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- A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no
- responsibility at the other.
- %
- A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.
- -- Carl Sandburg
- %
- A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five.
- %
- A kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo, eventually.
- %
- A little kid went up to Santa and asked him, "Santa, you know when I'm bad
- right?" And Santa says, "Yes, I do." The little kid then asks, "And you
- know when I'm sleeping?" To which Santa replies, "Every minute." So the
- little kid then says, "Well, if you know when I'm bad and when I'm good,
- then how come you don't know what I want for Christmas?"
- %
- A young married couple had their first child. Their original pride
- and joy slowly turned to concern however, for after a couple of years the
- child had never uttered any form of speech. They hired the best speech
- therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, all to no avail. The child simply refused
- to speak. One morning when the child was five, while the husband was reading
- the paper, and the wife was feeding the dog, the little kid looks up from
- his bowl and said, "My cereal's cold."
- The couple is stunned. The man, in tears, confronts his son. "Son,
- after all these years, why have you waited so long to say something?".
- Shrugs the kid, "Everything's been okay 'til now".
- %
- About the only thing we have left that actually discriminates in favor of
- the plain people is the stork.
- %
- Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped
- teething.
- -- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
- %
- Adopted kids are such a pain -- you have to teach them how to look like you ...
- -- Gilda Radner
- %
- After watching an extremely attractive maternity-ward patient
- earnestly thumbing her way through a telephone directory for several
- minutes, a hospital orderly finally asked if he could be of some help.
- "No, thanks," smiled the young mother, "I'm just looking for a
- name for my baby."
- "But the hospital supplies a special booklet that lists hundreds
- of first names and their meanings," said the orderly.
- "That won't help," said the woman, "my baby already has a first name."
- %
- And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower. "This," cried the Mayor,
- "is your town's darkest hour! The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
- to come to the aid of their country!" he said. "We've GOT to make noises in
- greater amounts! So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!" Thus he
- spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top, the lad cleared his throat and
- he shouted out, "YOPP!"
- And that Yopp... That one last small, extra Yopp put it over!
- Finally, at last! From the speck on that clover their voices were heard!
- They rang out clear and clean. And they elephant smiled. "Do you see what
- I mean?" They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small. And their
- whole world was saved by the smallest of All!"
- "How true! Yes, how true," said the big kangaroo. "And, from now
- on, you know what I'm planning to do? From now on, I'm going to protect
- them with you!" And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "ME TOO! From
- the sun in the summer. From rain when it's fall-ish, I'm going to protect
- them. No matter how small-ish!"
- -- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who"
- %
- Any father who thinks he's all important should remind himself that this
- country honors fathers only one day a year while pickles get a whole week.
- %
- Anyone who uses the phrase "easy as taking candy from a baby" has never
- tried taking candy from a baby.
- -- Robin Hood
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- Are you sure you're telling the truth? Think hard.
- Does it make you happy to know you're sending me to an early grave?
- If all your friends jumped off the cliff, would you jump too?
- Do you feel bad? How do you think I feel?
- Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
- Don't you know any better?
- How could you be so stupid?
- If that's the worst pain you'll ever feel, you should be thankful.
- You can't fool me. I know what you're thinking.
- If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all.
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- Do as I say, not as I do.
- Do me a favour and don't tell me about it. I don't want to know.
- What did you do *this* time?
- If it didn't taste bad, it wouldn't be good for you.
- When I was your age...
- I won't love you if you keep doing that.
- Think of all the starving children in India.
- If there's one thing I hate, it's a liar.
- I'm going to kill you.
- Way to go, clumsy.
- If you don't like it, you can lump it.
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- Go away. You bother me.
- Why? Because life is unfair.
- That's a nice drawing. What is it?
- Children should be seen and not heard.
- You'll be the death of me.
- You'll understand when you're older.
- Because.
- Wipe that smile off your face.
- I don't believe you.
- How many times have I told you to be careful?
- Just beacuse.
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- Good children always obey.
- Quit acting so childish.
- Boys don't cry.
- If you keep making faces, someday it'll freeze that way.
- Why do you have to know so much?
- This hurts me more than it hurts you.
- Why? Because I'm bigger than you.
- Well, you've ruined everything. Now are you happy?
- Oh, grow up.
- I'm only doing this because I love you.
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- When are you going to grow up?
- I'm only doing this for your own good.
- Why are you crying? Stop crying, or I'll give you something to
- cry about.
- What's wrong with you?
- Someday you'll thank me for this.
- You'd lose your head if it weren't attached.
- Don't you have any sense at all?
