Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Parents unintentionally pass their own emotional flaws and mistakes on to their children.
In plain terms
Your parents mess you up even if they try not to.
What can you take from it?
Recognize family patterns to break cycles of harm.

Where it applies

  • therapy
  • family dynamics
  • self-reflection

Putting it to work

  • identifying generational patterns
  • seeking therapy

Questions to consider

  • How have your parents shaped your flaws?
  • What patterns do you want to break?

Another view

It generalizes all parents as damaging, ignoring supportive ones.

More from Philip Larkin

  1. Get stewed: Books are a load of crap.

    Permalink to quote #1
  2. The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time.

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.

    Permalink to quote #4

Related quotes

  1. 'The hurt is still there. When my parents were alive it affected them just as much as it is affecting us today.'

    Adi Ateca GanilauAdi Ateca Ganilau quote #1
  2. Who knows the thoughts of a child?

    Nora PerryNora Perry quote #2
  3. My mother didn't breast-feed me. She said she liked me as a friend.

    Rodney DangerfieldRodney Dangerfield quote #6