And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.
Orson Scott CardRead
Parents always make their worst mistakes with their oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Parents often make more mistakes with their first children due to inexperience and heightened concern.
This quote by Orson Scott Card highlights the paradox of parental experience: the first child often faces the most mistakes from parents who are inexperienced and overly concerned, leading to a combination of errors in judgment and a strong insistence on being correct. As parents navigate the complexities of raising children, their lack of knowledge contrasts sharply with their intense emotional investment, indicating a learning curve that potentially improves with subsequent children.
Themes
ParentingMistakesChildrenFamilyExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a parenting seminar discussing the challenges of raising children.
More from Orson Scott Card
All quotes →The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win.
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Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.
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The lives of all people flow through time, and, regardless of how brutal one moment may be, how filled with grief or pain or fear, time flows through all lives equally.
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You take a step, then another. That's the journey. But to take a step with your eyes open is not a journey at all, it's a remaking of your own mind.
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I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.
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My parents were both born and raised in the Depression. They instilled great values about integrity and the importance of hard work, and I've taken that with me to every job.
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