Judith Martin Children Quotations

Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.

My children did not go through a stage of being rude to their parents. I'm sorry if that sounds incredible.

It's like children getting new toys. But the excitement is over. People should be over it.

Children should acknowledge other people, saying 'hello,' 'good morning,' 'goodbye'. They should understand that there are times to sit down and be quiet. That's a prerequisite for school. They also need a respect for authority, the lack of which is a tremendous handicap in school.

Yes, etiquette is hypocritical. Yes, it does inhibit children - if you're lucky. But the idea that it's elitist and irrelevant is like saying language is elitist and irrelevant.

In its natural state, the child tells the literal truth because it is too naive to think of anything else. Blurting out the complete truth is considered adorable in the young, right smack up to the moment that the child says, 'Mommy, is this the fat lady you can't stand?

If you put together all the ingredients that naturally attract children - sex, violence, revenge, spectacle and vigorous noise - what you have is grand opera.

A young lady is a female child who has just done something dreadful.

The invention of the teenager was a mistake. Once you identify a period of life in which people get to stay out late but don't have to pay taxes - naturally, no one wants to live any other way.

Why bring children into a world where no one writes letters?

The only way to enjoy the fun of catching people behaving disgustingly is to have children. One has to keep having them, however, because it is incorrect to correct grown people, even if you have grown them yourself.

Adorable children are considered to be the general property of the human race. Rude children belong to their mothers.