Judy Gold Quotes

When I see David Attenborough talking about how chimps live, big apes, I just remember my dad and the way he'd look at you. He couldn't speak, but everything else about him was, 'This is us, a family.' Relationships are just as intense as they are for people who can speak. Probably more so.

I believe that communication is the key to a happy and successful family in our society.

You would think none of my brothers have jobs with how much time they spend on the phone with our mom.

Firequencher raised his hand. "I've been staying out of family conversations. Do I get credit for that?

In one family, all goes by two and two. If a member of it has any interest, he or she will confide it to some one other; but the rest know nothing. In another family, all feel what touches one; nothing is kept dark from the father and mother, brothers and sisters--all share. This family habit is by far the better, it strengthens the tie between the members, and makes the home one home.

That's how it goes within a family. You think you know each other so well, and so you don't bother hardly getting to know each other at all.

My mother is not a naturally happy person and is very complex. She won't allow any of us to touch her. Not even my father hugs her. And, as a family, we never kiss each other. Yet we do have a close relationship.

I have a hard time expressing myself when I'm emotional, so my family has done this forever. We write each other letters if we're fighting or whatever. And my dad's a writer, but we write each other letters because we feel that it's easier to get out what you're truly saying if you write it down.

I think it's fascinating that people take an interest in a middle-aged married couple and what happens behind our closed front door.

My family is really supportive. We fight, and we talk, and we lie, and we tell the truth - not usually in that order - and I really enjoy growing with them and fostering that dynamic.

I've actually never played with any of my brothers before. They've always been too old for me.

I remember watching an Iranian film, 'A Separation.' When the film ended, I felt like going to Iran, getting that family together, hug them and just being with them.

When I get up, I usually have a missed call from either my sons or my wife. Every day we try to talk on FaceTime, try to talk after practice and stuff like that throughout the day. Try to stay in contact as much as possible.

Sometimes, she said, mostly to herself, I feel I do not know my children... It was a fleeting statement, one I didn't think she'd hold on to; after all, she had birthed us alone, diapered and fed us, helped us with homework, kissed and hugged us, poured her love into us. That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.

It takes personal sacrifice to communicate when conditions are right for the other person-during the meal preparation, after a date, a hurt, a victory, a disappointment, or when someone wants to share a confidence. One must be willing to forego personal convenience to invest time in establishing a firm foundation for family communication. When communication in the family seems to be bogging down, each individual should look to himself for the remedy.

I don't want to get high with my kids, because then everything is different forever. That's so stupid, I think.

I think it's a deeper issue on the lack of communication in our culture in general. It's not abnormal to see a family out to dinner and every person is on their phone instead of communicating with each other and that's pretty sad.

She glances back before stepping into the alley, and she catches her grandfather looking at her the way he does sometimes--as if she's already gone, as if he's practicing sorrow.

I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live nor the smallest instinct about when to die.

The key ingredient in family communication is listening, really listening.

There are no secrets at our house. We tell the kids, 'Mom and Dad are going off to kiss.' They go, 'Eww, gross!' But we demand it.

People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.

Relations between parents and children and siblings and mates. This is not external. We can't separate them.

A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.

As for those whose role it is to love us - I mean, relatives and in-laws (what a word)- It's a different tune. They find the right word, but it's usually the one that wounds.