Mary Blakely Quotes

Quotes about:

Adolescence Children Culture Divorce Home Motherhood Mothers

Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass.

Mary Blakely

Divorce, Insightful, Bypass

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

43 Copy quote
By now, legions of tireless essayists and op-ed columnists have dressed feminists down for making such a fuss about entering the professions and earning equal pay that everyone's attention has been distracted from the important contributions of mothers working at home. This judgment presumes, of course, that prior to the resurgence of feminism in the '70s, housewives and mothers enjoyed wide recognition and honor. This was not exactly the case.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Home, Equal Pay

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

7 Copy quote
A mother is neither cocky, nor proud, because she knows the school principal may call at any minute to report that her child had just driven a motorcycle through the gymnasium.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Children, Cocky

84 Copy quote
Raising boys has made me a more generous woman than I really am. Undoubtedly, there are other routes to learning the wishes and dreams of the presumably opposite sex, but I know of none more direct, or more highly motivating, than being the mother of sons.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Dream, Sex

3 Copy quote
Since civilizing children takes the better part of two decades--some twenty years of nonstop thinking, nurturing, teaching, coaxing, rewarding, forgiving, warning, punishing, sympathizing, apologizing, reminding, and repeating, not to mention deciding what to do when--I now understand that one wrong move is invariably followed by hundreds of opportunities to be wrong again.

Mary Blakely

Children, Moving, Teaching

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

3 Copy quote
The job description of mother is clearly in need of revision. As it stands, the shifts are 24 hours, for a period of approximately 1,825 consecutive days. The benefits are sorely in need of amendment: no vacations, no sick leave, no lunch hours, no breaks. Moreover, it is the only unpaid position I know of that can result in arrest if you fail to show up for work.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Jobs, Vacation

3 Copy quote
One year, I'd completely lost my bearings trying to follow potty training instruction from a psychiatric expert. I was stuck on step on, which stated without an atom of irony: "Before you begin, remove all stubbornness from the child." . . . I knew it only could have been written by someone whose suit coat was still spotless at the end of the day, not someone who had any hands-on experience with an actual two-year-old.

Mary Blakely

Children, Two, Hands

3 Copy quote
Families don't always realize that mother is exhausted, because mother is always exhausted. Exhausted is what looks normal.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Looks, Normal

3 Copy quote
The absolute dependence of a newborn infant inspired many things in me, but it did not activate any magical knowledge about what to do for the next twenty years.

Mary Blakely

Years, Twenties, Next

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

24 Copy quote
Mother is the first word that occurs to politicians and columnists and popes when they raise the question, 'Why isn't life turning out the way we want it?

Mary Blakely

Mother, Want, Way

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

23 Copy quote
A mother can legitimately be said to 'have a baby' - but in a civilization such as ours, she can never claim to own a teenager.

Mary Blakely

Mother, Baby, Teenager

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

3 Copy quote
Women aren't trying to do too much. Women have too much to do.

Mary Blakely

Trying, Too Much, Busy

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.199, Simon and Schuster

6 Copy quote
The naive notion that a mother naturally acquires the complex skills of childrearing simply because she has given birth now seemsas absurd to me as enrolling in a nine-month class in composition and imagining that at the end of the course you are now prepared to begin writing War and Peace.

Mary Blakely

Mother, War, Writing

3 Copy quote
Spooky things happen in houses densely occupied by adolescent boys. When I checked out a four-inch dent in the living room ceilingone afternoon, even the kid still holding the baseball bat looked genuinely baffled about how he possibly could have done it.

Mary Blakely

Baseball, Kids, Boys

3 Copy quote
With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.

Mary Blakely

Baby, Son, Night

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

13 Copy quote
In the range of things toddlers have to learn and endlessly review--why you can't put bottles with certain labels in your mouth, why you have to sit on the potty, why you can't take whatever you want in the store, why you don't hit your friends--by the time we got to why you can't drop your peas, well, I was dropping a few myself.

Mary Blakely

Labels, Bottles, Mouths

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.90, Simon and Schuster

3 Copy quote
Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. Themoment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody's motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.

Mary Blakely

Mother, School, Fate

3 Copy quote
One life stamps and influences another, which in turn stamps and influences another, on and on, until the soul of human experience breathes on in generations we'll never meet.

Mary Blakely

Inspiring, Children, Soul

Mary Kay Blakely (1989). “Wake Me when It's Over: A Journey to the Edge and Back”, Crown

3 Copy quote
It takes twenty or so years before a mother can know with any certainty how effective her theories have been--and even then thereare surprises. The daily newspapers raise the most frightening questions of all for a mother of sons: Could my once sweet babes ever become violent men? Are my sons really who I think they are?

Mary Blakely

Mother, Sweet, Son

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

3 Copy quote
How can one explain all the time and thought that goes into raising a child, all the opportunities for mistakes, all the chances to recover and try again? How does one break the news that nothing permanent can be formed in an instant--children are not weaned, potty trained, taught manners, introduced to civilization in one or two tries--as everyone imagined.

Mary Blakely

Children, Mistake, Opportunity

3 Copy quote
Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary by pass. After such a monumental assault on the heart, it takes years to amend all the habits and attitudes that led up to it.

Mary Blakely

Attitude, Heart, Divorce

11 Copy quote
If a woman is to know herself, then periods of solitude should be courted, planned, and embraced.

Mary Blakely

Solitude, Should, Periods

3 Copy quote
A "snapshot" feature in USA Today listed the five greatest concerns parents and teachers had about children in the '50s: talking out of turn, chewing gum in class, doing homework, stepping out of line, cleaning their rooms. Then it listed the five top concerns of parents today: drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, suicide and homicide, gang violence, anorexia and bulimia. We can also add AIDS, poverty, and homelessness. . . . Between my own childhood and the advent of my motherhood--one short generation--the culture had gone completely mad.

Mary Blakely

Suicide, Teacher, Children

7 Copy quote
Most literature on the culture of adolescence focuses on peer pressure as a negative force. Warnings about the "wrong crowd" read like tornado alerts in parent manuals. . . . It is a relative term that means different things in different places. In Fort Wayne, for example, the wrong crowd meant hanging out with liberal Democrats. In Connecticut, it meant kids who weren't planning to get a Ph. D. from Yale.

Mary Blakely

Mean, Kids, Yale

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom Motherhood Politics and Humble Pie”, Pocket

52 Copy quote
When trouble comes no mother should have to plead guilty alone. The pediatricians, psychologists, therapists, goat herders, fathers, and peer groups should all be called to the bench as well. . . .

Mary Blakely

Mother, Father, Should Have

Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

15 Copy quote

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Mary Blakely

Born: 1948
Occupation: Author
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