- If you keep sucking your thumb, it'll fall off.
- Why? Because I said so.
- I hope you have a kid just like yourself.
- %
- Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
- say in those awkward situations? Worry no more...
-
- You wouldn't understand.
- You ask too many questions.
- In order to be a man, you have to learn to follow orders.
- That's for me to know and you to find out.
- Don't let those bullies push you around. Go in there and stick
- up for yourself.
- You're acting too big for your britches.
- Well, you broke it. Now are you satisfied?
- Wait till your father gets home.
- Bored? If you're bored, I've got some chores for you.
- Shape up or ship out.
- %
- Article the Third:
- Where a crime of the kidneys has been committed, the accused should
- enjoy the right to a speedy diaper change. Public announcements and
- guided tours of the aforementioned are not necessary.
- Article the Fourth:
- The decision to eat strained lamb or not should be with the "feedee"
- and not the "feeder". Blowing the strained lamb into the feeder's
- face should be accepted as an opinion, not as a declaration of war.
- Article the Fifth:
- Babies should enjoy the freedom to vocalize, whether it be in church,
- a public meeting place, during a movie, or after hours when the
- lights are out. They have not yet learned that joy and laughter have
- to last a lifetime and must be conserved.
- -- Erma Bombeck, "A Baby's Bill of Rights"
- %
- Beat your son every day; you may not know why, but he will.
- %
- Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
- -- Henrik Tikkanen
- %
- Billy: Mom, you know that vase you said was handed down from
- generation to generation?
- Mom: Yes?
- Billy: Well, this generation dropped it.
- %
- Breast Feeding should not be attempted by fathers with hairy chests,
- since they can make the baby sneeze and give it wind.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- %
- Catching his children with their hands in the new, still wet, patio,
- the father spanked them. His wife asked, "Don't you love your children?"
- "In the abstract, yes, but not in the concrete."
- %
- Catproof is an oxymoron, childproof nearly so.
- %
- Children are like cats, they can tell when you don't like them. That's
- when they come over and violate your body space.
- %
- Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every
- effort to teach them good manners.
- %
- Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're
- going to catch you in next.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
- %
- Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them.
- Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- %
- Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for
- word what you shouldn't have said.
- %
- Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
- -- Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"
- %
- Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling
- the walk before it stops snowing.
- -- Phyllis Diller
-
- There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years
- the dirt doesn't get any worse.
- -- Quentin Crisp
- %
- Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's
- beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning
- them at birth.
- %
- Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
- -- Robert Heinlein
- %
- Fertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children,
- neither will you.
- %
- For adult education nothing beats children.
- %
- For children with short attention spans: boomerangs that don't come back.
- %
- FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #5
-
- "And, and, and, and, but, but, but, but!"
- -- Mrs. Janice Markowsky, April 8, 1965
- %
- FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #6
-
- "Johnny, if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!"
- -- Mrs. Emily Barstow, June 16, 1954
- %
- Get Revenge! Live long enough to be a problem for your children!
- %
- -- Gifts for Children --
-
- This is easy. You never have to figure out what to get for children,
- because they will tell you exactly what they want. They spend months and
- months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning
- cartoon-show advertisements. Make sure you get your children exactly what
- they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices. If your child thinks
- he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right Off, you'd
- better get it. You may be worried that it might help to encourage your
- child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not seen antisocial
- tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that he or she did not
- get the right gift.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- %
- Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters
- needs pounding.
- %
- Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.
- %
- Having children is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.
- -- Martin Mull
- %
- How sharper than a serpent's tooth is a sister's "See?"
- -- Linus Van Pelt
- %
- "Humpf!" Humpfed a voice! "For almost two days you've run wild and insisted on
- chatting with persons who've never existed. Such carryings-on in our peaceable
- jungle! We've had quite enough of you bellowing bungle! And I'm here to
- state," snapped the big kangaroo, "That your silly nonsensical game is all
- through!" And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "Me, too!"
- "With the help of the Wickersham Brothers and dozens of Wickersham
- Uncles and Wickersham Cousins and Wickersham In-Laws, whose help I've engaged,
- You're going to be roped! And you're going to be caged! And, as for your dust
- speck... Hah! That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil!"
- -- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who"
- %
- I BET WHEN NEANDERTHAL KIDS would make a snowman, someone would always
- end up saying, "Don't forget the thick heavy brows." Then they would get
- embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and
- they'd get mad and eat the snowman.
- -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
- %
- I called my parents the other night, but I forgot about the time difference.
- They're still living in the fifties.
