Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Possessive mothers can only pretend to love when children are small. True love is giving and requires the mother to be independent and rooted in herself.
In plain terms
Real loving mothers give freely and are independent, unlike possessive ones who control.
What can you take from it?
Be a parent who gives, not one who takes or controls.

Where it applies

  • raising children
  • parent-child separation

Putting it to work

  • build personal identity
  • encourage child independence

Questions to consider

  • Are you giving to your children or taking from them?
  • How rooted are you in your own existence?

Another view

Some parents may struggle to be independent for valid reasons.

More from Erich Fromm

  1. In erotic love, two people who were separate become one. In motherly love, two people who were one become separate. The mother must not only tolerate, she must…

    Permalink to quote #41
  2. The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that th…

    Permalink to quote #43
  3. The same polarity of the male and female principle exists in nature; not only, as is obvious in animals and plants, but in the polarity of the two fundamental …

    Permalink to quote #40

Related quotes

  1. Where yet was ever found a mother Who'd give her booby for another?

    John GayJohn Gay quote #6
  2. Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

    Barbara KingsolverBarbara Kingsolver quote #20
  3. Wise children always choose a mother who was a shocking flirt in her maiden days, and so had several offers before she accepted their fortunate papa.

    J. M. BarrieJ. M. Barrie quote #21