I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Parenting involves making difficult decisions that may not always be appreciated by children.
This quote by Bette Davis highlights the complex and often challenging nature of parenting. It suggests that a parent must sometimes enforce rules or boundaries that may lead to temporary feelings of resentment or hatred from their child, pointing to the deep emotional involvement and sacrifices that come with raising a child. To be a parent often means to prioritize long-term well-being over immediate acceptance or affection, implying that experiencing hatred from your child can be an indication of effective parenting.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
Sharing this quote during a parenting seminar to discuss the challenges of raising children.
More from Bette Davis
All quotes βI have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
Similar quotes
My daughter finished high school the same month I got my master's degree. I'm glad I didn't know when I gave birth to her at 21 what it would cost in terms of time, money and sacrifice to bring her to that graduation day.
In my 50s I'll be dancing at my children's weddings.
My mom used to get arrested for being with my dad. She would get fined. She would spend weekends in jail.
This is how it essentially is for Bunny Junior. He loves his dad. He thinks there is no dad better, cleverer, or more capable, and he stands there beside him with a sense of pride - he's my dad - and he also, of course, stands beside him because he has nowhere else to go.
It was about the preciousness of that, and how they viewed those birds as art, as something valuable. I didn't care one way or another back then, but now, thinking about my grandparents - who are still alive but getting older - I see the birds as sort of time capsules. Now I go home during the holidays and they hold a lot of weight in terms of nostalgia and memory. Now they mean everything.
There will come a day, I promise you, when the thought of your son, or daughter, or your wife or your husband, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner than later.