- -- Strange de Jim
- %
- I did some heavy research so as to be prepared for "Mommy, why is
- the sky blue?"
- HE asked me about black holes in space.
- (There's a hole *where*?)
-
- I boned up to be ready for, "Why is the grass green?"
- HE wanted to discuss nature's food chains.
- (Well, let's see, there's ShopRite, Pathmark...)
-
- I talked about Choo-Choo trains.
- HE talked internal combustion engines.
- (The INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE said, "I think I can, I think I can.")
-
- I was delighted with the video game craze, thinking we could compete
- as equals.
- HE described the complexities of the microchips required to create
- the graphics.
-
- Then puberty struck. Ah, adolescence.
- HE said, "Mom, I just don't understand women."
- (Gotcha!)
- -- Betty LiBrizzi, "The Care and Feeding of a Gifted Child"
- %
- I hate babies. They're so human.
- -- H.H. Munro
- %
- I know what "custody" [of the children] means. "Get even." That's all
- custody means. Get even with your old lady.
- -- Lenny Bruce
- %
- I love children. Especially when they cry -- for then someone takes them away.
- -- Nancy Mitford
- %
- I opened the drawer of my little desk and a single letter fell out, a
- letter from my mother, written in pencil, one of her last, with unfinished
- words and an implicit sense of her departure. It's so curious: one can
- resist tears and "behave" very well in the hardest hours of grief. But
- then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window... or one notices
- that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed... or
- a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses.
- -- Letters From Colette
- %
- I tell ya, I was an ugly kid. I was so ugly that my dad kept the kid's
- picture that came with the wallet he bought.
- -- Rodney Dangerfield
- %
- I told my kids, "Someday, you'll have kids of your own." One of them said,
- "So will you."
- -- Rodney Dangerfield
- %
- I used to think I was a child; now I think I am an adult -- not because
- I no longer do childish things, but because those I call adults are no
- more mature than I am.
- %
- I was born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know
- anything else ... I was not a Child Prodigy, because a Child Prodigy is
- a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up.
- -- Will Rogers
- %
- If a child annoys you, quiet him by brushing his hair. If this doesn't
- work, use the other side of the brush on the other end of the child.
- %
- If parents would only realize how they bore their children.
- -- G.B. Shaw
- %
- If pregnancy were a book they would cut the last two chapters.
- -- Nora Ephron, "Heartburn"
- %
- If the very old will remember, the very young will listen.
- -- Chief Dan George
- %
- If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.
- -- Bette Davis
- %
- If your mother knew what you're doing, she'd probably hang her head and cry.
- %
- Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids.
- %
- It is better to remain childless than to father an orphan.
- %
- It is no wonder that people are so horrible when they start life as children.
- -- Kingsley Amis
- %
- It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for.
- -- Epitaph, Cheltenham Churchyard
- %
- It must have been some unmarried fool that said "A child can ask questions
- that a wise man cannot answer"; because, in any decent house, a brat that
- starts asking questions is promptly packed off to bed.
- -- Arthur Binstead
- %
- It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father.
- %
- It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
- %
- Kids always brighten up a house; mostly by leaving the lights on.
- %
- Kids have *_____never* taken guidance from their parents. If you could
- travel back in time and observe the original primate family in the
- original tree, you would see the primate parents yelling at the primate
- teenager for sitting around and sulking all day instead of hunting for
- grubs and berries like dad primate. Then you'd see the primate
- teenager stomp up to his branch and slam the leaves.
- -- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly Do"
- %
- Lies! All lies! You're all lying against my boys!
- -- Ma Barker
- %
- Life does not begin at the moment of conception or the moment of birth.
- It begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.
- %
- Life is a sexually transmitted disease with 100% mortality.
- %
- Life is like a diaper -- short and loaded.
- %
- Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children.
- Life is the other way around.
- -- David Lodge, "The British Museum is Falling Down"
- %
- Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.
- -- Jules Feiffer
- %
- May you have many beautiful and obedient daughters.
- %
- May you have many handsome and obedient sons.
- %
- MEMORIES OF MY FAMILY MEETINGS still are a source of strength to me. I
- remember we'd all get into the car -- I forget what kind it was -- and
- drive and drive.
-
- I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some bees there. The
- smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we
- played. I remember a bigger, older guy whom we called "Dad." We'd eat
- some stuff or not and then I think we went home.
-
- I guess some things never leave you.
- -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
- %
- Microwaves frizz your heir.
- %
- My boy is a mean kid. I came home the other day and saw him taping worms
- to the sidewalk, he sits there and watches the birds get hernias. Well,
- only last Christmas I gave him a B-B gun and he gave me a sweatshirt with
- a bulls-eye on the back.
