What Cannot Be Talked About Cannot Be

A Child... Who Has Learned From Fairy Stories To Believe That What At First Seemed A Repulsive, Threatening Figure Can Magically Change Into A Most Helpful Friend Is Ready To Believe That A Strange Child Whom He Meets And Fears May Also Be Changed From A Menace Into A Desirable Companion.

Parents Ought, Through Their Own Behavior And The Values By Which They Live, To Provide Direction For Their Children. But They Need To Rid Themselves Of The Idea That There Are Surefire Methods Which, When Well Applied, Will Produce Certain Predictable Results. Whatever We Do With And For Our Children Ought To Flow From Our Understanding Of And Our Feelings For The Particular Situation And The Relation We Wish To Exist Between Us And Our Child.

The Goal In Raising One's Child Is To Enable Him, First, To Discover Who He Wants To Be, And Then To Become A Person Who Can Be Satisfied With Himself And His Way Of Life. Eventually He Ought To Be Able To Do In His Life Whatever Seems Important, Desirable, And Worthwhile To Him To Do; To Develop Relations With Other People That Are Constructive, Satisfying, Mutually Enriching; And To Bear Up Well Under The Stresses And Hardships He Will Unavoidably Encounter During His Life.

To Be A Good Enough Parent One Must Be Able To Feel Secure In One's Parenthood, And One's Relation To One's Child...the Security Of The Parent About Being A Parent Will Eventually Become The Source Of The Child's Feeling Secure About Himself.

The Parent Must Not Give In To His Desire To Try To Create The Child He Would Like To Have, But Rather Help The Child To Develop--in His Own Good Time--to The Fullest, Into What He Wishes To Be And Can Be, In Line With His Natural Endowment And As The Consequence Of His Unique Life In History.