Haim Ginott Quotations

Each of us carries within himself a collection of instant insults.

The search for a personal identity is the life task of a teenager.

I have great faith in 'ordinary parents.' Who has a child's welfare more at heart than his ordinary parent? It's been my experience that when parents are given the skills to be more helpful, not only are they able to use these skills, but they infuse them with a warmth and a style that is uniquely their own.

Whenever I hear about a child needing something, I ask myself, 'Is it what he needs or what he wants?' It isn't always easy to distinguish between the two. A child has many real needs which can and should be satisfied. His wants are a bottomless pit. He wants, for example, to sleep with his parents. He needs to be in his own bed. At Christmas he wants every toy advertised on television. He needs only one or two.

Wise parents know that fighting a teenager, like fighting a riptide, is inviting doom.

Teenagers crave independence. The more self-suf-ficient we make them feel, the less hostile they are toward us.

Many teenagers are tormented by terrors they deem private and personal. They do not know that their anxieties and doubts are universal.

Adolescence can be a time of turmoil and turbulence, of stress and storm. Rebellion against authority and against convention is to be expected and tolerated for the sake of learning and growth.

To be himself, one neeeds to be free from the pressure of evaluative praise

Misbehavior and punishment are not opposites that cancel each other - on the contrary they breed and reinforce each other.