-
- I told my kids, "Someday, you'll have kids of your own." One of them
- said, "So will you."
- -- Rodney Dangerfield
- %
- My family history begins with me, but yours ends with you.
- -- Iphicrates
- %
- My mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been one.
- -- Groucho Marx
- %
- My mother once said to me, "Elwood," (she always called me Elwood)
- "Elwood, in this world you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant."
- For years I tried smart. I recommend pleasant.
- -- Elwood P. Dowde, "Harvey"
- %
- My mother wants grandchildren, so I said, "Mom, go for it!"
- -- Sue Murphy
- %
- My mother was a test tube; my father was a knife.
- -- Friday
- %
- My parents went to Niagara Falls and all I got was this crummy life.
- %
- My ritual differs slightly. What I do, first thing [in the morning], is I
- hop into the shower stall. Then I hop right back out, because when I hopped
- in I landed barefoot right on top of See Threepio, a little plastic robot
- character from "Star Wars" whom my son, Robert, likes to pull the legs off
- of while he showers. Then I hop right back into the stall because our dog,
- Earnest, who has been alone in the basement all night building up powerful
- dog emotions, has come bounding and quivering into the bathroom and wants
- to greet me with 60 or 70 thousand playful nips, any one of which -- bear
- in mind that I am naked and, without my contact lenses, essentially blind
- -- could result in the kind of injury where you have to learn a whole new
- part if you want to sing the "Messiah," if you get my drift. Then I hop
- right back out, because Robert, with that uncanny sixth sense some children
- have -- you cannot teach it; they either have it or they don't -- has chosen
- exactly that moment to flush one of the toilets. Perhaps several of them.
- -- Dave Barry
- %
- Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be
- tolerated until they acquire some sense.
- -- William Phelps
- %
- Never have children, only grandchildren.
- -- Gore Vidal
- %
- Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.
- -- Erma Bombeck
- %
- Never raise your hand to your children -- it leaves your midsection
- unprotected.
- -- Robert Orben
- %
- Never trust a child farther than you can throw it.
- %
- No house is childproofed unless the little darlings are in straitjackets.
- %
- No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for
- signs of improvement.
- -- Florida Scott-Maxwell
- %
- Nobody suffers the pain of birth or the anguish of loving a child in order
- for presidents to make wars, for governments to feed on the substance of
- their people, for insurance companies to cheat the young and rob the old.
- -- Lewis Lapham
- %
- On this morning in August when I was 13, my mother sent us out pick
- tomatoes. Back in April I'd have killed for a fresh tomato, but in August
- they are no more rare or wonderful than rocks. So I picked up one and threw
- it at a crab apple tree, where it made a good *splat*, and then threw a tomato
- at my brother. He whipped one back at me. We ducked down by the vines,
- heaving tomatoes at each other. My sister, who was a good person, said,
- "You're going to get it." She bent over and kept on picking.
- What a target! She was 17, a girl with big hips, and bending over,
- she looked like the side of a barn.
- I picked up a tomato so big it sat on the ground. It looked like it
- had sat there a week. The underside was brown, small white worms lived in it,
- and it was very juicy. I stood up and took aim, and went into the windup,
- when my mother at the kitchen window called my name in a sharp voice. I had
- to decide quickly. I decided.
- A rotten Big Boy hitting the target is a memorable sound, like a fat
- man doing a belly-flop. With a whoop and a yell the tomatoee came after
- faster than I knew she could run, and grabbed my shirt and was about to brain
- me when Mother called her name in a sharp voice. And my sister, who was a
- good person, obeyed and let go -- and burst into tears. I guess she knew that
- the pleasure of obedience is pretty thin compared with the pleasure of hearing
- a rotten tomato hit someone in the rear end.
- -- Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"
- %
- One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
- -- George Herbert
- %
- One of the disadvantages of having children is that they eventually get old
- enough to give you presents they make at school.
- -- Robert Byrne
- %
- Only adults have difficulty with childproof caps.
- %
- Out of the mouths of babes does often come cereal.
- %
- Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have
- much of anything to do with it.
- %
- Please, Mother! I'd rather do it myself!
- %
- Reinhart was never his mother's favorite -- and he was an only child.
- -- Thomas Berger
- %
- Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when
- you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.
- -- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"
- %
- Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore
- them long enough.
- %
- Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth
- to a child. She must be found and stopped.
- -- Sam Levenson
- %
- Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and, when they grow up,
- they won't be able to edge a car onto a freeway.
