Parental Approval Quotes

Adora changed her color scheme from peach to yellow. She promised me she'd take me to the fabric store so I can make new coverings to match. This dollhouse is my fancy." She almost made it sound natural, my fancy. The words floated out of her mouth sweet and round like butterscotch, murmured with just a tilt of her head, but the phrase was definitely my mother's. Her little doll, learning to speak just like Adora.
"Looks like you do a very good job with it," I said, and motioned a weak wave good-bye.
"Thank you," she said. Her eyes focused on my room in the dollhouse. A small finger poked the bed. "I hope you enjoy your stay here," she murmured into the room, as if she were addressing a tiny Camille no one could see. ~ Gillian Flynn

If I cared for human approval, I would have been dead long ago. ~ Paolo Bacigalupi

Assorted theories have been advanced to explain confirmation bias - why people rush to embrace information that supports their beliefs while rejecting information that disputes them: that first impressions are difficult to dislodge, that there's a primitive instinct to defend one's turf, that people tend to have emotional rather than intellectual responses to being challenged and are loath to carefully examine evidence.
Group dynamics only exaggerate these tendencies, the author and legal scholar Cass Sunstein observed in his book Going to Extremes: insularity often means limited information input (and usually information that reinforces preexisting views) and a desire for peer approval; and if the group's leader "does not encourage dissent and is inclined to an identifiable conclusion, it is highly likely that the group as a whole will move toward that conclusion."
Once the group has been psychologically walled off, Sunstein wrote, "the information and views of those outside the group can be discredited, and hence nothing will disturb the process of polarization as group members continue to talk." In fact, groups of like-minded people can become breeding grounds for extreme movements. "Terrorists are made, not born," Sunstein observed, "and terrorist networks often operate in just this way. As a result, they can move otherwise ordinary people to violent acts. ~ Michiko Kakutani

Shame resilience is the ability to say, This hurts. This is disappointing, maybe even devastating. But success and recognition and approval are not the values that drive me. My value is courage and I was just courageous. You can move on, shame. ~ Brene Brown

We need not avoid our active lives, but simply bring to them a new vision and shift of gravity. for in the center we are rooted in god's love. in such a place there is no need for striving and impatience and dashing about seeking approval. ~ Sue Monk Kidd

Speaking from experience, because I have three daughters, I think it's always important to give your daughter the confidence that she needs so that she won't look elsewhere for approval and feeling love and acceptance. ~ David Charvet

Be true to who you are! Don't sit around waiting for approval, life is too short...DO what makes you happy! ~ Rosalie Bardo

Gordo: "Doubts? Then why are you even doing this?"
I said, "Not about him. About me. What if I'm not good enough for him? What if I can't be what he's going to need?"
He stopped his pacing and his shoulders sagged. "Ox, you can't think like that."
I snorted. "Yeah? It's actually pretty easy to."
"You're father did this to you," he said with a scowl. "I should have kicked his ass when I had the chance."
I looked up in surprise.
"I don't like any of this," Gordo siad, "At All. But I'm going to say it anyway, okay? Anyone should count their lucky stars if they got to call you their own, I am not giving you my approval because it doesn't matter to you anyway. Nothing I can say matters at this point." His voice cracked. :But he had better treat you like you hung the moon or I will tear him from this earth. ~ T.J. Klune

If you persistently seek validation from others, you will inadvertently invalidate your own self-worth. ~ Auliq Ice

The authorized biographers - the ones hand-picked to write the sanitized version of a subject's life - sit up front with the swells while the unauthorized biographer who writes without access or approval gets elbowed to the back of the bus. ~ Kitty Kelley

The mistake our politicians so often make with these industry leaders is in thinking they are interested in, or respectful of, the power of government. All they want is to keep stealing. If you can offer them the government's seal of approval on that, they'll take it. But if you can't, well, they'll take that too. ~ Matt Taibbi

Now I don't see anything evil in a desire to make money. But money is only a means to some end. If a man wants it for a personal purpose - to invest in his industry, to create, to study, to travel, to enjoy luxury - he's completely moral. But the men who place money first go much beyond that. Personal luxury is a limited endeavor. What they want is ostentation: to show, to stun, to entertain, to impress others ... At the price of their own self-respect. In the realm of greatest importance - the realm of values, of judgment, of spirit, of thought - they place others above self, in the exact manner which altruism demands. A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it. ~ Ayn Rand

