I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the depth of a parent's love for their children, highlighting the importance of personal identity over sacrifice.
In this quote, Kate Chopin expresses the profound love a parent can have for their children, illustrating the willingness to sacrifice material wealth and even life itself for their well-being. However, she firmly asserts that while she would make significant sacrifices for her children, she would not sacrifice her own identity or essence, suggesting the importance of self-preservation and autonomy even in the face of parental love.
In practice
This quote could be used during a parent-teacher meeting to emphasize the dedication of parents towards their children's well-being.
She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father's voice and her sister Margaret's. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air. (last lines)
There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why,--when it did not seem worthwhile to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation.
She's got some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women.
Well, for instance, when I left her today, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said.
There would be no one there to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistance with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldnt give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me.
Once a month we have 'dessert for dinner' night. I'll make four separate desserts. They'll come home from school and eat as much cake and custard and ice cream as they can physically get in their guts. Because sometimes I think, let them just be children.
I was lucky to get the kinds of parts I wanted. I always said I didn't want to do anything my kids can't see.
I love being a mother. I think it's the best thing I've ever done, and I personally feel that it's had a very positive effect on my work. I think it's an encouraging force for creativity, it feeds creativity - it did for me, certainly.
When you leave them in the morning, they stick their nose in the door crack and stand there like a portrait until you turn the key eight hours later.
If the agency of the mother in forming the character of her children is, in truth, so considerable, as I think it - if she does so much toward making her son what she would wish him to be - how essential is it that she should be fitted for the beneficial performance of these important duties.
How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.
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