- %
- Test-tube babies shouldn't throw stones.
- %
- That all men should be brothers is the dream of people who have no brothers.
- -- Charles Chincholles, "Pensees de tout le monde"
- %
- The average income of the modern teenager is about 2 a.m.
- %
- The courtroom was pregnant (pun intended) with anxious silence as the
- judge solemnly considered his verdict in the paternity suit before him.
- Suddenly, he reached into the folds of his robes, drew out a cigar and
- ceremoniously handed it to the defendant.
- "Congratulations!" declaimed the jurist. "You have just become a
- father!"
- %
- The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older
- people, and greatly assists in the circulation of the blood.
- -- Logan Pearsall Smith
- %
- The fact that boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of a remarkable
- Christian forbearance among men.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
- %
- The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half
- by our children.
- -- Clarence Darrow
- %
- The full impact of parenthood doesn't hit you until you multiply the
- number of your kids by thirty-two teeth.
- %
- The future is a myth created by insurance salesmen and high school counselors.
- %
- The good die young -- because they see it's no use living if you've got
- to be good.
- -- John Barrymore
- %
- The idea is to die young as late as possible.
- -- Ashley Montague
- %
- The modern child will answer you back before you've said anything.
- -- Laurence J. Peter
- %
- "The only real way to look younger is not to be born so soon."
- -- Charles Schulz, "Things I've Had to Learn Over and
- Over and Over"
- %
- The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
- %
- The real reason large families benefit society is because at least
- a few of the children in the world shouldn't be raised by beginners.
- %
- The years of peak mental activity are undoubtedly between the ages of four
- and eighteen. At four we know all the questions, at eighteen all the answers.
- %
- "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
- -- C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia"
- %
- There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
- -- Dr. Who
- %
- There's nothing wrong with teenagers that reasoning with them won't aggravate.
- %
- Toddlers are the stormtroopers of the Lord of Entropy.
- %
- Troubles are like babies; they only grow by nursing.
- %
- Two parent drops spent months teaching their son how to be part of the
- ocean. After months of training, the father drop commented to the mother drop,
- "We've taught our boy everything we know, he's fit to be tide."
- %
- We are all born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized
- before we are fit to participate in society.
- -- Judith Martin, "Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly
- Correct Behaviour"
- %
- We are the people our parents warned us about.
- %
- What really shapes and conditions and makes us is somebody only a few of
- us ever have the courage to face: and that is the child you once were,
- long before formal education ever got its claws into you -- that
- impatient, all-demanding child who wants love and power and can't get
- enough of either and who goes on raging and weeping in your spirit till
- at last your eyes are closed and all the fools say, "Doesn't he look
- peaceful?" It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars
- and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in
- life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp
- before they were five years old.
- -- Robertson Davies, "The Rebel Angels"
- %
- What's done to children, they will do to society.
- %
- When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults.
- -- Brian Aldiss
- %
- When I was 16, I thought there was no hope for my father. By the time I was
- 20, he had made great improvement.
- %
- When you were born, a big chance was taken for you.
- %
- Why do they call it baby-SITTING when all you do is run after them?
- %
- Why not have an old-fashioned Christmas for your family this year? Just
- picture the scene in your living room on Christmas morning as your children
- open their old-fashioned presents.
-
- Your 11-year-old son: "What the heck is this?"
-
- You: "A spinning top! You spin it around, and then eventually it falls
- down. What fun! Ha, ha!"
-
- Son: "Is this a joke? Jason Thompson's parents got him a computer with
- two disk drives and 128 kilobytes of random-access memory, and I get this
- cretin TOP?"
-
- Your 8-year-old daughter: "You think that's bad? Look at this."
-
- You: "It's figgy pudding! What a treat!"
-
- Daughter: "It looks like goat barf."
- -- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts"
- %
- You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have,
- for instance.
- -- Franklin P. Jones
- %
- "You can't expect a mother to be with a small child all the time," Margaret
- Mead once remarked, with her usual good sense, but in 1978 she shocked
- feminists by snapping that women don't really have children to put them in
- day care twelve hours a day, either.
- -- Caroline Bird, "The Two Paycheck Marriage"
- %
- You can't hug a child with nuclear arms.
- %
- Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine. You
- need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion
- picture star. If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use
- the word "collectible" as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified
- success.
- -- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"
- %
- Youth is such a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- %
- Youth is the trustee of posterity.
- %
- Youth is when you blame all your troubles on your parents; maturity is
- when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation.
- %
- Youth. It's a wonder that anyone ever outgrows it.
- %
-