Family Quotes

"Your parents did not set out to traumatize you, they were simply doing what they were taught."

"The mother's main task is to protect the infant from trauma."

"The good-enough mother adapts to the baby's needs."

"The baby is not separate from the mother."

"There is no such thing as a baby."

"The mother is not the environment."

"Real mothering is not perfection."

"The child develops through relationships, not in isolation."

"The environment begins with the mother's body."

"The holding environment is invisible when it is working."

"The infant's cry is a communication, not a failure."

"The mother's body is the first world of the baby."

"The infant's dependence is not a problem to be solved."

"Mothering an infant is a situation where you have to close your eyes and believe."

"It is only when parental feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent that the child has to reach the level of neurosis."

"The child is made to feel secure, he conducts himself well."

"The adolescent in his struggle for identity wants to separate from family influences."

"Mothering is a skill like any other that must be learned."

"Anxiety in children is often a reflection of parental anxiety."

"The child who feels secure is the child who can take risks."

"The greatest gift a parent can give is unconditional love."

"The family is the foundation of all civilization."

"The child's relationship with his parents shapes his entire life."

"Our children deserve a world as beautiful and bountiful as the one we inherited."

"The basis of childhood neurosis is parental indifference."

"Childhood experiences shape patterns, but they do not determine destiny."

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."

"The greatest gift we can give a child is our attention."

"The father is a function, not a biological entity."

"The father's authority rests on a fundamental fiction."