- Rev. Eric Camden: [to Robbie] I'm sorry.
- Robbie Palmer: Sorry for what? For caring about me? For giving me the first real home I ever had? For being the dad I never had and always wanted? For forgiving me my past mistakes and being so supportive and kind? You have nothing to be sorry for.
- Ruthie Camden: What I need from you is a plan.
- Mary Camden: A plan?
- Ruthie Camden: Yeah, a plan. I want to do something Mom and Dad say I can't. You practically made a career of doing stuff Mom and Dad told you not to do!
- Mary Camden: And look where that got me.
- Ruthie Camden: They're not gonna send me away to Buffalo for buying make-up!
- Ed Palmer: [to Eric] You can't stop me from getting an apartment with my son.
- Rev. Eric Camden: The state of New York can.
- Ed Palmer: Is that a threat?
- Rev. Eric Camden: No, it's not a threat, it's...
- [pause]
- Rev. Eric Camden: Okay, it's a threat.
- Serena: [to Annie] You know, just because you bake cookies and make lunches and drive a carpool does not make you better than me. It does not mean you're a better mother! I am a good mother, too!
- Annie Camden: This isn't about us! This is about you and your daughter. It's about you growing up and acting your age. This is about you being an adult so she can be a child. It's about parenthood and it has nothing to do with cookies, and everything to do with raising children! Helping them find their way, loving them, and putting their needs first. How is your daughter supposed to learn how to be a mother if you won't be a mother to her?
- Ashley: Mom, can you grow up and act your age for just once?
- Serena: You cannot talk to me like that. I am your mother!
- Ashley: My mother? I thought I was your best friend. Which one is it? Mother or best friend?
- Serena: Can't I be both?
- Ashley: No! Because I want a mother who tells me what to do. A mother who tells me to do my homework, to go to bed. I want a mother with her own life, her own friends. I don't want a mother who makes a fool of herself, flirting around with some guy who's half her age! I know it isn't all about me, but why does it have to be all about you?
- Mary Camden: [to Ruthie when she buys make-up behind her parents' back] Sooner or later, Mom and Dad are going to find out. They always do, and when they do you're gonna be in trouble. Big trouble.
- Ruthie Camden: I liked you better when you were messing up your life.
- Ruthie Camden: [to Eric] Can I have that really big, really cool make-up kit that's on sale at the department store?
- Rev. Eric Camden: The one you asked about yesterday?
- [Ruthie nods her head]
- Rev. Eric Camden: No. You're too young to wear make-up.
- Ruthie Camden: But my friend Rachel gets to wear make-up!
- Rev. Eric Camden: You have a 10-year-old friend who wears make-up?
- Ruthie Camden: Just blush and lipstick. Her parents don't think she's too young. Her mom bought her that make-up kit.
- Rev. Eric Camden: Sorry. No make-up.
- Ruthie Camden: Thanks for nothing!
- [storms off]
- Rev. Eric Camden: [sighs] Parenting really is its own reward.
- Ed Palmer: [to Eric] You are not Robbie's father!
- Rev. Eric Camden: Neither are you.
- Ed Palmer: Sticks and stones. Ouch.
- Lucy Camden: [about Ashley's mother] You just don't like her because she doesn't bake pies or go to church socials or make lunches!
- Annie Camden: That's not true.
- Lucy Camden: She's fun. I like her. What's wrong with that?
- Annie Camden: Serena's funness isn't the problem!
- Lucy Camden: So are you saying I can't go?
- Annie Camden: You know, you're gonna be graduating soon and making your own decisions and I won't be there to help you with that. Should you or shouldn't you go where or when. So, from now on, I think it's best if you start making your own decisions.
- Lucy Camden: If the choice is mine, then I'm going.
- Ashley: [to Lucy] You wouldn't understand. You have a mother. A real mother. Sometimes, I wish I had a real mother, too, not someone who would rather be my friend than my mother. Friends, I have. People to go to parties and dances with I have. A mother I don't have and haven't had since my parents got divorced. That's when my mother decided that she didn't want to be a mother anymore.
- Lucy Camden: I had no idea you felt this way. I thought you liked having a mother who was hip and cool and unmotherlike.
- Ashley: What's so hip and cool about being locked in some stranger's bathroom while your mother flirts and carries on with some guy who's too old for us and too young for her? Welcome to the dark side of having a hip and cool mom.