Charles de Lint Quotes

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.

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.

If a parent keeps on saying that, 'my kid is not understanding me at all,' he or she needs to look inside and ask, what wrong am I doing that my child is unable to understand me?

Parents, you know, can be terrible.

Different parents have different standards for their children.

I'm worried about parents who aren't parenting.

Most children turn out badly because they have the wrong parental image. This doesn't mean their parents are criminal. It means they are boring and cruel.

If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.

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?

Parents still have a big influence on their kids - just ask any therapist. No, really, I think the parent is the most important influence on children: It's how they learn to love and treat other people.

What I continue to learn as a parent is to be mindful of the fact that I am responsible for being the parent that my children need me to be and not necessarily the parent I want to be.

My kids still think that, you know, other kids' parents are cooler than I am.

Disobedient parents are a great trouble to their children.

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 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.

Not that we didn't have close relationships with our parents - I'm very close to my mom - but parents didn't think anything of going off for a few weeks and leaving their kids.

If you're the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I'm a parent. I have daughters.

A lot of things in 'Parents' I find very truthful.

Parents are the worst teachers, if they are good at it and you're not. My father thought I was the densest offspring he could have produced.

Countries are either mothers or fathers, and engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire.

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much.

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.