Anna Quindlen Quotes

My whole life has been nothing but trying to find a way to take care of my mom and take care of my family as quickly as possible.

In retrospect, perhaps the biggest reason my mother was cared for but not helped for twenty years was the simplest: Her functioning was not that necessary to the world.

When I was in my early twenties, my mom started repeating things, asking the same questions, telling the same stories. It was like, 'Oh, God, this is not right.' When I was 25, my brother and I finally told our dad we had to take her to the doctor.

I've spent a great deal of time over the past decade as a caregiver for various family members. It gives me a perspective on the struggles that many New Yorkers face with illness, disability, health care, insurance difficulties, and trying to work with and also take care of family members.

Then my mother had several strokes and my father, who was 85, couldn't handle it, so Donna came back and we went through the same thing here. She lives in Mill Valley; her group is organizing this event.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

Too many families know what it's like to have to choose between providing care for a family member and keeping their job.

There are only four kinds of people in the world - those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.

The most important thing is that I'm in a position to take care of my family and take care of my moms, man. I can take care of myself now and my mom is able to just worry about herself and do what she wants to do.

It was fine when I was single and childless. Carrying the responsibility of screwing up your kids at the same time is huge. I remember when I got Peter Pan, and I told my mom and dad and my friends I was leaving - again, I was cast way late on - in the next two days to go to Australia for four months, and they all went "Bye! See you in four months!" But no one said "We need you," and I really knew that it was time to think about someone else for a change.

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or as responsible as the work of a woman who is bringing up a family of small children; for upon her time and strength demands are made not only every hour of the day but often every hour of the night.

I grew up in an era where Dad worked, Mum looked after the family, and if I think of the qualities she brought to that - nurture and support are so valuable.

My life and focus are my children, and caring for my mother with her health issues. So when I'm with my friends I want to enjoy their company and not get wrapped up in the distractions.

We grew up probably having as hard a life as anybody. A lot of times, we didn't have any food on the table. At Christmas, everybody else would always get something nice, but we'd get one T-shirt or one shirt... So I want to take care of Mom and Dad... and I'm having a damn good time doing it.

Whether we have a new baby, a sick parent or an injured spouse, taking time off to care for our family member or ourselves is a need almost every one of us experiences during some point in our lives. This is true no matter where people live, what their income level is, or what kind of job they do.

There's absolutely no sort of acknowledgment or reward for this - except for the intangible of my kids growing up to be wonderful people.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. But here again, because there is nothing to sell, there is a very general disposition to regard a married woman's work as no work at all, and to take it as a matter of course that she should not be paid for it.

Alzheimer's is a family disease...It requires countless hours of care, which are typically provided by family caregivers...Wi thout professional help, it can be impossible to juggle providing that care with jobs, raising kids or just time for yourself.

I'm not outright seeking stuff. Because all I want to do is done. I bought my mother a nice house and pretty dress.

If you have kids and stuff what kind of dad do I wanna be for my kids, and what kind of mom do I want them to have

I tell my kids, 'I am thinking about you every other minute of my day.'

We need to show how we really are and how we really are is that I'm the Dad, that's the Mom, these are the kids. This is how you respect us. It's "Yes Sir", "No Sir", "Yes Mam" and "No Mam". We don't see a lot of that on TV, so I just want to give an example and show examples on how a family should be versus how families are portrayed on TV.

To have a child is to be impaled daily on the spike of responsibility.

Not really a first thing I will buy, but the first thing I would do is take care of my mother and my family and then go from there. Whatever she needs. Not so much a house or car or material things, just making sure everything is taken care of from a family standpoint.

Love, acceptance, friends, two kids that I love. I have to take care of myself for them. I've also been a vegetarian for two years.