Home / Quotes / Quote by Mary Blakely

Quote by Mary Blakely

“A "snapshot" feature in USA Today listed the five greatest concerns parents and teachers had about children in the '50s: talking out of turn, chewing gum in class, doing homework, stepping out of line, cleaning their rooms. Then it listed the five top concerns of parents today: drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, suicide and homicide, gang violence, anorexia and bulimia. We can also add AIDS, poverty, and homelessness. . . . Between my own childhood and the advent of my motherhood--one short generation--the culture had gone completely mad.”

Quote by Mary Blakely

Author

Mary Blakely, born in 1948, is an accomplished author whose works span a variety of genres. Known for her profound insights and unique narrative style, her writing has gained her recognition and awards, including a Nobel Prize nomination. more

You May Also Like

“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I'd read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers--especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”

Writing Years Littles Book Real Body Mother Advice Mines Son Bases Motherhood Real Life Experts Engaged Plot Articles Bores Resemblance Oral History

Author:Mary Blakely

“It takes twenty or so years before a mother can know with any certainty how effective her theories have been--and even then thereare surprises. The daily newspapers raise the most frightening questions of all for a mother of sons: Could my once sweet babes ever become violent men? Are my sons really who I think they are?”

Thinking Knows Men Years Has Beens Mother Son Sweet Theory Twenties Raises Surprise Newspapers Violent Certainty My Son Frightening Babe Violent Man

Book:American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

Source: American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

“One year, I'd completely lost my bearings trying to follow potty training instruction from a psychiatric expert. I was stuck on step on, which stated without an atom of irony: "Before you begin, remove all stubbornness from the child." . . . I knew it only could have been written by someone whose suit coat was still spotless at the end of the day, not someone who had any hands-on experience with an actual two-year-old.”

“What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were "anti-family." . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movementin the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women's movement that put self-esteem back into "just a housewife," rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of "instinct" and making it human, deliberate, powerful.”

Firsts Humans Self Political Powerful Self Esteem Movement Son Instinct Feminist Motherhood Esteem My Son Activist Recognizing Deliberate Junk Assertion Housewife Stunned

Author:Mary Blakely

“Certainly, words can be as abusive as any blow. . . . When a three-year-old yells, "You're so stupid! What a dummy!" it doesn't carry the same weight as when a mother yells those words to a child. . . . Even if you don't physically abuse young children, you can still drive them nuts with your words.”

Ifs Years Children Stills Young Mother Three Stupid Weight Abuse Blow Nuts Three Years Young Children Abusive Dummy Three Year Olds

Author:Mary Blakely

“Although a firm swat could bring a recalcitrant child swiftly into line, the changes were usually external, lasting only as long as the swatter remained in view....Permanent transformation had to be internal....The habits of self discipline, as laborious and frustrating as they were to achieve, offered the only real possibility of keeping children safe from their own excesses as well as the omnipresent dangers of society.”

Wells Children Long Real Self Lines Views Achieve Danger Possibility Habit Discipline Safe Transformation Permanent Firm Internals Lasting Excess Self Discipline Frustrating Recalcitrant

Author:Mary Blakely

“In the range of things toddlers have to learn and endlessly review--why you can't put bottles with certain labels in your mouth, why you have to sit on the potty, why you can't take whatever you want in the store, why you don't hit your friends--by the time we got to why you can't drop your peas, well, I was dropping a few myself.”

Want Wells Certain Mouths Stores Labels Range Bottles Reviews Dropping Peas Toddler Potty

Book:American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

Source: American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

“The naive notion that a mother naturally acquires the complex skills of childrearing simply because she has given birth now seemsas absurd to me as enrolling in a nine-month class in composition and imagining that at the end of the course you are now prepared to begin writing War and Peace.”

Writing War Ends Mother Courses Given Class Imagine Months Birth Skills Prepared Complexes Notion Nine Absurd Acquire Composition Naive Nine Months

Author:Mary Blakely

“Since civilizing children takes the better part of two decades--some twenty years of nonstop thinking, nurturing, teaching, coaxing, rewarding, forgiving, warning, punishing, sympathizing, apologizing, reminding, and repeating, not to mention deciding what to do when--I now understand that one wrong move is invariably followed by hundreds of opportunities to be wrong again.”

Thinking Years Children Two Moving Opportunity Teaching Twenties Forgiving Decades Warning Apologizing Nurturing Reminding Deciding What To Do Wrong Move

Book:American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

Source: American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie

“How can one explain all the time and thought that goes into raising a child, all the opportunities for mistakes, all the chances to recover and try again? How does one break the news that nothing permanent can be formed in an instant--children are not weaned, potty trained, taught manners, introduced to civilization in one or two tries--as everyone imagined.”

Trying Children Doe Two Opportunity Chance Mistake Break Taught Civilization News Manners Permanent Instant Raising Children Try Again Potty

Author:Mary Blakely