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13 reyssat 1
A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no
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responsibility at the other.
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%
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A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.
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		-- Carl Sandburg
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%
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A child of five could understand this!  Fetch me a child of five.
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%
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A kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo, eventually.
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%
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A little kid went up to Santa and asked him, "Santa, you know when I'm bad
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right?"  And Santa says, "Yes, I do."  The little kid then asks, "And you
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know when I'm sleeping?" To which Santa replies, "Every minute." So the
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little kid then says, "Well, if you know when I'm bad and when I'm good,
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then how come you don't know what I want for Christmas?"
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%
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	A young married couple had their first child.  Their original pride
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and joy slowly turned to concern however, for after a couple of years the
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child had never uttered any form of speech.  They hired the best speech
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therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, all to no avail.  The child simply refused
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to speak.  One morning when the child was five, while the husband was reading
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the paper, and the wife was feeding the dog, the little kid looks up from
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his bowl and said, "My cereal's cold."
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	The couple is stunned.  The man, in tears, confronts his son.  "Son,
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after all these years, why have you waited so long to say something?".
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	Shrugs the kid, "Everything's been okay 'til now".
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%
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About the only thing we have left that actually discriminates in favor of
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the plain people is the stork.
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%
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Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped
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teething.
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		-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
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%
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Adopted kids are such a pain -- you have to teach them how to look like you ...
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		-- Gilda Radner
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%
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	After watching an extremely attractive maternity-ward patient
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earnestly thumbing her way through a telephone directory for several 
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minutes, a hospital orderly finally asked if he could be of some help.
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	"No, thanks," smiled the young mother, "I'm just looking for a
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name for my baby."
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	"But the hospital supplies a special booklet that lists hundreds
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of first names and their meanings," said the orderly.
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	"That won't help," said the woman, "my baby already has a first name."
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%
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And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.  "This," cried the Mayor,
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"is your town's darkest hour!  The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
49
to come to the aid of their country!" he said.  "We've GOT to make noises in
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greater amounts!  So, open your mouth, lad!  For every voice counts!"  Thus he
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spoke as he climbed.  When they got to the top, the lad cleared his throat and
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he shouted out, "YOPP!" 
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	And that Yopp...  That one last small, extra Yopp put it over!
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Finally, at last!  From the speck on that clover their voices were heard!
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They rang out clear and clean.  And they elephant smiled.  "Do you see what
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I mean?" They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.  And their
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whole world was saved by the smallest of All!"
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	"How true!  Yes, how true," said the big kangaroo.  "And, from now
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on, you know what I'm planning to do?  From now on, I'm going to protect
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them with you!"  And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "ME TOO!  From
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the sun in the summer.  From rain when it's fall-ish, I'm going to protect
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them.  No matter how small-ish!"
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		-- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who"
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%
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Any father who thinks he's all important should remind himself that this
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country honors fathers only one day a year while pickles get a whole week.
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%
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Anyone who uses the phrase "easy as taking candy from a baby" has never
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tried taking candy from a baby.
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		-- Robin Hood
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
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75
	Are you sure you're telling the truth?  Think hard.
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	Does it make you happy to know you're sending me to an early grave?
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	If all your friends jumped off the cliff, would you jump too?
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	Do you feel bad?  How do you think I feel?
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	Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
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	Don't you know any better?
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	How could you be so stupid?
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	If that's the worst pain you'll ever feel, you should be thankful.
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	You can't fool me.  I know what you're thinking.
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	If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all.
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
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89
	Do as I say, not as I do.
90
	Do me a favour and don't tell me about it.  I don't want to know.
91
	What did you do *this* time?
92
	If it didn't taste bad, it wouldn't be good for you.
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	When I was your age...
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	I won't love you if you keep doing that.
95
	Think of all the starving children in India.
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	If there's one thing I hate, it's a liar.
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	I'm going to kill you.
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	Way to go, clumsy.
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	If you don't like it, you can lump it.
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
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104
	Go away.  You bother me.
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	Why?   Because life is unfair.
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	That's a nice drawing.  What is it?
107
	Children should be seen and not heard.
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	You'll be the death of me.
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	You'll understand when you're older.
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	Because.
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	Wipe that smile off your face.
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	I don't believe you.
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	How many times have I told you to be careful?
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	Just beacuse.
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
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119
	Good children always obey.
120
	Quit acting so childish.
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	Boys don't cry.
122
	If you keep making faces, someday it'll freeze that way.
123
	Why do you have to know so much?
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	This hurts me more than it hurts you.
125
	Why?  Because I'm bigger than you.
126
	Well, you've ruined everything.  Now are you happy?
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	Oh, grow up.
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	I'm only doing this because I love you.
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
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133
	When are you going to grow up?
134
	I'm only doing this for your own good.
135
	Why are you crying?  Stop crying, or I'll give you something to
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		cry about.
137
	What's wrong with you?
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	Someday you'll thank me for this.
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	You'd lose your head if it weren't attached.
140
	Don't you have any sense at all?
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	If you keep sucking your thumb, it'll fall off.
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	Why?  Because I said so.
143
	I hope you have a kid just like yourself.
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%
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Are you a parent?  Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to
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say in those awkward situations?  Worry no more...
147
 
