Jodi Picoult Quotes About Parents

Quotes about: Parents

• Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother? Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Children, School

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.136, Simon and Schuster

• In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who loses a child.

  Jodi Picoult

  Sad, Children, Parent

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper: A Novel”, p.493, Simon and Schuster

• Tradionally, parents made decisions for a child, because presumably they are looking out for his or her best interests. But if they are blinded, instead, by the best interests of another one of their children, the system breaks down.

  Jodi Picoult

  Children, Decision, Parent

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.112, Simon and Schuster

• Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.

  Jodi Picoult

  Inspirational, Children, Adoption

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.136, Simon and Schuster

• Parents aren’t the people you come from. They’re the people you want to be, when you grow up.

  Jodi Picoult

  Growing Up, People, Parent

  FaceBook post by Jodi Picoult from Oct 16, 2015

• All teenagers knew this was true. The process of growing up was nothing more than figuring out what doors hadn't yet been slammed in your face. For years, parents tell you that you can be anything, have anything, do anything. That was why she'd been so eager to grow up-until she got to adolescence and hit a big fat wall ofreality. As it turned out, she couldn't have anything she wanted. You didn't get to be pretty or smart or popular just because you wanted it. You didn't control your own destiny, you were too busy trying to fit in.

  Jodi Picoult

  Wall, Growing Up, Smart

• No matter what Joe Hoffman and Wade Preston say, it's not gender that makes a family; it's love. You don't need a mother and a father; you don't necessarily even need two parents. You just need someone who's got your back.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Father, Love You

  Jodi Picoult (2014). “Sing You Home: A Novel”, p.360, Simon and Schuster

• Religion isn't in your DNA. you don't believe just because your parents believe.

  Jodi Picoult

  Believe, Dna, Parent

  Randy Susan Meyers, M. J. Rose, Ronlyn Domingue, Sarah Pekkanen, Jodi Picoult (2013). “Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

• I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as it took a new car to lose that scent, or a brand-new house to gather dust. Maybe that was the process more commonly described as bonding: the act of learning your child as well as you know yourself.

  Jodi Picoult

  Baby, Children, Parenting

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.258, Simon and Schuster

• I ...understand how a parent might hit a child- it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.

  Jodi Picoult

  Children, Eye, Reflection

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.166, Simon and Schuster

• The answer is that there is no good answer. So as parents, as doctors, as judges, and as a society, we fumble through and make decisions that allow us to sleep at night--because morals are more important than ethics, and love is more important than law.

  Jodi Picoult

  Sleep, Night, Love Is

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.409, Simon and Schuster

• There are all sorts of experiences we can't really put a name to...The birth of a child, for one. Or the death of a parent. Falling in love. Words are like nets--we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, grief, or wonder. Finding God is like that, too. If it's happened to you, you know what it feels like. But try to describe it to someone else--and language only takes you so far.

  Jodi Picoult

  Falling In Love, Children, Grief

• I would have given anything to keep her little. They outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them. Brian Fitzgerald, talking about his children.

  Jodi Picoult

  Children, Parenting, Talking

• You signed no contract to become a parent, but the responsibilities were written in invisible ink. There was a point when you had to support your child, even if no one else would. It was your job to rebuild the bridge, even if your child was the one who burned it in the first place.

  Jodi Picoult

  Jobs, Children, Responsibility

  Jodi Picoult (2006). “The Tenth Circle: A Novel”, p.157, Simon and Schuster

• Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was... ...Parents aren't the people you come from. They're the people you want to be, when you grow up. I sat between my mother and my father, watching strangers on TV carry in Shaker rockers and dusty paintings and ancient beer tankards and cranberry glass dishes; people and their hidden treasures, who had to be told by experts that they'd taken something incredibly precious for granted.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Growing Up, Father

• Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.

  Jodi Picoult

  Moving, Kids, Parenting

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.147, Simon and Schuster

• We're [parents]) always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time we're just praying we won't screw up too badly.

  Jodi Picoult

  Inspirational, Funny, Parenting

  Jodi Picoult (2010). “House Rules: A Novel”, p.147, Simon and Schuster

• The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following: 1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog. 2. The terrible twos last through age three. 3. Never ask your child an open-ended question, such as "Do you want to go to bed now?" You won't want to hear the answer, believe me. "Do you want me to carry you upstairs, or do you want to walk upstairs to go to bed?" That way, you get the outcome you want and they feel empowered.

  Jodi Picoult

  Baby, Dog, Children

  "House Rules". Book by Jodi Picoult, March 2, 2010.

• I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.

  Jodi Picoult

  Parenting, Should Have, Names

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper: A Novel”, p.178, Simon and Schuster

• If you want to love a parent you have to understand the incredible investment he or she has in you. If you are a parent, and you want to be loved, you have to deserve it.

  Jodi Picoult

  Parenting, Want, Incredibles

  Jodi Picoult (2002). “Songs of the Humpback Whale: A Novel in Five Voices”, p.331, Simon and Schuster

• We are all, I suppose, beholden to our parents - the question is, how much?

  Jodi Picoult

  Parenting, Parent

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

• The nurses, I have already learned, are the ones who give us the answers we’re desperate for. Unlike the doctors, who fidget like they need to be somewhere else, the nurses patiently answer us as if we are the first set of parents to ever have this kind of meeting with them, instead of the thousandth.

  Jodi Picoult

  Doctors, Somewhere Else, Nurse

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper: A Novel”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

• The first question she was asked was What do you do? as if that were enough to define you. Nobody ever asked you who you really were, because that changed. You might be a judge or a mother or a dreamer. You might be a loner or a visionary or a pessimist. You might be the victim, and you might be the bully. You could be the parent, and also the child. You might wond one day and heal the next.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Children, Judging

  Jodi Picoult (2008). “Nineteen Minutes”, p.447, Simon and Schuster

• And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it's gone, so are you.

  Jodi Picoult

  Parent, Gone, Reason

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper: A Novel”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

• She wondered if this was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.

  Jodi Picoult

  Children, Parent, Used

  Jodi Picoult (2012). “The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes”, p.694, Simon and Schuster

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