“The author observes the shift now that children are not a source of labor for the family, that they have gone from employees of the parents to the bosses of the parents.”

“More than almost anything else, the experience of parenthood exposes the gulf between our experiencing and remembering selves. Our experiencing selves tell researchers that we prefer doing the dish...”

“Even when our children are still young and defenseless, we feel intimations of their departure. We find ourselves staring at them with nostalgia, wistful for the person they're about to no longer be.”

“You don't have a good story until something deviates from the expected," says McAdams. "And raising children leads to some pretty unexpected happenings.”

“We enshrine things to memory very differently than we experience them in real time. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman has coined a couple of terms to make the distinction. He talks about the "experi...”

“And if that's the case -- if we are our remembering selves -- then it matters far less how we feel moment to moment with our children. They play rich and crucial roles in our life stories, generati...”

“Lincoln on a desire to hear Horace Greeley speak: "In print, every one of his words seems to weigh about a ton.”

“Where There is a willthere is a willto search and discover a better dayWhere a positive heartis all you needto rise beyondand succeedWhere young minds grow and respect each other based on their dee...”

“If your glass seems half empty, use a smaller glass.”

“People can be tough as hell. They can go through some really heavy stuff... with a genuine smile...”