Kids need to encounter kids like themselves - kids who can sometimes be crabby and fresh and rebellious, kids who talk back and disobey, tell fibs and get into trouble, and are nonetheless still likable and redeemable.
Judith ViorstRead
The need to become a separate self is as urgent as the yearning to merge forever. And as long as we, not our mother, initiate parting, and as long as our mother remains reliably there, it seems possible to risk, and even to revel in, standing alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the balance between individuality and connection with others, particularly with our mothers.
Judith Viorst's quote addresses the dual needs of a person: the desire to establish a distinct identity separate from others, especially one's mother, and the longing for deep connection and merging with that person. It suggests that this journey towards individuality can be empowering when the relationship with the mother is strong and secure, thereby allowing one to embrace solitude and self-discovery without fear.
Themes
IndividualityMotherConnectionSelf-DiscoveryRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
A speech about the importance of balancing independence and familial bonds.
More from Judith Viorst
All quotes →Lust is what keeps you wanting to do it even when you have no desire to be with each other. Love is what makes you want to be with each other even when you have no desire to do it.
Judith ViorstRead
Starting after 60, I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to write a book of poems on the 70s. It's going to be all moans and groans and complaints, and what is there to laugh about?' But I found plenty to laugh about.
Judith ViorstRead
Growing up means letting go of the dearest megalomaniacal dreams of our childhood. Growing up means knowing they can't be fulfilled. Growing up means gaining the wisdom and the skills to get what we want within the limitations imposed by reality - a reality which consists of diminished powers, restricted freedoms and, with the people we love, imperfect connections.
Judith ViorstRead
Similar quotes
Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.
Simone WeilRead
Forget sex or politics or religion, loneliness is the subject that clears out a room.
Douglas CouplandRead
Do you know what people really want? Everyone, I mean. Everybody in the world is thinking: I wish there was just one other person I could really talk to, who could really understand me, who'd be kind to me. That's what people really want, if they're telling the truth.
Doris LessingRead
All over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job.
Harvey MilkRead
I felt as if there were invisible threads connecting us - I felt the invisible strands of her hair still winding around me - and thus as she disappeared completely beyond the sea - I still felt it, felt the pain where my heart was bleeding - because the threads could not be severed.
Edvard MunchRead
There's a false perception that women in Africa somehow don't love their babies they way we do, don't grieve their loss the way we would. That is simply not true.
Melinda GatesRead