200 Selfish Parents Quotes to Help You Cope Better

Dealing with toxic and self-centered parents can be challenging. When parents are emotionally detached and unavailable for their children, their mental health suffers, so to keep you going, we’ve made available some quote to help you.

Quotes About Selfish Family

1. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” – Unknown

2. “People tend to raise the child inside of them rather than the child in front of them.” – Joe Newman

3. “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

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

5. “Being a selfish parent is the biggest crime you can do to your child.” – Anonymous

6. “Being a parent is easy but being a good parent is tough as it requires a lot of dedication and goodwill.” – Anonymous

7. “When you’re three or seven years old, it’s less frightening to think of yourself as an unlovable, disappointing screwup than to recognize the fact that you’re living with a monster.” – Keith Ablow

8. “Never substitute ‘presence’ with ‘presents’. Presents can spoil your child, but your presence will make them a true human being.” – Anonymous

9. “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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16. “It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.” – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

19. “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

20. “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

21. “A family who relies on their children for happiness make both their children and themselves miserable.” – Dennis Prager

22. “It is impossible to be both selfish and happy in a family that behaves the same way.” – Unknown

Quotes About Selfish Mothers

23. “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

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

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

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

27. “A good mother never uses her child for her happiness.” – Unknown

28. “If a mother cannot sacrifice for her kids, she doesn’t deserve them!” – Unknown

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

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

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

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

33. “No one, however powerful and successful, can function as an adult if his parents are not satisfied with him.” – Frank Pittman

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

35. “She shrieked and shrieked for her moher, but her mother was already there. Her mother was the monster.” – Holly Black

Quotes About Selfish Fathers

36. “My dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.” – Al Unser

37. “There’s nothing worse than a man who can be everything to everybody else. Except a father to their own child.” – Unknown

38. “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

39. “When you grew up with an absent father, you grew up dreaming and wanting.. But most of all, you grew up way too fast.” – Unknown

40. “My dad had limitations. That’s what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm.” – Gillian Flynn

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

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

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

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

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

46. “Sons aspire to either become their father or vie to be his exact opposite.” – Unknown

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

48. “Every father should remember that one day, his son will follow exactly how his father put his needs above everyone else.” – Unknown

49. “A father shouldn’t have to think of his needs first and then accommodate the child’s needs.” – Unknown

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

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

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

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

54. “Anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad.” – Unknown

55. “When a father, absent during the day, returns home at six, his children receive only his temperament, not his teaching.” – Robert Bly

Quotes on Unhealthy Relationship

56. “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

57. “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

58. “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

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

60. “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

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

62. “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

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

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

65. “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

66. “Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they instilled in them.” – Unknown

67. “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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

78. “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

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

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

Selfish Mothers Quotes

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

82. “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

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

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

85. “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

86. “Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.” – Unknown

87. “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

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

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

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

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

92. “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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

100. “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

101. “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

102. “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.” – Graham Greene

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

104. “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

105. “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

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

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

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

109. “An unpredictable parent is a fearsome God in the eyes of a child.” – Susan Forward

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

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

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

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

114. Family is supposed to be our safe haven. Very often, it is the place where we find the deepest heartache.” – Iyanla Vanzant

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

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

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

118. “They ought to accept you for who you are. Parents ought to adore their children, right? You’d assume so.” – N. R. Walker

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

Quotes About Toxic Parents

120. “Let go of negative people. They only show up to share complaints, problems, disastrous stories, fear, and judgment of others. If somebody is looking for a bin to throw all their trash into, make sure it’s not in your mind.” – Dalai Lama

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

122. “Blood relatives often have nothing to do with family, and similarly, family is about who you choose to make your life with.”– Oliver Hudson

123. “It’s very possible and very okay to forgive someone and still not want to spend time with them.”– Karen Salmansohn

124. “Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.” – Cheryl Strayed

125. “Narcissistic parents don’t 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

126. “Family is where you’re meant to be most free, don’t let blood chain you down.”– Michele Meleen

127. “Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you have control over is yourself.” – Deborah Reber

128. “Your family, your real family, will always welcome you home with open arms. Anyone who says you can lose their love isn’t family, no matter what blood says.” – Seanan McGuire