148
	You wouldn't understand.
149
	You ask too many questions.
150
	In order to be a man, you have to learn to follow orders.
151
	That's for me to know and you to find out.
152
	Don't let those bullies push you around.  Go in there and stick
153
		up for yourself.
154
	You're acting too big for your britches.
155
	Well, you broke it.  Now are you satisfied?
156
	Wait till your father gets home.
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	Bored?  If you're bored, I've got some chores for you.
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	Shape up or ship out.
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%
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Article the Third:
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	Where a crime of the kidneys has been committed, the accused should
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	enjoy the right to a speedy diaper change.  Public announcements and
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	guided tours of the aforementioned are not necessary.
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Article the Fourth:
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	The decision to eat strained lamb or not should be with the "feedee"
166
	and not the "feeder".  Blowing the strained lamb into the feeder's
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	face should be accepted as an opinion, not as a declaration of war.
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Article the Fifth:
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	Babies should enjoy the freedom to vocalize, whether it be in church,
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	a public meeting place, during a movie, or after hours when the
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	lights are out.  They have not yet learned that joy and laughter have
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	to last a lifetime and must be conserved.
173
		-- Erma Bombeck, "A Baby's Bill of Rights"
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Beat your son every day; you may not know why, but he will.
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%
177
Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
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		-- Henrik Tikkanen
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180
Billy:	Mom, you know that vase you said was handed down from
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	generation to generation?
182
Mom:	Yes?
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Billy:	Well, this generation dropped it.
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%
185
Breast Feeding should not be attempted by fathers with hairy chests,
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since they can make the baby sneeze and give it wind.
187
		-- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
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%
189
	Catching his children with their hands in the new, still wet, patio,
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the father spanked them.  His wife asked, "Don't you love your children?"
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"In the abstract, yes, but not in the concrete."
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%
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Catproof is an oxymoron, childproof nearly so.
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%
195
Children are like cats, they can tell when you don't like them.  That's
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when they come over and violate your body space.
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%
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Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every
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effort to teach them good manners.
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%
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Children are unpredictable.  You never know what inconsistency they're
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going to catch you in next.
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		-- Franklin P. Jones
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Children begin by loving their parents.  After a time they judge them.
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Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
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		-- Oscar Wilde
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Children seldom misquote you.  In fact, they usually repeat word for
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word what you shouldn't have said.
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%
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Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
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		-- Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"
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%
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Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling
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the walk before it stops snowing.
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		-- Phyllis Diller
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There is no need to do any housework at all.  After the first four years
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the dirt doesn't get any worse.
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		-- Quentin Crisp
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%
223
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's
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beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning
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them at birth.
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%
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Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
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		-- Robert Heinlein
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%
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Fertility is hereditary.  If your parents didn't have any children,
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neither will you.
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%
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For adult education nothing beats children.
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%
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For children with short attention spans: boomerangs that don't come back.
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%
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FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #5
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	"And, and, and, and, but, but, but, but!"
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		-- Mrs. Janice Markowsky, April 8, 1965
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%
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FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #6
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	"Johnny, if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!"
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		-- Mrs. Emily Barstow, June 16, 1954
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%
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Get Revenge!  Live long enough to be a problem for your children!
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%
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			-- Gifts for Children --
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251
This is easy.  You never have to figure out what to get for children,
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because they will tell you exactly what they want.  They spend months and
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months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning
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cartoon-show advertisements.  Make sure you get your children exactly what
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they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices.  If your child thinks
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he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right Off, you'd
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better get it.  You may be worried that it might help to encourage your
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child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not seen antisocial
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tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that he or she did not
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get the right gift.
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		-- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
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%
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Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters
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needs pounding.
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%
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Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.
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%
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Having children is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.
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		-- Martin Mull
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%
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How sharper than a serpent's tooth is a sister's "See?"
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		-- Linus Van Pelt
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%
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"Humpf!" Humpfed a voice! "For almost two days you've run wild and insisted on
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chatting with persons who've never existed.  Such carryings-on in our peaceable
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jungle!  We've had quite enough of you bellowing bungle!  And I'm here to
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state," snapped the big kangaroo, "That your silly nonsensical game is all
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through!"  And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "Me, too!"
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	"With the help of the Wickersham Brothers and dozens of Wickersham
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Uncles and Wickersham Cousins and Wickersham In-Laws, whose help I've engaged,
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You're going to be roped!  And you're going to be caged!  And, as for your dust
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speck...  Hah! That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil!"
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		-- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who"
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%
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I BET WHEN NEANDERTHAL KIDS would make a snowman, someone would always
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end up saying, "Don't forget the thick heavy brows."  Then they would get
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embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and
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they'd get mad and eat the snowman.
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		-- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
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%
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I called my parents the other night, but I forgot about the time difference.
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They're still living in the fifties.
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		-- Strange de Jim
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%
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	I did some heavy research so as to be prepared for "Mommy, why is
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the sky blue?"
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	HE asked me about black holes in space.
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	(There's a hole *where*?)
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300
	I boned up to be ready for, "Why is the grass green?"
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	HE wanted to discuss nature's food chains.
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	(Well, let's see, there's ShopRite, Pathmark...)
303
 
