"My parents are really well intended, and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself"
About this Quote
The emotional engine is the passive construction of “Nobody wanted to talk about it.” The subject dissolves into a collective fog: no single person is accountable, which is precisely the point. When a family refuses to name a problem, the problem doesn’t disappear; it migrates. It relocates into the child, who becomes the storage unit for everything adults can’t metabolize. That’s why the final sentence lands like a confession and a diagnosis: “But all I did was blame myself.” The “But” is doing heavy work, rejecting the implied premise that a child could interpret the silence any other way.
As a pop-cultural figure, Hatcher’s candor reads less like therapy-speak than a quiet rebellion against the glossy script imposed on actresses: be charming, be resilient, keep it cute. Instead, she describes a familiar mechanism in many families and institutions, where “good intentions” substitute for responsibility, and where the cost of keeping peace is paid by the most powerless person in the room.
Quote Details
| Topic | Family |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hatcher, Teri. (2026, January 15). My parents are really well intended, and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-are-really-well-intended-and-i-think-83882/
Chicago Style
Hatcher, Teri. "My parents are really well intended, and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-are-really-well-intended-and-i-think-83882/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My parents are really well intended, and I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-parents-are-really-well-intended-and-i-think-83882/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.