129. “Energy vampires prey on others because they are in pain, and their behaviour is a disguised cry for help. However, the important thing to remember is that you are not responsible for resolving their issues. While you can offer help to an energy vampire, it is ultimately their responsibility to sort out their struggles.” – Aletheia Luna

130. “The toxic parent sees the child as a threat to their own ego and having the child overshadow the parent is not an option in their mind.” – Shannon Thomas

131. “Toxic family members will see expressions of forgiveness as weaknesses to exploit. Don’t give in to their tactics this way. If you need to forgive them for your own healing, then do it, but keep it to yourself.” – Sherrie Campbell

132. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great.” – Mark Twain

133. “People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” – Dan Pearce

134. When you grieve toxic, abusive parents, you don’t just grieve the abuse, you grieve everything you didn’t have.” – Lily Hope Lucario

135. “Sometimes you just have to walk away. End toxic family relationships because they hurt more than they help. And start rebuilding a new definition of a healthy family in your life, far away from toxic family members.” – John Ash

136. “If parents wish to preserve childhood for their own children, they must conceive of parenting as an act of rebellion against culture.” – Neil Postman

137. “Sometimes, the people closest to you betray you, and your home isn’t a place you can be happy anymore. It’s hard but it’s true.” – P.C. Cast

138. “Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home.”– Anthony Liccione

139. “Our parents plant mental and emotional seeds in us— seeds that grow as we do. In some families, these are seeds of love, respect, and independence. But in many others, they are seeds of fear, obligation, or guilt.” – Susan Forward

140. “In the narcissistic parent’s eyes, they do no wrong nor do they feel they should be held accountable for the bad and wrong things that they have done.” — Katherine Childress

141. “I learned a long time ago that it’s not our fault if our parents are monsters. We can’t take responsibility for that, or we’re twice damaged. All we can do is try to go forward in a different way.” ― Cinda Williams Chima

142. “Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them.” — Bill Ayers

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

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

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

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

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

148. “Sons aspire to either become their father or vie to be his exact opposite.” – Unknown

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

Controlling Parents Quotes

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

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

152. “Anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad.” – Unknown

153. “When a father, absent during the day, returns home at six, his children receive only his temperament, not his teaching.” – Robert Bly

154. “Every father should remember that one day, his son will follow exactly how his father put his needs above everyone else.” – Unknown

155. “A father shouldn’t have to think of his needs first and then accommodate the child’s needs.” – Unknown

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

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

158. “My dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.” – Al Unser

159. “There’s nothing worse than a man who can be everything to everybody else. Except a father to their own child.” – Unknown

160. “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

161. “When you grew up with an absent father, you grew up dreaming and wanting.. But most of all, you grew up way too fast.” – Unknown

162. “My dad had limitations. That’s what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm.” – Gillian Flynn

163. “I never had a speech from my father ‘this is what you must do or shouldn’t do’ but I just learned to be led by example. My father wasn’t perfect.” — Adam Sandler

164. “Be more than a father, be a dad. Be more than a figure, be an example.” – Steve Maraboli

165. “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

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

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

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

169. “No one, however powerful and successful, can function as an adult if his parents are not satisfied with him.” – Frank Pittman

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

171. “She shrieked and shrieked for her mother, but her mother was already there. Her mother was the monster.” – Holly Black

172. “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

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

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

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

176. “A good mother never uses her child for her happiness.” – Unknown

177. “If a mother cannot sacrifice for her kids, she doesn’t deserve them!” – Unknown

178. “Toxic mothers are image-oriented rather than love-oriented.”– Sherrie Campbell

179. “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

Negativity Toxic Parents Quotes 

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

181. “I was worthy of her love whether she gave it to me or not. Every child is worthy of love.” — Richard Paul Evans.

182. “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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

189. “It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.” – Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

192. “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

193. “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

194. “A family who relies on their children for happiness make both their children and themselves miserable.” – Dennis Prager

195. “It is impossible to be both selfish and happy in a family that behaves the same way.” – Unknown

196. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” – Unknown

197. “People tend to raise the child inside of them rather than the child in front of them.” – Joe Newman

198. “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

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

200. “Being a selfish parent is the biggest crime you can do to your child.” – Anonymous

CSN Team.