Adult Children Quotes

Maybe God's goal wasn't for me to raise a good rule-following child. Instead, His goal was for me to raise a God-following adult. ~ Lysa TerKeurst

... whether we feel admiring of our parents, reconciled to them, or still estranged, still teetering near a cliff of anger, we recognize that we can never meet them in agreement about what we have encountered beyond their experience. ~ Carolyn G. Heilbrun

My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children. ~ Usher

It's easier to shape a child than to repair an adult. ~ Tony Evans

If it's something you can't say in front of your parents then it's probably worth saying. ~ Max Redford

There's simply no way you can tell a woman you work with that you disapprove of her relationship with her adult child, no matter how much you think it would be better for him to move out. ~ Mallory Ortberg

That night, I take Wallerstein's book from my bedside table and re-read something she mentioned only in passing: the ambivalence that many adult children of divorce feel about their obligation to their aging parents. So lasting are the effects of divorce, so disruptive to the bond between parent and child, that some of these children find that when the roles are reversed and it is their parents who now need them, they want to pay them back in kind. What they didn't get, they don't want to give. Yet even as I read this, I don't budge from what has become a personal mantra for me: Our parents do the best they can with what they have to work with, and we owe them the same. ~ Katie Hafner

To be a healthy person, you have to be sympathetic to the child you once were and maintain the continuity between you as a child and you as an adult. ~ Maurice Sendak

If you can help a child, you don't have to spend years repairing an adult. ~ Joyce Meyer

Kids are Stupid and Any Adult can Learn to do what a Kid can do Within Nanoseconds because all Children are Dumb (reason to not be afraid of trying to learn something as an adult) ~ Mattias Pilhede

The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult. ~ Maria Montessori

An adolescent is both an impulsive child and a self-starting adult. ~ Mason Cooley

It's better to build a peaceful child than re-build a violent adult. ~ Colman McCarthy

Raising children is a spur-of-the-moment, seat-of-the-pants sort of deal, as any parent knows, particularly after an adult child says that his most searing memory consists of an offhand comment in the car on the way to second grade that the parent cannot even dimly recall. ~ Anna Quindlen

ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) Counseling can break the cycle in your family. Did you parent your parents? Chaos seem normal? Unhappiness is expected?http://marlana.org/spiritual-healing ~ Spiritual Healing

I talk about beepers going off in the middle of a concert and people being late and not apologizing, and people not RSVP-ing, and adult children going back to live with their parents, which we didn't have in the '60s and '70s. ~ Letitia Baldrige

It seemed to me that every adult did something terrible sooner or later. And every child, I thought, sooner or later becomes an adult. ~ Lemony Snicket

Guardians are necessary for children and abnormal adults, because they cannot make responsible choices for themselves. ~ Tom G. Palmer

A family is a social system and if that system is dysfunctional, the ramifications for the children growing up within it are grave. In what is known as generational drug addiction, the adult children of drug addicts and alcoholics are quietly suffering all over the world. By the time the children have grown up, dysfunction has been deeply ingrained in mind, body and brain. ~ Christopher Dines

I have a passion for children's literature. Young adult literature. I love it. I've always loved it. ~ Gretchen Rubin

In the early 1990s, a group of people accused of sexual abuse formed the 'False Memory Syndrome Foundation' (FMSF). The FMSF's primary goal was to advocate on behalf of parents accused of child sexual abuse by their adult children, but the Foundation also became an important resource for people accused of sexual abuse by minors. Importantly, the Foundation attracted academics from a range of discliplines whose experise had been contested or challenged by the legitimisation of children's and women's testimony of sexual abuse. ~ Michael Salter

A child of five, if properly instructed, can, as truly believe, and be regenerated, as an adult. ~ Charles Spurgeon

