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A very painful part of being a parent is having really negative feelings about your children when you love them so much.

For all that being a parent is normal statistically, it's not normal psychologically. It produces some of the most extreme emotions you'll ever have.

Being a mother adds another emotional dimension, a feel for children that I didn't have before I had one. They were a pain before.

Wayward, disobedient children cause their parents grief and anxiety.

I think there's a tremendous amount of guilt that goes on between mothers and daughters, no matter how good or bad their relationships are.

Sometimes the father feels pushed out because of the connection between the mother and the child.

Children love their mothers. Especially with a boy child and his mother, there's a bond that's unbreakable.

Maybe it's just parenthood that puts you in a situation where you just have to develop a new attitude, I guess, about things.

We're naturally programmed to endure a muddle of emotions as we leave childhood behind.

When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughter's from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.