well, his secret in raising me. And he said, 'I never gave him any advice, and he never asked for any.' We agreed on nothing, but we never quarreled once.

I grew up in a family that was very barbed and difficult, and there was a lot of humor. None of it was painless humor. All of it was at someone else's expense. It was kind of always about power.

I always have to brace myself when I visit my parents. My mom often greets me with a slew of nonconstructive criticisms: 'Jimmy, why is your face so fat? Your clothes look homeless and your long hair makes you look like a girl.' After 30 years of this, my self-image is now a fat homeless lesbian.

I think after being kicked and slapped on social media a billion times, I had this one time. This lady said I was a deplorable human being, and that hurt.

If I called my kids a moron, I think it would traumatize them. I don't think they even know what the word is.

I have no memory at all of my mother shouting at me or at my sister. But I do have horrible memories of my father and the way he behaved. He was so tough on our mother.

Poor parenting may be reflected in poor sibling relationships.

I have good kids, I love my kids. I try to bring them up the right way, not spanking them. I find that I don't have to spank them. I find that waving the gun around pretty much gets the same job done!

My father used to beat me with his belt...while it was still on him.

Let's face it, when is it actually ever funny to joke about hitting someone? Never, right? The threat to give someone a slap, no matter how you look at it, is aggressive.

My parents tried to sell me. I was looking for a way to share my feelings, so I started to rap to talk about the painful experience of being a girl.

I told my children, 'I don't like children.'

My dad would do horrible things to me, but I was so desperate for his affection and his approval that I would keep coming back.

Continuing to expose the children to my and Adrienne's dysfunctional and volatile relationship is causing harm to the children.

My mother wasn't any better than my father.