If I set my stones, my mum would be an opal, all swirly colours and clashy statements. I would put her at the north point of my stone compass and be grateful to her for my brains, and the fact that I stand up for myself. I'd be grateful to her for the ease with which I laugh, although I wish she'd rein in her own guffaws sometimes because really, who needs to be that loud? I was grateful that she didn't hover over me like some parents who couldn't seem to let their (nearly adult) children out of their sight without keeping constant telephone contact. He'll, I was even grateful that she had strict house rules that were a pain in the arse, because we both knew it would be much easier if she said yes, but she did no because she really believed no was the right answer. ~ Gabrielle Williams

Perhaps people felt there was nothing more they could do, you know? After all, how can someone be helped who doesn't see the need? A Christian counselor I saw for a while described such situations as, "a White Elephant everyone can see but no one wants to deal with; everyone hopes the problem will just go away on its own."

Just like with my mom.

Back then it seemed women were almost expected to go a little loopy sometimes. After all we're the ones with raging hormones that get out of whack – by our periods, PMS or pregnancy and childbirth – and cause craziness and bizarre behavior. And because of those uncontrollable hormones, women are also more emotional and predisposed to depression. These are things my mom was actually told by her parents, her family, her husbands and friends... even her doctor. Eventually, she made herself believe that her erratic behavior stemmed from PMS, not mania or alcohol. ~ Chynna T. Laird

Whether adult children of toxic parents were beaten when little or left alone too much, sexually abused or treated like fools, overprotected or overburdened by guilt, they almost all suffer surprisingly similar symptoms: damaged self-esteem, leading to self-destructive behavior. In one way or another, they almost all feel worthless, unlovable, and inadequate. ~ Susan Forward

You don't treat me like a child."
He smiled. "Of course I do, but you seem to have this ridiculous notion that being treated like a child means to be treated with less respect than an adult. ~ Derek Landy

And we need to pray for our adult children to have an understanding of - and a desire for - the presence of the Holy Spirit so they can find all the freedom and liberty, deliverance and restoration, transformation and wholeness God has for them. ~ Stormie O'martian

The greatest compliment in the world is your adult children telling you they had a wonderful childhood. ~ Ron Baratono

The lesson in my friend's observation is that the line moves. What had once seemed unendurable to an aged parent, and still does to us, the adult children, changes. They come to tolerate the formerly intolerable and to surprise us with their forbearance. Diapers, it turned out, were not the end of the world. Nor was a wheelchair, despite initial resistance. Millimeter by millimeter the line was moving, as it would many times more. ~ Jane Gross

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see. ~ Brene Brown

Why isn't there a commandment to "honor thy children" or at least one to "not abuse thy children"? The notion that we must honor our parents causes many people to bury their real feelings and set aside their own needs in order to have a relationship with people they would otherwise not associate with. Parents, like anyone else, need to earn respect and honor, and honoring parents who are negative and abusive is not only impossible but extremely self-abusive. Perhaps, as with anything else, honoring our parents starts with honoring ourselves. For many adult children, honoring themselves means not having anything to do with one or both of their parents. ~ Beverly Engel

Isms' are described as transference of addictive patterns of dysfunctional behaviour, passed down from generation to generation. For instance, if a mother was an alcoholic who never made it into recovery, her behaviour would leave a mark on her children, husband, etc. Unless her adult children join some sort of recovery programme and adopt the mindfulness practice, they will have very similar behaviour traits to their mother but minus the alcohol abuse. There is a strong possibility that they will become codependent and form relationships with other codependents or alcoholics. ~ Christopher Dines

The Bible warns [parents] against extremes in dealing with our adult children. It tells us to avoid trying to control [them] once they become adults. When children become independent, a major transition takes place: They are no longer under our authority. ~ Billy Graham

In the pairs of mothers and their adult children that I have seen, mothers who cared for their children out of obligation are then cared for in their elderly years by their adult children out of a similar obligation. ~ Jasmin Lee Cori

Children refuse to compromise. Adults learn how. ~ Madeleine M. Kunin

[Adult children of a BPD parent] may seem old before their time or like an old soul (and probably were that way as children too.) They may easily assume the role of fixer and nurturer. They're the ones friends lean on, the ones to whom people tell their problems. Helping others gives them a sense of purpose and worth. ~ Kimberlee Roth

