Jacqueline ElliottLeadership Strategist | CEO, Mother, Wife, Legacy-Builder

BE A PARENT, NOT A FRIEND// JACQUELINE ELLIOTT

18 Nov 2025 · 0 min

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A short conversational excerpt from a YouTube video where Jacqueline Elliott and another speaker discuss parenting philosophy. Elliott emphasizes that a parent's primary responsibilities are keeping children safe and raising them to be good people, not being their friend; the other speaker contrasts different parental extremes (overly permissive vs. harsh) and reflects on impacts of those styles on personal development.

I tell my kids all the time I love you, and I kind of want you to be happy, but I don't care that you're not happy. I need you to be safe, and I need you to be a good person. And sometimes you're gonna hate me, and that's totally cool, because my job is not to be your best friend. Like, I want you to be able to confide in me and tell me your problems, and I'm gonna correct you because I'm your mother above all things. And keeping you safe is more important. Making sure that you turn into a good human being.
Is important challenge. It helps them develop and grow and figure things out on their own. My dad was like, too much the other way. They made sure I didn't die. There was no parenting. There was no, let me teach you something. And if it was, it was a belt that was teaching me not to do whatever I did.
But do you feel like those experiences of them being very hard on you then made you more adaptable?
Them caught. Allowing me to figure it out for myself made me a survivor and resourceful, and I think that's the true attribute that makes one successful.