Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the idea that parenting promotes maturity in adults rather than just being a means to create children.
Peter De Vries suggests that the true essence of marriage is not just to bear children, but rather that the experience of raising children is what fosters growth and maturity in adults. It implies that the responsibilities associated with parenthood shape individuals, helping them evolve into more responsible and mature beings, thereby emphasizing the transformative nature of raising offspring.
In practice
During a parenting seminar, I shared this quote to illustrate the impact of raising children on personal growth.
We must love one another, yes, yes, that's all true enough, but nothing says we have to like each other. It may be the very recognition of all men as our brothers that accounts for the sibling rivalry, and even enmity, we have toward so many of them.
I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best -- it's all they'll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money -- provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don't need it.
There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.
The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.
Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is good for dandruff - it is a palliative rather than a remedy.
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
Mom sobbed something into Dad's chest that I wish I hadn't heard, and that I hope she never finds out that I did hear. She said, "I won't be a mom anymore." It gutted me pretty badly.
I tell the kids that, even in a childhood marked by despair and deprivation, I knew that no matter what happened, I still had my family, or at least the remnants of a family ripped apart by divorce and then glued back together in various odd arrangements through a series of ill- advised remarriages. It was good to know I had a solid foundation.
Our children are extensions of ourselves in ways our parents are not, nor our brothers and sisters, nor our spouses.
Through adoption, Americans can forever change not only a child's life but also their own.
I was lucky to have such a loving, crazy family. I learned to give and share.
The baby boomers owe a big debt of gratitude to the parents and grandparents - who we haven't given enough credit to anyway - for giving us another generation.
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