You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

I hadn’t been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn’t really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

It was good work, the kind of work that let you sleep soundly at night and, when you awoke, look forward to the day.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.