My mother, she didn't believe in praise. She'd never say anything was great. I think that's quite Northern, to not make people feel too good. I didn't mind if she was proud of me or not, it didn't bother me. I was never trying to please her.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on a mother's pragmatic approach to praise and the impact it had on her child's emotional development.
Victoria Wood's quote highlights her mother's tendency to refrain from giving praise, which she associates with a regional cultural trait. The speaker expresses a sense of independence from seeking validation, suggesting that the absence of overt encouragement did not diminish their self-worth or efforts. This perspective emphasizes resilience and the notion that feelings of pride and validation can come from within rather than external approval.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one might say, 'Like Victoria Wood, I learned to find my own value rather than always seeking it from others.'
I am technically "boss" of the family which I am carrying along-but I am grateful to know that it is only technically - that the real authority rests on the other side of the house. It is placed there by a beneficent Providence, who foresaw before I was born, or, if he did not, he has found it out since - that I am not in any way qualified to travel alone.
I love being a mother. I think it's the best thing I've ever done, and I personally feel that it's had a very positive effect on my work. I think it's an encouraging force for creativity, it feeds creativity - it did for me, certainly.
Parenting is the most important thing to many of us, and so it's also the place we're most vulnerable. We're all a little afraid we're doing it wrong.
I didn't have a father to deal with about boyfriends. I didn't have a father to show me how a man and woman relate in a family setting. Therefore, I have given over my life to mentoring young people. I'm adamant about young people who have been denied a father/daughter relationship.
Not every successful man is a good father. But every good father is a successful man.
Fathering imposed an obligation that was more than your money, your body, or your time, a presence neither physical nor measurable by clocks: open-ended, eternal, and invisible, like the commitment of gravity to the stars.
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