Orson Scott Card Quotes

I think the one thing this picture shows that's new is the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too.

It's very important that we instill some respect for the parents. In America especially, the kids are unruly, screaming at Mommy and Daddy, running the show.

My sons are a hell of a lot easier to get through to than my daughter is. She seems to have my number. She can just run through the buttons.

Parents know how to push your buttons because, hey, they sewed them on.

We're living in a time when parenting is not at all mirroring the way I was parented. For me, I just followed my parents around on their errands; when they were busy on the phone, I was quiet. It's a different kettle of fish these days: They run the house, and you listen to their music, and you go to their appointments.

Whatever the parents are doing, the kids will follow suit.

A parent who has never apologized to his children is a monster. If he's always apologizing, his children are monsters.

Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wished we'd had.

Parents who indulge themselves 'in moderation' may have children who indulge themselves to excess.

If you do not give your children freedom, when they grow up, they will break away from the family, and then your hearts will be broken.

It's easy enough to get along with a loved and loving child - at least till you try to get him to do something.

We hear a great deal about the rudeness of the rising generation. I am an oldster myself and might be expected to take the oldsters' side, but in fact I have been far more impressed by the bad manners of parents to children than by those of children to parents.

Some children do what they’re told to do; some children do what they’re told not to do; all children do what they’re parents have done.

A child's first teacher is its mother.

Sometimes when you have children they're the opposites of you.

I think parenting is very different now. We're totally governed by our children!

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.

It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to what's good parenting or just projecting your own expectations on your kids. That's the hardest.

In Chinese culture, it wouldn't occur to kids to question or talk back to their parents. In American culture, kids in books, TV shows and movies constantly score points with their snappy back talk. Typically, it's the parents who need to be taught a life lesson - by their children.

We need to stop the erosion of parental authority.

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.

One father is enough to govern one hundred sons, but not a hundred sons one father.

A kid never listens to what his parents tell him to do. The parents actually act as an example of what their kids themselves do.

Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore, and that's what parents were created for.