The more I go through parenting, the more I say I owe my mother an apology.

Romano’s line captures a common reversal that comes with becoming a parent: experiences that once felt like arbitrary rules or overreactions begin to look like patience, sacrifice, and hard-won judgment. The “apology” is less about a single misdeed than a dawning recognition of what his mother carried—fatigue, worry, responsibility, and the emotional labor of raising children. As a comedian, Romano frames this insight as a wry confession, but it also functions as a tribute: parenting becomes a lens that reinterprets one’s own childhood and invites gratitude, humility, and empathy across generations.