“But parents, she supposed, were not the pinnacle of perfection their children thought or expected them to be. They were humans who usually did the best they could but often made the wrong choices.”

“...She was, in fact, often wrong--and knew it. Life became difficult when those who were often wrong did not know it.”

“Adults weren’t supposed to understand their children and you were doing something wrong if they did.”

“The most insidious of the premature responsibilities that may be foisted onto some children is the expectation that the child is somehow supposed to take care of his parents, rather than the other way around. Parents who were themselves raised with too little attention given to their own early feelings, if they have not worked out the resulting emotional problems in subsequent years, often look forward to having children of their own so that the children will make them happy. (81)”

“How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being”

“She did not especially appreciate children either, but could be kind to them when they were silent.”