Parenting & Family Quote by Perry Como

There is a particular sting when a famously smooth voice admits he wasn’t around to hear the ordinary music of his own house. Perry Como’s line lands because it refuses the usual celebrity alibi. He starts with a careful defense - “I managed my schedule…home by late afternoon” - the kind of phrasing that sounds like a man still trying to negotiate with his conscience. Then he undercuts it with “basically,” a small word doing heavy moral work: whatever he told himself about being present, the truth is Roselle carried the daily load.

The intent feels less like confession for confession’s sake and more like a late-life recalibration of what counts as success. Como isn’t talking about money or fame, not even the grind of touring; he’s talking about the quiet theft of time, the way “most days” can still add up to absence. The subtext is generational, too: mid-century masculinity often framed parenting as provision, not participation. His praise of Roselle is also an admission that “helping” is not the same as co-raising.

Context matters because Como’s public persona was ease and warmth - the genial family man beamed into living rooms. That image made domestic stability part of the brand. This quote punctures that myth without turning bitter, which is why it hits: it’s regret spoken in the key of gratitude. He names the cost plainly, then closes by honoring the outcome, as if trying to hold both truths at once: he missed the moments, and he’s proud of the people who emerged anyway.