Parenting & Family Quote by John Lithgow

Lithgow’s line lands because it turns “get your kids to read” from a moral lecture into something more intimate: performance. Coming from an actor, the message isn’t really about book lists or literacy programs; it’s about modeling a life. He’s pointing at a low-tech, high-impact ritual where children absorb values the way they absorb everything else at home: by watching what gets your attention when nobody’s grading you.

The phrase “in front of your kids” is the quiet provocation. Parenting advice often treats reading as a task to assign to children, like vegetables or homework. Lithgow flips it: the adult is the one onstage. The subtext is slightly indicting, because it implies that the biggest obstacle to raising readers isn’t children’s screens, it’s adult distraction and adult example. If your downtime is scrolling, don’t be shocked when their “reading time” feels like punishment.

His careful hedge - “very likely” - matters, too. It avoids the smug certainty of a hacky guarantee and acknowledges the chaos of family life. But it still asserts a kind of behavioral gravity: make books visible in your home, and books become normal.

Culturally, the quote fits a moment when literacy anxiety gets routed through panic about attention spans and algorithms. Lithgow offers a counter-program that’s almost embarrassingly simple: let kids see reading as pleasure, not self-improvement. The intent isn’t just to create readers; it’s to make reading look like belonging.