Elder Oaks
My mother used to love quoting
the words of Pearl Buck, who said, “I
love my children with all my heart,
but I can’t love them with all my
time.” 6 And so she was very careful in
the limited time that she had available
after being the breadwinner for the
family. She was very careful with what
we did in the scarce time that we
were privileged to be together. She
liked us to work on projects together.
I look back on that with greater affection
than I experienced at the time.
It seemed like Mother was always
organizing us to do some project to
clear out the garage. But I look back
on it, and I realize that she was pursuing
a very important parenting function
in getting the children to work
together and with their parents.
-Elder Dallin H. Oaks, from Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting: Building Up a Righteous Posterity, Feb 9, 2008, p 23