I was an only child and I had a mother and father who were just - there wasn't a straight man in the house, and I mean that in a very nice way. They were fun, and we would laugh a lot.
I had to make a major decision with myself because I just don't think you can do both: try to have a baby career and raise it and have a baby baby and raise it. And to try to do justice to either one. It was a very conscious decision on my part not to have children - which I have never regretted.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the challenges of balancing career and parenting, and the author's conscious choice to prioritize her career over having children.
In this quote, Betty White reflects on the difficult decision she faced between pursuing her career and raising children. She articulates the belief that one cannot fully be committed to both responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of making choices that align with one's values and life goals. Her choice not to have children was a deliberate one that she has come to terms with and does not regret, highlighting a personal perspective on balancing different aspects of life.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can serve as an inspiration for women discussing career choices and family planning at a professional conference.
More from Betty White
All quotes →Don't try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff. There are so many things I won't live long enough to find out about, but I'm still curious about them. You know people who are already saying, 'I'm going to be 30 - oh, what am I going to do?' Well, use that decade! Use them all!
Animals don't lie. Animals don't criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.
I have my golden retriever now, Pontiac. He's a career-change guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
When I pontificate, it sounds so, you know, Oh, well, she's preaching. I'm not preaching, but I think maybe I learned it from my animal friends. Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself. I think that keeps you feeling young. I really do.
You gotta use everything you possibly can!
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But, in fact, there is nothing that can bring you closer to fearlessness about everything else in the world than being a parent - because everyday fears - like not being approved of - pale by comparison to the fears you have about your children.
Only later did I come to understand that to be a mother is to be an illusion. No matter how vigilant, in the end a mother can't protect her child - not from pain, or horror, or the nightmare of violence, from sealed trains moving rapidly in the wrong direction, the depravity of strangers, trapdoors, abysses, fires, cars in the rain, from chance.
Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world.
I don't like the word 'businesswoman.' Perhaps 'committed mother' would be the best description.
It can't hurt to go to the people you love, whose blood type courses through your veins and whose DNA, from a certain angle, contains many of the same markings as yours. You don't have to take their advice, but let them share their version of solutions to life's difficulties. Good or bad - it could be interesting.