I have three adult children, and I have four grandchildren. I want to stop the deficits. I want to make sure that we're not passing on to my children and my grandchildren deficits and that we cannot repay and that they will have to repay and maybe they won't be able to repay them. ~ Doug Hoffman

Jesus keeps the Sabbath with an eye to the "weightier matters of the law," which are justice, mercy, and truth. Jesus keeps the Sabbath as an adult. Children are very worried about keeping the rules, and forcing other people to keep the rules. But children might keep rules so rigidly that they actually violate the rules. That's how the Pharisees keep the law. They are childish law keepers. Jesus is a mature law-keeper, and He calls His disciples to keep the law in the same way. ~ Peter J. Leithart

I'd like to see people worry less about their inner child and more about their outer adult. ~ Ron Bennington

Lord, give me the heart of a child, and the awesome courage to live it out as an adult. ~ Catherine Doherty

Parentified children learn to take responsibility for themselves and others early on. They tend to fade into the woodwork and let others take center stage. This extends into adulthood - adult children may put others' needs before their own. They may have difficulty accepting care and attention. ~ Kimberlee Roth

Adults who were hurt as children inevitably exhibit a peculiar strength, a profound inner wisdom, and a remarkable creativity and insight. Deep within them - just beneath the wound - lies a profound spiritual vitality, a quiet knowing, a way of perceiving what is beautiful, right, and true. Since their early experiences were so dark and painful, they have spent much of their lives in search of the gentleness, love, and peace they have only imagined in the privacy of their own hearts. ~ Wayne Muller

I realize that some people will not believe that a child of little more than ten years is capable of having such feelings. My story is not intended for them. I am telling it to those who have a better knowledge of man. The adult who has learned to translate a part of his feelings into thoughts notices the absence of these thoughts in a child, and therefore comes to believe that the child lacks these experiences, too. Yet rarely in my life have I felt and suffered as deeply as at that time. ~ Hermann Hesse

On the whole, I prefer Christmas as an adult than I did as a child. ~ Nigella Lawson

I don't want a grown-up person at all. A grown-up won't listen to me; he won't learn. ~ Roald Dahl

The human child – so much cannier at times than the stupefyingly ponderous adult. ~ Markus Zusak

The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children. And though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8 percent of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left. ~ Katie J. Davis

God is very serious about joy in the lives of His children. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

It is not at all a fit place for you," said Clementina.
"Gently, my lady. It is a greater than thou that sets the bounds of my habitation. Perhaps He may give me a palace one day. But the Father has decreed for His children that they shall know the thing that is neither their ideal nor His. All in His time, my lady. He has much to teach us. ~ George MacDonald

I relate to [women and children in women's shelters] on a personal level because I've been there myself. ~ Nia Sanchez

I feel a lot of adult fiction looks down on plot as a lesser form of literature. ~ Lauren Oliver

Avoid compulsion and let early education be a matter of amusement. Young children learn by games; compulsory education cannot remain in the soul. ~ Plato

When I was a child, love to me was what the sea is to a fish: something you swim in while you are going about the important affairs of life. ~ P.L. Travers

Rear your children in light and truth. Teach them to pray while they are young. Read to them from the scriptures even though they may not understand all that you read. Teach them to pay their tithes and offerings on the first money they ever receive. Let this practice become a habit in their lives. Teach your sons to honor womanhood. Teach your daughters to walk in virtue. Accept responsibility in the Church, and trust in the Lord to make you equal to any call you may receive. Your example will set a pattern for your children. Reach out in love to those in distress and need. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Sophistry, like poison, is at once detected and nauseated, when presented to us in a concentrated form; but a fallacy which, when stated barely in a few sentences, would not deceive a child, may deceive half the world, if diluted in a quarto volume. ~ Richard Whately

It's 2013 ... The Time's obituary for Yvonne Brill, renowned rocket scientist, winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovations, leads with, 'She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom," her son Matthew said. ~ Deborah Copaken

