LZ Granderson Quotes

It definitely toughens you up. It makes you mature from a young age, living away from home.

There's a level of protection you need to give to your kids, and then sometimes you need to just let them figure out things on their own.

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.

I grew up pretty fast. I had more responsibility than most 9-year-olds, and I've always been independent.

My brother and I had a lot of freedom growing up, and thankfully, we both turned out OK.

When my son first started to take the subway, my husband and I used to follow him to make sure he was all right, and then we had to stop following him and let him do it by himself.

One stops being a child when one realizes that telling one's trouble does not make it any better.

Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.

I think the most important thing my wife Cynthia and I can do for Kristen is to teach her how to grow up to be a woman and make her own decisions. Meanwhile, we sometimes have to guide her.

Most of the time I believe in letting kids go ahead and make their own mistakes - maybe even get a little hurt - and learn from them.

There's a thing I think children realise at a certain age, which is that if their parents say, 'Don't do it', and they go ahead and do it, they're still not going to die. And I think that's what it is: that no matter what you do, you're not going to die.

I always managed to get in trouble, like every kid. But I had to learn a lot of hard lessons on my own, without parents who would nurture me and guard me through that part of life, at a very young age.

I feel that if you shelter your kids from everything, one day they are going to be out in the world on their own, and they are going to have to figure it out. You can't give them a test if you never taught them anything that's on the test. They're going to fail.

I was the happiest kid ever, but I did choose to live around adults and today, now that I have a kid, I don't know if I would let him do it.

I was a product of the late '70s and early '80s, so when we think of how we're so protective of our kids now, it's sad in a way. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we limit the development of our kids in a way.

Most parents' goal is to launch their children into the world with all the tools they need to make it on their own.

If kids've been overprotected from failure in childhood, they get out into the world and they really get thrown off.

I tried to allow my children to take risks, to test themselves. Better broken bones than broken spirit.

Disappointment came to me, and booted me, and bruised and hurt me, but that's how people grow up.

Kids instinctively know - although they will argue to the contrary - that they really are not mature enough to make good decisions on some important issues.

The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.

Kids are smart. Knowledge is power. Let them figure things out. Don't turn into that grown-up who they won't come to.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.

There comes a moment as a parent when you realize you will no longer be the center of your child's universe.

I want to help children develop strengths that allow them to feel they don't have to push things away mentally... If we 'cotton-ball' kids, it produces adults who are too scared to think for themselves and are easily manipulated.