Parents and children seldom act in concert:_x000D_ each child endeavors to appropriate_x000D_ the esteem or fondness of the parents,_x000D_ and the parents, with yet less temptation,_x000D_ betray each other to their children.

Ah, mother! How do you do?' said he, giving her a hearty shake of the hand; 'Where did you get that quiz of a hat? It makes you look like an old witch...' On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly.

Your child is never not your child. You can be 90 and your mother 120, but your mother is still worried about you.

My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness. Sometimes I seem to myself, in my feelings toward these tiny guiltless beings, a monster of selfishness and intolerance.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I've had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm's way until they could be their own guides.

Before I was married to Martin and became a King, I was a proud Scott, shaped by my mother's discernment and my father's strength.