What I always say is that we're the illegitimate children of Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lewis. ~ Kevin McDonald

Every child must master empathy-based ethics because the rules are changing; the less they apply the less learning them has positive impact ~ Bill Drayton

I've learned that once children gain a sense of real possession, they share very naturally, freely, and spontaneously. ~ Stephen R. Covey

Now that I had run out of steam I realized I was in Ronan's room, at
night. He was standing there in a pair of boxers and nothing else. Gulp. Maybe I
shouldn't be too hasty to throw away this betrothal. Ew. Great, Grazi, why not just drool
all over the boy in his underwear after you pretty much told him you wanted nothing to
do with him? I'm such a freak.
"Um, I'll see you tomorrow." I turned around and left as quickly as I had come in. ~ C.D. Gorri

Each child comes to us with a message from God and it is our job to help them deliver that message. ~ Jim Kern

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses. ~ John C. Maxwell

Mothers always find ways to fit in the work - but then when you're working, you feel that you should be spending time with your children and then when you're with your children, you're thinking about working. ~ Alice Hoffman

For me, the sea was a great comfort, Pilar. But it made my children restless. It exists now so we can call and wave from opposite shores. ~ Cristina Garcia

But even when I stop crying, even when we fall asleep and I'm nestled in his arms, this will leave another scar. No one will see it. No one will know. But it will be there. And eventually all of the scars will have scars, and that's all I'll be
one big scar of a love gone wrong. ~ Amanda Grace

The feelings I had for my sister were jumbled together, like the monkeys in a barrel game we'd had as children. All the brightly colored monkeys with their curved arms tangled and entwined, so convoluted that it was almost impossible to separate them. ~ Karen White

If your children don't fight, they won't love each other when they get older! It's a common thing. ~ Vince Staples

There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature; to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony and the beauty in nature. ~ Maria Montessori

the way they put it, we as a society have decided not to modify the society but to modify the children. ~ Noam Chomsky

This is one of their [the Christians'] rules. Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among us: but if they be unlearned, or a child, or an idiot, let him freely come. So they openly declare that none but the ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, women, and children, are fit disciples for the God they worship. ~ Aulus Cornelius Celsus

O children of God, seek after a vital experience of the Lord's lovingkindness, and when you have it, speak positively of it; sing gratefully; shout triumphantly. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I don't know. I love the idea of democracy, the hope, yes, I love that. I couldn't live without that. But the country? You mean the thing on the map, lines, everything inside the lines is good and nothing outside them matters? How can an adult love such a childish idea? ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

"Wait and see" is no easier now than it was as a child. ~ Richard Paul Evans

I've read science fiction and fantasy all my life – though when you're a child, they just call that "books." The first book I ever read on my own was The Neverending Story. I studied classics at university, and in ancient literature, monsters, witches, magic, curses, and impossible machines aren't genre, they're just Tuesday afternoon. I had no idea that I was writing fantasy at first, because I was so saturated in Greek literature that it never occurred to me that my talking animals and sentient mazes were anything but realism. Our instinct toward folklore and magical stories, parables and imagining the future, are as much a part of the human experiences as divorce, grief, falling in love, politics, or raising children. I've always read fantastic literature, because it's always seemed truest to me. It makes the metaphorical literal and is all the more powerful for that immediacy and directness. I love genre fiction for the infinite expanse of stories it can tell – and it's been my constant companion since I was a very small child. ~ Catherynne M. Valente

She smiled, pretending to be unaware like every child, but she knew. Children know things even if they can't explain them in words. ~ Cara Ruegg

Adults, I understand, have many faults, they are not perfect - even though they have lived longer, even though they offer themselves as examples to children. They are larger, that is certain, and size has an unearned authority. But they are easily influenced, and they can be easily swayed. ~ Edward Carey

