In my household growing up in Fayetteville, N.C., music was the great communicator between my parents and me.
My parents were founders of the Cuban Communist Party, and I grew up extremely poor.
I'm still the community college kid with immigrant parents.
I liked Pat Cash, and I loved Mats Wilander. I went to the Australian Open with my parents, and I used to watch Wilander being cheered on by the Swedish fans, and with his game style being like mine, I drew comparisons with him.
My parents make sure we have everything we need so that we compete to the best of our abilities.
As parents, we teach our kids about things we feel competent in. That's why so many parents don't teach their kids about money.
I like to solve problems. I know it is a skill set, but it's also an obligation. I grew up with parents who believe that you don't simply complain: you try to find solutions and fix what's in front of you.
I received a lot of complaints from parents who wrote and told me that their kids wouldn't go to sleep until our show was over. So I went on the air and told all the children watching to 'listen to their Uncle Miltie and go to bed right after the show.'
I have a Web site that parents and girls can use to learn about Title IX and take action if they find their school is not in compliance. Thirty years after Title IX passed, 80 percent of schools are not in compliance.
Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication.
My parents and grandparents have always been engaged in teaching or the medical profession or the priesthood, so I've sort of grown up with a sense of complicity in the lives of other people, so there's no virtue in that; it's the way one is raised.
If I wanted to lay down a baby con, I could say I was the product of a broken home. But I'd only be bum-rapping my parents.
My mother always wanted to play an instrument. Her parents never gave her that. Then it got to a point where I'd been playing for 18 years, and to give it up would make me feel guilty. But my parents also knew that realistically, I wasn't going to become a concert pianist.
I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death that I would focus too much on that too soon. And that I'd end up in some sort of dead end, and not fulfilling whatever potential they thought I had.
Freud taught us that it wasn't God that imposed judgment on us and made us feel guilty when we stepped out of line. Instead, it was the superego - that idealized concept of what a good person is supposed to be and do - given to us by our parents, that condemned us for what had been hitherto regarded as ungodly behavior.
My parents never condescended to me. As a child, I always sat at the head of our dinner table. I was always given a lot of responsibility.
My parents were never condescending to us. They treated us like adults from a very young age.
When it was time for parent-teacher conferences, I remember that I was always embarrassed about what my parents would hear about me!
I always used to get in trouble for talking too much. When it was time for parent-teacher conferences, I remember that I was always embarrassed about what my parents would hear about me!
Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings.
