Tom King Quotes

Kids should be naughty and go through that rebellious phase I didn't have.

I don't know, maybe I'm overly paranoid that they're going to be spoiled, but I want to keep them going as kids for as long as I can. I want to keep them innocent and free.

I was a mother who worked ridiculously hard to keep catastrophe at bay. I didn't allow my kids to eat hamburgers for fear of E. coli. I didn't allow them to play with rope, string, balloons - anything that might strangle them. They had to bite grapes in half, avoid lollipops, eat only when I could watch them.

From age nine, my friends and I were on the streets, walking home, going to each other's houses, going to the store. I really wanted to write about that: the independence that's a little bit scary but also a really positive thing in a lot of ways.

My parents, stupidly, always let me go downtown. This was pre-pager, even. It made me adventurous. I think it makes you tough.

The children whom nobody leads by the hand are the children who know they are children.

Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers. What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends.

They have the big ferris wheel and we've been out of town for two months, so he just was like, 'Mommy I want to go to Toys R Us and I don't care if you have a movie coming out and all that.' He was just being a kid. But I had to allow him to have that moment.

I rode my bike to school every day from age five to age fourteen. It was a small town - you could go anywhere.

The kids are old enough now - I just want to let them be kids. I don't want to comment on them too much. They're at an age where I just want to let them be kids.

I have to go... drop some kids in the pool.

I think dads let babies take more of a risk, maybe bounce off a bed more or jump off a couch or do more risk-taking things.

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 have a tendency to coddle my sons because I want to keep them safe, but I also want them to be strong and independent and curious and bold, and I worry that my coddling is going to have exactly the opposite effect.

I think back to my time when I was skating: I was 15, and there was no such thing as Instagram.

When I was 10, I had dyed red hair, and I used to paint my nails - I think my mum secretly loved it.

I remember going on adventures with my older brother and, when I was 11, being allowed to go to the corner shop alone, and filling up a bag with penny chews, Fruit Salads, Bruiser bars and Black Jacks.

When I was younger, even though I had a big brother, my parents would give me the house key every day.

It never occurs to you when you are very young to need something other than what your parents have to offer you.

Your children tell you casually years later what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time.

Guard your children's free time - from you.

Children are very overprotected now, in lots of ways. We're very nervous about them. You know, people go, "Don't go outside! Or inside! Get into the cupboard with some spinach!" When I was a child they'd kick you out and you weren't expected to come back until there were bats!

I have two kids now and through watching them, I keep having flashbacks to my own childhood.

To be told that our child's behavior is "normal" offers little solace when our feelings are badly hurt, or when we worry that hisactions are harmful at the moment or may be injurious to his future. It does not help me as a parent nor lessen my worries when my child drives carelessly, even dangerously, if I am told that this is "normal" behavior for children of his age. I'd much prefer him to deviate from the norm and be a cautious driver!

One of the important things to learn about parenting is that the more you worry about a child, the less the child will worry abouthim- or herself....instead of worrying, watch with fascination and wonder as your child's life unfolds, and help the child take responsibility for his or her own life.