I know that pain is the most important thing in the universes. Greater than survival, greater than love, greater even than the beauty it brings about. For without pain, there can be no pleasure. Without sadness, there can be no happiness. Without misery there can be no beauty. And without these, life is endless, hopeless, doomed and damned.
Adult. You have become adult. ~ Harlan Ellison

Parenting our children peacefully is a gift of peace to the world. Children learn what they live and live what they learn. ~ L.R. Knost

As a grown woman, I saw the first black president reach down a hand and touch the face of a child like I once was, lifting his eyes toward a better future. But I have never, ever, in all my years seen a leader so committed to delivering that better future to America's children as Hillary Clinton. ~ Donna Brazile

Nothing is so sad, in my opinion, as the devastation wrought by age.
My poor friend. I have described him many times. Now to convey to you the difference. Crippled with arthritis, he propelled himself about in a wheelchair. His once plump frame had fallen in. He was a thin little man now. His face was lined and wrinkled. His moustache and hair, and hair, it is true, were still of a jet black colour, but candidly, though I would not for the world have hurt his feelings by saying so to him, this was a mistake. There comes a moment when hair dye is only too painfully obvious. There had been a time when I had been surprised to learn that the blackness of Poirot's hair came out of a bottle. But now the theatricality was apparent and merely created the impression that he wore a wig and had adorned his upper lip to amuse children! ~ Agatha Christie

Here's a tip for new parents: Start lowering those expectations early, it's going to pay off later. ~ Colson Whitehead

We know that there are several predisposing factors to gun violence: poverty, lack of education, lack of good parenting, lack of jobs, living in an environment where violence is seen every day, all the time. And children being born to children are likely to have all of these predisposing factors. ~ Joycelyn Elders

Hell, a pig had most humans beat, smarter than small children, and we didn't eat those but maybe we should. ~ Kelly J. Cogswell

I am certain that the Lord, who notes the fall of a sparrow, looks with compassion upon those who have been called upon to part, even temporarily, from their precious children. ~ Thomas S. Monson

Having a child who is struggling doesn't make you a bad parent, just as being a child who is struggling doesn't make your child a bad kid. ~ Ann Douglas

An educated child earns more later in life, knows how to keep their own children from dying, produces more food, is less likely to get AIDS, and in the case of boys, is less likely to engage in armed civil conflict. ~ Marianne Williamson

Taking care of our families isn't just about putting food on the table today. It's about ensuring that our children and grandchildren will have a habitable world where they can get to know various species of sea turtles. ~ Jane Velez-Mitchell

And I always say that to the children: You are the greatest thing I ever did in my life! ~ Dave Isay

We are in the habit of saying that it was not in our power to choose the parents who were allotted to us, that they were given to us by chance. But we can choose whose children we would like to be. ~ Seneca.

Hypnosis is a fascinating subject, and more common than we realize. How does it work?
Essentially, when we relax our inner powers of discrimination, associated with our personal wills, and passively allow ideas and input into our subconscious mind, we are open to suggestions, which over time can be directed in specific ways that we call conditioning. The discriminating part of the mind is sometimes called the Gateway to the Unconscious. This gateway opens naturally and is most apparent, and useful, in the way children can quickly learn and adapt to their surroundings. This is an automatic occurrence and part of the learning process. This dynamic of "taking in" our surroundings is natural. It is fast and fluid and probably vital for the survival of our species to "learn" things rapidly. Our cultures, languages and civilizations are, to a great extent, passed on this way. Children are like sponges, we are told. We are delighted by this open and vital acceptance and curiosity of the world displayed by children. Interestingly enough, adults who maintain this open sense of wonder are labeled naive and gullible. I take delight in children, and encourage my clients to nurture their inner children. ~ Stephen Poplin

Parents still have primary responsibility for raising children, but they must have the power to do so in ways consistent with their children's needs and their own values ... We must address ourselves less to the criticism and reform of parents themselves than to the criticism and reform of the institutions that sap their self-esteem and power. ~ Kenneth Keniston

You're everything I write about in my songs, but can never have. ~ Abbi Glines