Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Great parenting prepares children for independence, making them less reliant on their parents as they grow.
This quote from Barbara Kingsolver highlights the paradox of parenting: the goal of being a good parent is to raise children who are capable and independent, which ultimately means they will not need to rely on their parents as they mature. The essence of effective parenting lies in empowering children to find their own paths in life, even though this may lead to feelings of loss for the parents once their children have achieved that independence.
Themes
ParentingIndependenceChildrenGrowthFamily
In practice
Example use cases
During a parenting seminar, this quote could be used to illustrate the ultimate goal of parenting.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
Barbara KingsolverRead
I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
Barbara KingsolverRead
I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
Barbara KingsolverRead
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My mother was the greatest mother in the world. She thought I was the greatest thing on two feet. I'd come home with a little composition I had written at school, and she'd look at it and say, 'It's wonderful! You're another Shakespeare!' I always assumed I could do anything. It really is amazing how much that has to do with your attitude.
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For me, at least, all of my career goals, all of my focus, everything just shifted and the importance was my children, and that's where all the joy came from as well.
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Your children live or die without you. No matter what we do, no matter how we agonize or obsess, we cannot choose for our children whether they live or die. It's a devastating realization, but liberating.
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Freedom has never been free... I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them.
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