The Kite Runner question

This quote absolutely fits perfectly with Baba and Amir's lack of father-son relationship.

Baba blames Amir for the death of his wife who died during childbirth. He complains that Amir doesn't defend himself and instead of football, he reads and writes and at the end of the day it seems that Rahim Khan is more of a fatherly figure to Amir than his real father because Rahim Khan supports Amir in everything.

However, Baba and Amir's relationship changes with the Soviet Invasion and their moving to USA where Baba truly accepts Amir who just wrote a book and is being published. I feel that Baba was so committed to give Amir the best lifestyle possible and sometimes forgot how his son felt about his father lack of attention. It is only in USA where they live a humble life (Baba working at a gas station and at a flee market on the weekends) that he truly realizes that all the material stuff from life isn't important as along as you accept and appreciate those who you love because at the end, money comes and goes but family is always the most important thing in the world.

Hi, I do like it very much, I think I read the kite runner before I had kids so it perhaps didn't have as much resonance with me then. I used to worry that not being particularly 'girlie' myself would influence how my two girls grew, now I realise it makes no difference what you as a parent like/choose etc. as very kid is completely unique and they go their own way! I'm constantly surprised by their ideas, interests and preferences.

It makes sense to me. A person is going to be who they are, no matter how you try to control them. One could see this as a larger message for the Taliban. They can't force people to fit in their boxes, no matter how much they terrorize them.

It IS a beautiful quote! And you know it makes all the more sense to me because it's exactly what I'm lectured about these days. We'll I am not a 'child' anymore but in our society here, believe me when I tell you that married people are still reproached for not fulfilling their parents' wishlist!So perhaps I can't complain about MY lectures!
The point is it's really hard for parents to accept that their kids are of a different generation and that they canNOT behave or do the things they did twenty years ago.
I think the problem lies in the fact that we just don't want to accept that everyone is simply different and as Hosseini says: everyone's a different colour and every individual gets to choose the colours they want to be and no one else can or should do it for them.

I agree with this quote. Like the many comments above, its really true that people expect you to be a certain way, and to act a certain way. It may be considered deviance, because it could be something someone wasn't brought up to or used to during their time. Your choices are your norms, even if they don't fit the norm category of the majority of society. You cant exactly expect people in different generations to act the same way. Things around you change which may or may not alternate the way you do things, how you decide on things,and what you want to do when you grow up. People have all of these different careers, not because everyone thought the same way, but because of what inspired them. There could be things present around you that wasnt present around your parents, but thats okay! we create our paths because of what inspires us, and when parents expect you to be like them or fall into their footsteps, it wont always turn out to be what you want to do. We have minds of our own, our own individual dreams, and the things that motivate us may not have motivated our parents.

The quote "Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors."(in Chapter 3) is a wonderful quote that many people can relate to. In my opinion this quote means that children aren't going to grow up exactly like you've planned them to. They have to make mistakes and learn like everyone else does. Lots of children feel the pressure of living up to their parents expectations . These expectations shapes the child's life by trying to live up to those expectations rather than making their own life. The beauty of the quote which can be inferred is that children will color in their own color's. In other words they will make a new path for themselves . We all have our own lives so we shouldn't expect others even our children to walk in our shoes, instead we should let them run in their own shoes.

That quote is wonderful. Children are burdened with expectations the moment they're born. We must let them be who they really are. They have got the right ti do so.

I agree with the quote. Baba wasn't really a father to him until they got to America. While they were in Afghanistan, Baba was more fatherlike to Hassan than he was to Amir.

I agree and disagree with this quote because parents are wise and have been through most of what we are currently going through. They can understand and maybe not want us to do things they have done in their adolescence. But then again, some parents want to make decisions for us because they think they know how we think nowadays.

I like this quote alot because its basically saying that our parents shouldnt expect thier kids to folllow after them. Its a smart way to put it

i think he means you don't get to pick and choose how u want ur kids you can't pick the prefect kid or make them to be what you want.