Parental Expectations Quotes

“I don't care what baggage they dragged over the ocean. They have no right to make me carry it the rest of my life.”
― Abigail Hing Wen, Loveboat, Taipei

“My parents love me. I know this for sure. But I also know they love weddings and grandchildren and the expectations they have for me. They love the daughter they know, but what if I stop being that daughter?”
― Racquel Marie, Ophelia After All

“Je ne répondais plus aux exigences de ce "moi qui attends désespérément la bénédiction de mes parents", mais j'agissais pour mon propre bien.”
― Kabi Nagata, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

“Il fallait que j'arrête mes efforts vains pour recevoir l'assentiment de mes parents... Même si les choses ne sont pas déroulées très bien par le passé, j'ai comme le sentiment qu'à partir de maintenant, ça devrait aller mieux. Comment je peux vivre ma propre vie si je me soucie trop d'être une fille modèle ?”
― Kabi Nagata, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

“After Rahul graduated from high school their parents celebrated, having in their opinion now successfully raised two children in America. Rahul was going to Cornell, and Sudha was still in Philadephia, getting a master's in international relations. Their parents threw a party, inviting nearly two hundred people, and bought Rahul a car, justifying it as a necessity for his life in Ithaca. They bragged about the school, more impressed by it than they'd been with Penn. "Our job is done," her father declared at the end of the party, posing for pictures with Rahul and Sudha on either side. For years they had been compared to other Bengali children, told about gold medals brought back from science fairs, colleges that offered full scholarships. Sometimes Sudha's father would clip newspaper articles about unusually gifted adolescents - the boy who finished his PhD at twenty, the girl who went to Stanford at twelve - and tape them on the refrigerator. When Sudha was fourteen, her father had written to Harvard Medical School, requested an application, and placed it on her desk.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth

“That humiliation led to a vow, the vow led to drilling his firstborn son, and the nightly drills resulted in a boy who could read at the Violet level, three years ahead of time”
― Richard Powers, Playground

“I’ve already learned the poem! I have! Listen!”
And five-year-old Peter recited it boldly, without a single pause.
His parents were stunned. Danylo considered himself a well-educated man. He had once completed a parish school, later pursued self-education diligently, and through natural intelligence and perseverance had become a skilled accountant. Yet to memorize such a poem casually, in play, having heard only fragments of it? No — such heights had always been beyond him.
With a mingled feeling of joy, pride, and astonishment, the father studied his son. For the first time, he saw in this mischievous boy an heir — one who had inherited the best traits of his ancestors and might one day surpass even his boldest expectations.
“Maria,” Danylo said to his wife, “let’s send Peter to school, even if it’s still early — let him study alongside his older brother Nick. He’s capable, he’s bright, he’ll manage. After all, no one knows what the future may bring.”
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One


Context note:
In a fragile post-war society where education was uncertain and the future unpredictable, a father recognizes early brilliance in his son — a moment when hope quietly overcomes fear, and destiny begins to take shape.”
― Володимир Шабля, Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга перша. Перші кроки до світла та назад: Дитинство та занурення в ГУЛАГ.