Letty Cottin Pogrebin

As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son's future are counting on me.

I used to anticipate my childhood birthday parties as if each were an annual coronation. Like most kids I loved sitting at the head of the table with a crown on my head.

When men are oppressed its a tragedy when women are oppressed its a tradition.

A family stitched together with love seldom unravels.

No labourer in the world is expected to work for room board and love except the housewife.

We mothers are learning to mark our mothering success by our daughters' lengthening flight.

Although Freud said happiness is composed of love and work, reality often forces us to choose love or work.

Boys dont make passes at female smart asses.

Housework is the only activity at which men are allowed to be consistently inept because they are thought to be so competent at everything else.

America is a nation fundamentally ambivalent about its children, often afraid of its children, and frequently punitive toward its children.

We need old friends to help us grow old and new friends to help us stay young.

If family violence teaches children that might makes right at home, how will we hope to cure the futile impulse to solve worldly conflicts with force?

If the family were a boat it would be a canoe that makes no progress unless everyone paddles.