Rogue One, the latest Star Wars movie, comes out this week, so I’m sharing these quotes from the original trilogy that, to me, shine a light on the epic adventure that is parenting.
The quotes are taken from the longer piece I wrote last year when The Force Awakens came out, about what the series meant to me as both a child and an adult.
- “Watch yourself. This place can be a little rough.” Parenting isn’t always delightful family dinners and warm good night stories. It’s also skinned knees, lost toys, long nights, toddler tantrums, teen angst, and other challenges.
- “I’m not afraid.” “You will be.” That moment when you first bring your child home and wonder where the user manual is.
- “Judge me by my size, do you?” A warning to every parent of a two-year-old.
- “Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy.” And raising a child isn’t like anything else one has ever experienced.
- “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.” Which is why we all buy car seats and bike helmets for our kids.
- “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” When you hear maniacal giggling from your little ones in the other room, followed by a crash.
- “Never tell me the odds.” Soccer practice and a piano lesson on the same day, when your washing machine quits and you have an emergency at work? No problem.
- “Don’t get cocky.” Notwithstanding #7, remember you’re only as good as your handling of the current crisis.
- “It’s a trap!” Something to keep in mind when your child asks, “You always said you didn’t like that antique vase your aunt gave you, right?”
- “Sorry about the mess.” Something you’ll say frequently to friends until your child is . . . well, perhaps grown and out of the house.
- “Stay on target.” It’s helpful to remember the basic goal—raising reasonably well-adjusted human beings to adulthood with a minimum of harm to themselves or others—when dealing with daily challenges.
- “Do or do not. There is no try.” Parenting in a nutshell.