QuoteProject
Spend enough time wrangling a toddler, and you get good at being kind but firm. Like your child, you must be doggedly single-minded when it matters.
Celeste Ng
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Effective parenting requires balancing kindness and firmness while being determined in important matters.

In this quote, Celeste Ng highlights the duality of parenting where nurturing a child's needs must be balanced with the need to set boundaries. The act of wrangling a toddler teaches parents to be compassionate yet resolute, emphasizing that both qualities are essential in raising a disciplined and loving child who understands the importance of focus and perseverance.

Themes

ParentingKindnessFirmnessDeterminationChild-Rearing

In practice

Example use cases

During a parenting workshop to illustrate effective parenting strategies.

More from Celeste Ng

Let's stop reflexively comparing Chinese writers to Chinese writers, Indian writers to Indian writers, black writers to black writers. Let's focus on the writing itself: the characters, the language, the narrative style.
Celeste NgRead
For me, any story I tackle begins with the human relationships and not the plot.
Celeste NgRead
It's so easy, as a writer, to get stuck in your own head, to live in the little worlds you create. To forget that there are people out there reading your work, people who may be deeply affected by what you do, that you are writing not just for yourself, but for them.
Celeste NgRead
What I remember about race relations in the 1990s is that you showed your awareness by saying you didn't see race, that you were colour-blind.
Celeste NgRead
In fiction you're not often writing about the typical; you are interested in outliers, the points of interest. Part of it comes from feeling I was the only Asian or person of colour... another part comes from my personality: I'm an introvert, and my usual survival mode in a large group is to stand by a wall and watch everybody.
Celeste NgRead
Writing is like shouting into the world. So when someone shouts back, it's a really big deal. To have people who read hundreds and hundreds of books a year say, 'Hey, we thought this was really great,' that's a huge self-esteem boost.
Celeste NgRead

Similar quotes

I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.
Maurice SendakRead
Parents who discipline their child by discussing the consequences of their actions produce children who have better moral development , compared to children whose parents use authoritarian methods and punishment.
Simon Baron-CohenRead
Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave, when they think that their children are naive.
Ogden NashRead
In the same way that I cannot be perfect and need grace for my mistakes, I also need to give my kids grace. I am constantly learning to be patient with them, understanding that they won't do everything right all the time, while still holding them to a high standard, as their heavenly father does.
Benjamin WatsonRead
That's exactly the way parents develop positive, successful kids. Don't look for the flaws, warts, and blemishes. Look for the gold, not for the dirt; the good, not the bad. Look for the positive aspects of life. Like everything else, the more good qualities we look for in our children, the more good qualities we are going to find.
Zig ZiglarRead
The real meditative practice is to open up to the full range of what happens in life. And parenting is a fantastic arena for doing that kind of spiritual training. It's as much a potential door into enlightenment as anything else.
Jon Kabat-ZinnRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.