The only effective way to help well-intentioned, intelligent persons to do the best they can in raising children is to encourage and guide them always to do their own thinking in their attempts at understanding and dealing with child-rearing situations… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
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… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share
The question for the child is not Do I want to be good? but Whom do I want to be like? — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
Raising children is a creative endeavor, an art rather than a science. — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
Since there are thousands of fairy tales, one may safely guess that there are probably equal numbers where the courage and determination of females… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
Not only is our love for our children sometimes tinged with annoyance, discouragement, and disappointment, the same is true for the love our children… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
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… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
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… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share
The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are unreal, they are not untrue ... — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
No longer can we be satisfied with a life where the heart has its reasons which reason cannot know. Our hearts must know the… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
Plato--who may have understood better what forms the mind of man than do some of our contemporaries who want their children exposed only to "real" people and everyday events--knew what intellectual experience made for true humanity. He suggested that the future citizens of his ideal republic begin their literary education with the telling of myths, rather than with mere facts… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share
The good enough parent, in addition to being convinced that whatever his child does, he does it because at that moment he is convinced this is the best he can do, will also ask himself: "What in the world would make me act as my child acts at this moment? And if I felt forced to act this way, what… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share
The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a… — Bruno Bettelheim Copy Share Image
