Children have more need of models than of critics.

Children have more need of models than of critics.

The child is father of the man.

The child is father of the man.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours read more

It might sound a paradoxical thing to say --for surely never has a generation of children occupied more sheer hours of parental time --but the truth is that we neglected you. We allowed you a charade of trivial freedoms in order to avoid making those impositions on you that are in the end both the training ground and proving ground for true independence. We pronounced you strong when you were still weak in order to avoid the struggles with you that would have fed your true strength. We proclaimed you sound when you were foolish in order to avoid taking part in the long, slow, slogging effort that is the only route to genuine maturity of mind and feeling. Thus, it was no small anomaly of your growing up that while you were the most indulged generation, you were also in many ways the most abandoned to your own meager devices by those into whose safe-keeping you had been given.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

It is a wise child that knows his own father.

It is a wise child that knows his own father.

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as read more

Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death of a sparrow in the corner of read more

Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death of a sparrow in the corner of a barn. -Tom Savage.

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.