17 Benjamin Spock Quotes on Family

Benjamin Spock quotes on family

1. I really learned it all from mothers.

6. Don't take too seriously all that the neighbors say. Don't be overawed by what the experts say. Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

7. The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all. All parents do their best job when they have a natural, easy confidence in themselves. Better to make a few mistakes from being natural than to try to do everything letter-perfect out of a feeling of worry.

8. The fact is that child rearing is a long, hard job, the rewards are not always immediately obvious, the work is undervalued, and parents are just as human and almost as vulnerable as their children.

9. There are only two things a child will share willingly- communicable diseases and his mother's age.

10. In automobile terms, the child supplies the power but the parents have to do the steering.

11. All the time a person is a child he is both a child and learning to be a parent. After he becomes a parent he becomes predominantly a parent reliving childhood.

12. Biologically and temperamentally, I believe women were made to be concerned first and foremost with child care, husband care and home care.

13. Every child senses, with all the horse sense that's in him, that any parent is angry inside when children misbehave and they dread more the anger that is rarely or never expressed openly, wondering how awful it might be.

15. Having a good time together is the essence of lovingness and the best means of increasing it.

16. I wanted to be supportive of parents rather than to scold them. The book set out very deliberately to counteract some of the rigidities of pediatric tradition, particularly in infant feeding. It emphasized the importance of great differences between individual babies, of the need for flexibility and of the lack of necessity to worry constantly about spoiling.

18. If I could make only one wish for a child, I'd wish him the quality of lovingness.

20. Perhaps a child who is fussed over gets a feeling of destiny; he thinks he is the world for something important, and it gives him drive and confidence.

21. Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people. But I've always said ask for respect from your children, ask for cooperation, ask for politeness. Give your children firm leadership.

23. Well, at least nobody could accuse me of having brought up Spiro Agnew.

26. An entire generation grew up unacquainted with the thwack of paddle against bottom. ~ Jonathan Yardley American Heritage (April 1985)

27. Some physicians who have called him excessively permissive just didn't understand and gave his understanding approach to child rearing a negative label. He was blamed for the radical behavior of the youth in the '60s. But that didn't emerge from Spock's teachings. It was far more a reflection of the social and political climate. ~ Dr. Marvin Drellich, professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College.