“If you ever feel sad, do something to make a child happy. Their smile will work as ointment on your anguish.”
Source: Woman Over World: The Novel
“Some mountains were meant to help you discover things you are truly passionate about.”
Source: Coming to Grips with the Mountains and Valleys of This World
“Britain was the last developed country where beating schoolchildren was respectable. This was outlawed last year [1988] - by one vote in Parliament. Parents are now almost the last people left who can hit children without fear of penalty, as long as it's moderate and fitting punishment...the language of authority still derives from violence, mistakenly, tragically.”
Source: Into the Dangerous World: Some Reflections on Childhood and Its Costs
“People think, ‘Hey, I love kids, I want to write children’s books.’ But they think children are happy. That’s their first mistake.”
“The basics of being a good parent are the same as for being a good human. Arguably, our humanity is foremost about our capacity to stop and assess our behaviour as an individual, as a mother, as a father, as a friend, as a son or a daughter.”
Source: What Do I Do Now? The basics of parenting babies ... without stress
“We are our parents echoes and sometimes they don't like what they hear”
Source: Rock Paper Scissors
“Children lose interest in their parents when they are left. They are not sentimental. They are passionate and cold. [...] They learn to pretend. And pretense becomes the most active, the realest part, alluring as dreams. It takes place of what we think is real. - pg. 11-12”
Source: S. S. Proleterka
“The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken.”
Source: The History of Childhood: The Untold Story of Child Abuse
“There is a thing that happens with children: If no one is watching them, nothing is really happening to them. It is not some philosophical conundrum like the one about the tree falling in the forest and no one hearing it: that is a puzzler for college freshman. No. If you are very small, you actually understand that there is no point in jumping into the swimming pool unless they see you do it. The child crying, ‘‘Watch me, watch me,’’ is not begging for attention; he is pleading for existence itself.”
Source: Saying Goodbye: A Memoir for Two Fathers
“You may give them your love, but not your thoughts,
for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
for their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow,
which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams”
Source: The Prophet