The accountant lingers at his children's doorway a moment more, listening to the easy rhythm of their breathing, and something cold moves through him, like the passage of a ghost - but he know that's not it. It's more like the portent of a future. A future that must never come to pass ...
... and for the first time, he gives rise to a thought that is silently echoed in millions of homes that night.
My God ... what have we done? ~ Neal Shusterman

Note that acceptance is different from approval. Acceptance is simply saying, It is so. ~ Margie Warrell

If a leader comes to office in a seemingly fair election and tolerates dissent, he or she qualifies for our seal of approval. ~ Stephen Kinzer

I was young and frightened and craved respect and its ugly cousin, approval, so I did as I was told. ~ Sherman Alexie

And we have much better examples of the government not intervening to curtain parental rights, much worse abuse than a simple tap on the hand or a spank is perpetrated by many parents across the country, trust me. ~ Sean Hannity

You know, in a society where children just about have to seek parental permission to sit on Santa's knee, the word 'paedophile' should send more shivers up your spine than the word 'druggie'. ~ Stephen Richards

When I ran the first time in 2001, they called me 'The Latino Mayor.' By the time I left in 2013, with a 58 percent approval rating, half the people liked me, half the people didn't. I was everybody's mayor. There was never any criticism that I was just for one group. ~ Antonio Villaraigosa

This funding from the National Endowment for the Arts has been like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. ~ Norm Dicks

Women must find their own answer. That's the important thing. I'm no longer interested in books about women written by men. Even if I could believe in their objectivity, I just can't find their opinions relevant. Now I will only believe what a woman has to say about women, because even if it's not entirely true, it's her struggle and she's on the way to the answer.
Many of you seek masculine approval. Even though you have inside you your way of talking and writing, you have mountains of it inside you, and even though it is enough to begin expressing yourselves so long as it is with your vocabulary, your abstractions, and your own conceptualization, I think you are still afraid of the master: men. Of their judgment. As long as you have this fear, you will not progress. I think the future belongs to women. Men have been completely dethroned. Their rhetoric is stale, used up. We must move on the rhetoric of women, one that is anchored in the organism, in the body. ~ Marguerite Duras

If a child lives with approval, he learns to live with himself. ~ Dorothy Nolte

In Los Angeles, parenting is a competitive sport. From Beverly Hills baby boutiques to kids' yoga classes, L.A. fuses high style, industrial-strength materialism, and parental outsourcing into our own unique version of child-rearing. ~ Shawn Amos

Would you rather live your life according to the approval of others or aligned with your truth and your dreams? ~ Robin S. Sharma

She's amazing."
That comes out a bit gooier than I mean it to, and my cheeks burn. My whole head practically bursts into flames when I notice my parents. My mom's grinning her my little boy is growing up smile and my dad looks like he wants to pat me on the back and call me "slugger."
Parents: perfecting ways to humiliate their children since the dawn of time.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you," my mom whispers, her voice thick.
If she starts crying, I'm going to smother myself with my pillow.
Audra steps forward, offering a sturdy hand to shake. "It's nice to meet you, too. Vane talks about you guys all the time."
My parents beam and I can't help grinning. She sure knows how to charm the parental units.
"I wish I could say the same," my mom says, shooting me a glare. "He told us he had a date, but you're the first girl he's brought home. He must really like you."
"Mom," I complain, ready to bean her with my pillow. Or maybe the bedside lamp. Especially when Audra blushes bright red. ~ Shannon Messenger

Only secure people can serve. Insecure people are always worrying about how they appear to others. They fear exposure of their weaknesses and hide beneath layers of protective pride and pretensions. The more insecure you are, the more you will want people to serve you, and the more you will need their approval. ~ Rick Warren

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 ... ~ Midge Decter

As a servant desireth the approval of his master, and a son the approval of his father, so should we desire the approval of God and our own conscience. ~ Ambrose

Green tea?"
"You can't be serious."
The old woman nodded her approval. "I wasn't."
"Because you know when a cow chews grass? And he or she chews and chews and chews? Well, green tea tastes like French-kissing that cow after it's done chewing all that grass. ~ David Levithan

