Parents must lead by example. Don't use the cliche; do as I say and not as I do. We are our children's first and most important role models.
The schools that suffer are the schools in, in poor neighborhoods. They are the neighborhoods with the greatest need, with the parents struggling to work and to make ends meet. They don't have enough resources to give, they don't have enough resources to pay more, and these are the neighborhoods that go first.
When I was 10, I asked my parents for a set of weights. I had my Charles Atlas book to go along with that. Every time we went to the grocery store, I'd rush to the magazine area and read the ones with Arnold Schwarzenegger and all those guys on the covers: 'Pumping Iron,' 'Muscle and Fitness,' 'Muscle Builder by Joe Weider.'
My earliest memories are of watching 'Star Trek' and 'MASH' while my parents barbecued chicken in the back yard. I was an American kid, through and through.
I love cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do. To share my parents' recipes that I grew up with is just something very special to me.
I was born in the Northeast, and I have Midwestern parents.
I suppose that when I'm building a character, it's usually related to what their family is like and who their parents are, as well as how I grew up - that nurture side.
I was a dancer from about the age of four, so I was always performing and forcing my parents to watch my brother and I do 'Jesus Christ Super Star' in the living room. My first step was community theater, and then I started to do films.
I became almost immediately fascinated by the possibilities of trying out all conceivable reactions with them, some leading to explosions, others to unbearable poisoning of the air in our house, frightening my parents.
My giving story started with my parents - my late mother, Frances Arrillaga, who dedicated her life to philanthropic and community service, and my father, John Arrillaga, whose daily generosity of heart, mind, and hands-on contributions make him one of the most extraordinary philanthropists I know.
When I went home at 20 to tell my parents, 'I don't want to be an engineer, I want to try and write books,' I was braced for, 'That's not gonna happen.' But I didn't get that response, and maybe it was because of my dad's experience of having an artistic dream and having to put it aside.
I feel sure that unborn babies pick their parents.
My parents didn't really know one another.
I grew up with an artist father, and my parents' friends were also mainly artists or writers, so he connects what I do with his example.
I don't deny that I had a very privileged upbringing, but my parents and that town maintained a sense of normalcy that I think many people find hard to achieve, and I am so grateful for that.
It is pretty amazing. My parents, who came from Nicaragua to the U.S. - who would have thought that they would have American kids on the Olympic team? I think that's the epitome of the Olympic dream.
Is there a doctor in the house? My parents want me to marry you.
As a little girl in the '50s, I couldn't wear a purple-and-white flowered skirt with a red blouse - those colors were too loud. My parents were not into that 'We are Negros that wear all beige,' but there was a line you could walk over that could signal vulgar, crass, rather than clever use of color. And that outfit crossed over the line.
My parents found what I was interested in and encouraged me. They didn't put me in front of a television and buy lots of toys, the way some American parents do.
Neither of my parents has been very sensitive about my writing.
I think I'm a global citizen. My parents came from China, were educated in France and emigrated to the United States. And I think that opened up my mind to be able to live and work anywhere.
I was 7 years old when 'Roots' was first broadcast, and my parents gathered all us kids around the TV to learn about how we got here. But it wasn't until I sat down and immersed myself in the research that I got the barest inkling of what it meant to be a slave.
As far back as I remember, and earlier, I was an artisan, a maker and doer. Mechanically minded, my parents said.
The problem with growing up in a cafe was the cafe never closed, my parents worked every day of the year from morning to night. So it was a big menagerie of kids, business and cooking!
There are a lot of films that come out for kids, and the parents have to suffer through it.
I think I was about seven when people started telling my parents I would be an actor or a performer of some kind.
I just did a spread in 'Maxim', I'm 35 years old. I've had women and parents email me asking if I should really be doing that, since I'm still considered a role model.
I don't look at negative comments because my parents and family don't let me. My big sister controls my Instagram, and my big brother controls my Twitter. I also don't really Google myself or anything like that.
When I was about seven, I started touring the globe as part of New York's La MaMa theater company - without my parents!
I get bitter, angry and disbelieving and I tell my kids there a lot of idiots out there. I also want them to know that being successful is not the real world - that their parents get treated better because they're on TV.
Only recently - about five minutes ago, relative to the long-running human comedy - have parents been driving themselves to distraction by taking too seriously the idea that 'as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'
I was born here in the States. I moved to Portugal when I was five. And then my parents put me in an English school.
I'm very conscious of the fact that when I'm working, my daughter is not with one of her parents.
I come from a family with a really strong work ethic - not just my parents, but my aunts, uncles and cousins. It rubbed off on me. I have a cousin in The Bronx who says I'm like the longshoreman of actors. I am a worker.
Ice Cube's the coolest dad. A lot of parents - a lot of kids do not think their parents are cool. Oh, no. My dad's cool... You know, I was born in 1991. That's when 'Boyz n the Hood' came out. So I've always see him on TV. I don't see everybody else's dad, you know. So I've always had a sense of, you know, he's cool. He's in the light.
I've always had tremendous support from my parents. I think there's a myth that gay people have lousy relationships with their parents.
