Family Communication
Famous Family Quotes from
"Shalom in home", by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Part Two
Parents must be parents so that kids can be kids. When kids have to parent themselves, they grow up all too quickly, skipping some of the essential stages of development and life. P.120
It is essential, no matter how tired or stressed we are, that we rise above those feelings to let our children know that we have an infinite reserve of energy to be used for love and discipline on their behalf. We can never be too tired or too distracted to serve as parents. P.125
Your marriage is not a facet of your life; it is your life. It is not a detail of your happiness but its source and greatest blessing. P.135
Passive-aggressive posturing is a popular way to “get back” at people who have hurt you, because it feels like you’re giving them back what they’re shelling out. But it almost always backfires, leaving both parties felling wronged and lonely. It’s better, frankly, to have a fight that actually clears the air— and even better to reach out in a way that inspires your spouse to give you what you need. P.140
Every parent must be two things; a parent and a person. As a parent you are a link in an ongoing chain of existence, which means that you must subordinate your interests to something higher. But parents are still people in their own right, and as such you must also work to realize your own dreams and ambitions. A good parent balances these two roles without sacrificing one to the other. P.145
Turbulent parents do not raise peaceful children. We must heal ourselves of the wounds of our own childhoods in order to raise strong, secure, and healthy children. P.157
We yell at our kids when we’re nervous or frustrated for one reason” because we can. They’ll take it when no one else will. But they are helpless and vulnerable, and yelling at them damages them. We must make a better choice, absorbing the pressures of life without transmitting and amplifying them. P.163
It is our job as parents to act as shock absorbers for our children, to absorb the stresses of life, whatever those may be, so that we don’t pass them along to our children. p.166
When, for our own convenience, we ask our children to act less like children and more like adults, we violate the very spirit of childhood and parenthood. P.173
Part Three