Inequality, in fact, is a logical outcome of meritocracy. What the education system does when it selects, sorts, and hierarchizes, and when it gives its stamp of approval to those 'at the top,' is that it renders those who succeed through the system as legitimately deserving. Left implicit is that those at the bottom have failed to be deserving. ~ You Yenn Teo

silence is kind of considered approval. ~ Erin Watt

A brick could be used to bestow gratitude upon your favorite (or least favorite) politician. Let them know your approval level by giving them the gift that says both Thank You - and Fuck You. ~ Jarod Kintz

In the modern Christian attempt to take a stand as Christ did, and maybe for others, win the approval of the world, the Christian will often think that it consists of targeting and demoralizing fellow Christians and only fellow Christians. It is one thing to stand against religious hypocrisy when one sees it, but it is another to go on snorting at anything or anyone who might seem 'too Christian' to us. The irony is that by doing this we are further advocating hypocrisy and 'half-hearted Christians'. ~ Criss Jami

Enzo's eyes flick back to me. He does not ask if I will be okay. His silent approval makes me stand taller. ~ Marie Lu

Singapore and China did not have diplomatic relations at that time [1976]. Communism is banned in Singapore, and nobody could visit China without official approval. The Singapore government had prohibited travel there for fear that Singaporeans would be subverted and converted to the communist cause. . .The travel ban was lifted after Lee Kuan Yew's visit. He realised that nobody could experience life there and be seduced by their system. Indeed, they would better appreciate what Singapore offered. ~ Cheong Yip Seng

I think I started out because I was desperate for approval and acceptance and praise. Some actors never break away from that. They're after that validation their whole life. ~ Judge Reinhold

When we remember our identity in Christ, it changes the way we see these relationships because we no longer base our worth on the approval of others but the approval we have already received from our Father through the work of His son. ~ Amy E. Spiegel

Apathy is acquiescence is compliance is approval. ~ D. Denise Dianaty

The less obvious hurdle is that of preparing parents emotionally and putting forward realistic images of parenthood and motherhood. There also needs to be some sort of acknowledgement that not everyone should parent - when parenting is a given, it's not fully considered or thought out, and it gives way too easily to parental ambivalence and unhappiness. ~ Jessica Valenti

Becoming more flexible, open-minded, having a capacity to deal with change is a good thing. But it is far from the whole story. Grandparents, in the absence of the social institutions that once demanded civilized behavior, have their work cut out for them. Our grandchildren are hungry for our love and approval, but also for standards being set. ~ Eda LeShan

Maybe I'd absorbed the capacity to hurt someone by listening to my parents every night, who were under the impression that turning the volume on the television all the way up somehow drowned out the voices, when the truth was and is (and my father, of all people, should have known this about the physical properties of materials, about what goes through walls, what moves through houses, what is muffled and what makes it through): everything gets transmitted. Call it the law of conservation of parental anger. It may change forms, may appear to dissipate, but draw a big box around the whole space, and add up everything inside the box, and when you've accounted for everything you find that it's all there, in one phase or another, bouncing around, some of it reflected, some of it absorbed by the smaller bodies in the house. The edge in their voices and turning up the TV only meant that I listened to them destroy each other to a sound track of Fantasy Island or The Incredible Hulk or The Love Boat. ~ Charles Yu

To see your spouse in a parental role is one of the most incredible things. ~ Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Ish #211 Your child is your parental obligation, not friend. ~ Regina Griffin

It's exciting to me that Ride Along is a movie that has two African American leads, but it's even more exciting to me that it's not a movie about two African American leads. They just happen to be African American. It's a universal story. It's a story about a guy in love with a girl, and he's gotta get the approval of the overbearing, mean brother. That's a universal theme. ~ Will Packer

My grandfather was sparing in his praise of apprentices. My grandfather insisted we think for ourselves and achieve for our own satisfaction. Deep study of the mysteries were their own tough path, he always said. To live for the approval of others was a pitfall that begged a false turning. ~ Janny Wurts

It is only when parental feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent or when the mother's emotions are temporarily engaged elsewhere that children feel lost. ~ Anna Freud