120 Helpful Selfish Parents Quotes To Help You With Family Situations

Having selfish parents can be difficult. Never should a mother or father be emotionally inaccessible to their children. They have to assist and stand by their kids when they need it. Parents frequently try to burden their kids with the hopes and desires they were unable to realize in their own lives. However, I believe that for happy relationships, parents should always pay attention and comprehend the goals of their children.

Parents can be selfish at times, but they also need to be self-sufficient in some situations. However, having selfish people in our lives is challenging and frustrating especially when it is your dad or mom, and in some cases both.

We have a choice to distance ourselves from them, or anyone else, whether they are friends, coworkers, or acquaintances, as soon as we discover they’re heartless and selfish.

These 120 quotes about selfish parents will serve as a reminder for parents to have an open mind and avoid getting too caught up in their own needs. You can read the list we’ve compiled to promote love and selflessness.

120 Helpful toxic and selfish parents quote to fix things

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Unknown

“It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.” – Spike Lee

“To all, you parents out there, don’t make your little girls, or little boys, so thirsty for love that they will want to drink water that will poison them.” – Lisa Bedrick

“We raise predators by treating children as prey.” – Stefan Molyneux

“Family is where you’re meant to be most free. Don’t let blood chain you down.” – Unknown

“You must let go of the responsibility for the painful events of your childhood and put it where it belongs.” – Susan Forward

“No, we don’t control who our parents are. We don’t control what color we are. We don’t control what home we are born into. But we control our attitude. We control our work ethic. We control our drive and our commitment.” – Dabo Swinney

“Anyone can have a child and call themselves a parent. A real parent is someone who puts that child above their own selfish needs and wants.” – Unknown

“Control leaves no room for trust.” – Glennon Doyle

“A dysfunctional family is not a family at all, it’s a toxic relationship parading as a requirement.” – Unknown

Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.” – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

“I was given such a great gift. It’s a miracle that never stops amazing me and reminding me to give thanks, every day. Having a wife and daughter gives me a lot more purpose. I was much more selfish before, but now I think about what kind of role model I’ll be. I just want to be a better man.” Jake Owen

“Dysfunctional parents do not apologize. It is one feature that the children of narcissists would instantly agree on. They will lie and justify themselves, but never accept they did anything wrong.” – Diana Macey

“Parents are the least likely to forgive their children for the flaws they ingrained in them.” – Unknown

“Narcissist parents don’t care about their children’s feelings at all. Only their feelings matter.” – Kim Saeed

“Put your child’s likes before your selfishness.”–Unknown

“You don’t have to leave your whole family in the past, just those who don’t deserve a place in your future.” – Unknown

“When a father puts in long hours at work, he’s praised for being dedicated and ambitious. But when a mother stays late at the office, she’s sometimes accused of being selfish, neglecting her kids.” Michelle Obama

“Fighting became a way of life and seemed perfectly normal for your family.” – Steven Farmer

All of us develop our expectations about how people will treat us based on our relationships with our parents.” – Susan Forward

“Did you have parents or just some people who thought they should own somebody?” – Catherine Lacey

“Instead of treating your child like how you were treated. Treat them with the same love and attention you wanted from your parents while growing up.” – Jonathan Anthony Burkett

“A true parent prioritizes their children’s needs and wants over their own.” – Unknown

“When you have children, there is no room for lies, no room for anything but the truth. Anything other than that is a bad example, I believe.” – Johnny Depp

“Parents wonder why the streams are bitter when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.” – John Locke

“Children learn to smile from their parents.” Shinichi Suzuki

“Parents. Honestly. Sometimes they really do think the world revolves around them.” – Randa Abdel-Fattah

“One of the saddest things in this world is to see a child grow up hating one of their parents because they only got one side of the story.” – Unknown

“You don’t get to choose your family, but you do get to choose how they’re allowed to treat you.” – Unknown

“Families are homes built on a foundation of trust and love. A toxic family can never be home because the foundation doesn’t exist.” – Unknown

“You don’t have to leave your whole family in the past, just those who don’t deserve a place in your future.” – Christina Enevoldsen

“Somewhat paradoxically, parenting programs should focus on the behavior of the parents not the behavior of the children.” – Timothy Carey

“Anyone could father a child. But a good parent puts his child’s needs before his own. A parent should be selfless, not selfish.” — Penelope Ward

“Any mother that could be cruel to a child is not going to apologize to that child when they have grown up.” – Rayne Wolf

“Dysfunctional parents let their children know how burdened they have been by their children and how many sacrifices they had to make to raise them.” – Dr. Marita Sirota

“A narcissist parent is easily frustrated by a healthy, independent child that they can’t control through parental emotional manipulation.” –Shannon Thomas

“They are not sorry for harming you. So, don’t feel guilty for cutting them off.” – John Mark Green

“I’ve never heard my dad say a bad word about anybody. He always keeps his emotions in check and is a true gentleman. I was taught that losing it was indulgent, a selfish act.” Hugh Jackman

“It is a violation of trust to use your kids as caulking for the cracks in you.” – Anne Lamott

“Some scars don’t hurt. Some scars are numb. Some scars rid you of the capacity to feel anything ever again.” – Joyce Rachelle

Related: 65 Cute Missing Friends Quotes

“If you teach hatred to your children, one day your child will have that hatred reflected back onto them and onto YOU.” – Suzy Kassem

Don’t try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it.” – Russell Baker

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” –Sigmund Freud

“You have the right to put up a fence between you and your family, and the choice whether to include a gate.” – Unknown

“Being a parent shouldn’t be when it is convenient for you. It is a 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, 365 days-a-year commitment.” – Unknown

“Leave your pride, ego, and narcissism somewhere else. Reactions from those parts of you will reinforce your children’s most primitive fears.” – Henry Cloud

“Boys want to grow up to be like their male role models. And boys who grow up in homes with absent fathers search the hardest to figure out what it means to be male.” –Geoffrey Canada

“I’m worried about parents who aren’t parenting.” – Barbara Bush

“You may feel guilty for leaving your family behind, but you’ll never regret moving yourself forward.” – Unknown

“Today’s troubled homes are made by parents who want to have children but don’t want their children to have parents.” – Agona Apel

“No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.” – Plato

“When you say “No” to a toxic family, you say “Yes” to loving yourself.”

“That man who lives only for himself is the cruelest mortal on the face of the earth.” – Unknown

“A person can’t pick up the children and just squeeze them to which-a-way they want them to be.” – Carson McCullers

“There’s really no point in having children if you’re not going to be home enough to father them.” – Anthony Edwards

“Wounded parents often unintentionally inflict pain and suffering on their children.” – David W. Earle

“Parent-child relationships aren’t created at birth, they’re created in life.” – Unknown

“An unloving mother robs the child of a sense of belonging. The need to belong can become a lifelong quest for him or her.” – Peg Streep

“What you believe is very powerful. If you have toxic emotions of fear, guilt, and depression, it is because you have wrong thinking, and you have wrong thinking because of wrong believing.” Joseph Prince

“Anyone can claim to be a “parent” if they have a child. A true parent prioritizes their child’s needs and desires before their own.” – Unknown

“It takes someone really brave to become a mother. As it requires a lot of strength to raise a child and love them more than one loves themselves.” – Unknown

“Too bad for any parent who has become accustomed to ruling by force, because at some point the kids just get too big to slap around.” – Barbara Ehrenreich

“You can always leave your childhood trauma and your abusive mom or dad behind. Never be a victim.” – Unknown

“No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids.” – Jeannette Walls

“Being a selfish parent is a sign of not having learned from experience.” – Unknown

“Fear-based parenting is the surest way to create intimidated children.” – Tim Kimmel

“Denying a child the joy and memories of being with the other parent is an act of “pure evil.” – Unknown

“To be a good father and mother requires that the parents defer many of their own needs and desires in favor of the needs of their children. As a consequence of this sacrifice, conscientious parents develop a nobility of character and learn to put into practice the selfless truths taught by the Savior Himself”–James E. Faust

“A lot of people who have experienced trauma at the hands of people they’ve trusted take responsibility, and that is what’s toxic.” – Hannah Gadsby

Good parenting gives headaches, but bad parenting gives heartaches.” – Shiv Khera

My parents loved us, but I wasn’t always sure they liked us.” – Tahereh Mafi

“Fathers should know that sons follow their example, not advice.” – Unknown

“They should love you, just as you are. Parents should love their kids, right?” “You’d think so.” ― N.R. Walker

“Follow your own passion – not your parents, not your teachers’ – yours.” – Robert Ballard

“Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons.” – Travis Bradberry

“Just remember when you are ignoring your child, you are teaching them to live without you.” – Unknown

“If we, as mothers, are not careful we can begin to find our identity in our children and their behavior.” – Sue Detweiler

“It doesn’t matter who my father was. It matters who I remember he was.” – Anne Sexton

“Most children would rather preserve the fantasy of a loving connection with their fathers and mothers, at all costs, even if it costs them their self-esteem.” – Keith Ablow

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes, but rather requesting that others live as one wishes.”–Unknown

“As a parent, you should be more concerned with your child’s happiness than your petty insecurities and jealousies. Just a thought!” – Unknown

“It is the selfish parents who are to blame. Pay attention, and be involved in your children’s lives. They are your legacy, your only hope.” — Aaron B. Powell

“Do your kids see your kindness or are you always telling them NO?” – Brenda M. McGraw

“Real dads support their children without the law telling them they have to.” – Unknown

“Did you have parents or just some people who thought they should own somebody?” -Catherine Lacey

“Selfish parents may someday realize what damage they have done that can never be undone.” – Unknown

“Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons”.–Travis Bradberry

“Because of the absence of connection and bonding between mother and kid, being surrounded by toxic mothers can be one of the most lonely times in a child’s life.” – Unknown

“In troubled families, abuse and neglect are permitted. It’s talking about them that is forbidden.” – Marcia Sirota

“When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your child.” – Unknown

“Selfish people are unable to love others, but they are also unable to love themselves.” – Unknown

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” – Jane D. Hull

“Good mothers make all kinds of choices. Making a decision that might sound selfish does not make a woman a bad mother.” Jada Pinkett Smith

“A real parent is someone who puts their kids above their own selfish wants and needs.” – Unknown

“If your parents ignored you, or if they are just not emotionally available, or if they yell a lot, that is a type of trauma.” – Tucker Max

“Your children vividly remember every unkind thing you ever did to them, plus a few you really didn’t.” – Mignon McLaughlin

“If mental abuse was a punishable crime, a lot of parents would be in jail serving a long term.” – Maddy Malhotra

“Every man creates his own world in his image. He can choose, but not the ability to avoid having to pick”–Unknown

“Your mother’s happiness is not your responsibility. It has never been.” – Unknown

“The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children”–Clarence Darrow

“A greedy father has thieves for children.” – Serbian Proverb

“Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”–Oscar Wilde

“The hateful and stinging words of a narcissistic parent can linger in the mind of an adult child long after the adult has left home.” – Shannon Thomas

“The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Children shouldn’t have to sacrifice so that you can have the life you want. You make sacrifices so your children can have the life that they deserve.” – Unknown

“Narcissistic parents don’t really recognize their children as people separate from them. Instead, they see their children as little extensions of themselves. The needs of the child are defined by the needs of the parent, and the child who tries to express his needs is often accused of being selfish or inconsiderate.” — Jonice Webb

“If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.” – Jackie Kennedy

“Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; You are raising a human being.” – Kittie Frantz

“It might be difficult to deal with toxic parents. You’ll have pleasant interactions and engagement with one another if you use the appropriate tactics”–Unknown

“There are no illegitimate children – only illegitimate parents”–Leon R. Yankwich

“Unhappiness in a child accumulates because he sees no end to the dark tunnel. The thirteen weeks of a term might just as well be thirteen years.” – Graeme Greene

“Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough.” – Wilhelm Busch

“Don’t make your selfishness ruin your child’s life.” – Unknown

“Being a parent does not give you an excuse for bad manners.” – Rosalind Wiseman

“Some parent will provoke an independent child to anger to feel superior and prove the child’s flaws.” – Shannon Thomas

“No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.”–-Plato

“My dad was not super-intentional in his parenting. He was very self-absorbed. I won’t say mean or selfish per se, but very self-absorbed. I think he was just thinking out loud”– Angela Duckworth

“No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids.” –Jeannette Walls

Selfish genes actually explain altruistic individuals, and to me, that’s crystal clear.” Richard Dawkins

“Life would be so uninteresting if we weren’t all so consumed with ourselves that none of us would be able to bear it”–Unknown

Over to you

Parents ought to love their children and fulfill all of their obligations. You can get through this difficult scenario and teach your parents the value of being excellent parents by showing them quotes about selfish parents.