304
	I talked about Choo-Choo trains.
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	HE talked internal combustion engines.
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	(The INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE said, "I think I can, I think I can.")
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	I was delighted with the video game craze, thinking we could compete
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as equals.
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	HE described the complexities of the microchips required to create
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the graphics.
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	Then puberty struck.  Ah, adolescence.
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	HE said, "Mom, I just don't understand women."
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	(Gotcha!)
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		-- Betty LiBrizzi, "The Care and Feeding of a Gifted Child"
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%
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I hate babies.  They're so human.
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		-- H.H. Munro
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%
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I know what "custody" [of the children] means.  "Get even."  That's all
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custody means.  Get even with your old lady.
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		-- Lenny Bruce
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%
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I love children.  Especially when they cry -- for then someone takes them away.
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		-- Nancy Mitford
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%
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I opened the drawer of my little desk and a single letter fell out, a
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letter from my mother, written in pencil, one of her last, with unfinished
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words and an implicit sense of her departure.  It's so curious: one can
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resist tears and "behave" very well in the hardest hours of grief.  But
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then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window... or one notices
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that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed... or
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a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses.
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		-- Letters From Colette
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%
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I tell ya, I was an ugly kid.  I was so ugly that my dad kept the kid's
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picture that came with the wallet he bought.
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		-- Rodney Dangerfield
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%
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I told my kids, "Someday, you'll have kids of your own."  One of them said,
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"So will you."
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		-- Rodney Dangerfield
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%
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I used to think I was a child; now I think I am an adult -- not because
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I no longer do childish things, but because those I call adults are no
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more mature than I am.
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%
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I was born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know
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anything else ... I was not a Child Prodigy, because a Child Prodigy is
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a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up.
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		-- Will Rogers
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%
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If a child annoys you, quiet him by brushing his hair.  If this doesn't
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work, use the other side of the brush on the other end of the child.
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%
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If parents would only realize how they bore their children.
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		-- G.B. Shaw
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%
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If pregnancy were a book they would cut the last two chapters.
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		-- Nora Ephron, "Heartburn"
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%
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If the very old will remember, the very young will listen.
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		-- Chief Dan George
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%
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If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent.
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		-- Bette Davis
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%
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If your mother knew what you're doing, she'd probably hang her head and cry.
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%
371
Insanity is hereditary.  You get it from your kids.
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%
373
It is better to remain childless than to father an orphan.
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%
375
It is no wonder that people are so horrible when they start life as children.
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		-- Kingsley Amis
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%
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It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for.
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		-- Epitaph, Cheltenham Churchyard
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%
381
It must have been some unmarried fool that said "A child can ask questions
382
that a wise man cannot answer"; because, in any decent house, a brat that
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starts asking questions is promptly packed off to bed.
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		-- Arthur Binstead
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%
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It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father.
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%
388
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
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%
390
Kids always brighten up a house; mostly by leaving the lights on.
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%
392
Kids have *_____never* taken guidance from their parents.  If you could
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travel back in time and observe the original primate family in the
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original tree, you would see the primate parents yelling at the primate
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teenager for sitting around and sulking all day instead of hunting for
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grubs and berries like dad primate.  Then you'd see the primate
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teenager stomp up to his branch and slam the leaves.
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		-- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly Do"
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%
400
Lies!  All lies!  You're all lying against my boys!
401
		-- Ma Barker
402
%
403
Life does not begin at the moment of conception or the moment of birth.
404
It begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.
405
%
406
Life is a sexually transmitted disease with 100% mortality.
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%
408
Life is like a diaper -- short and loaded.
409
%
410
Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children.
411
Life is the other way around.
412
		-- David Lodge, "The British Museum is Falling Down"
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%
414
Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.
415
		-- Jules Feiffer
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%
417
May you have many beautiful and obedient daughters.
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%
419
May you have many handsome and obedient sons.
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%
421
MEMORIES OF MY FAMILY MEETINGS still are a source of strength to me.  I
422
remember we'd all get into the car -- I forget what kind it was -- and
423
drive and drive.
424
 
425
I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some bees there. The
426
smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we
427
played.  I remember a bigger, older guy whom we called "Dad."  We'd eat
428
some stuff or not and then I think we went home.
429
 
430
I guess some things never leave you.
431
		-- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
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%
433
Microwaves frizz your heir.
434
%
435
My boy is a mean kid.  I came home the other day and saw him taping worms
436
to the sidewalk, he sits there and watches the birds get hernias.  Well,
437
only last Christmas I gave him a B-B gun and he gave me a sweatshirt with
438
a bulls-eye on the back.
439
 
440
I told my kids, "Someday, you'll have kids of your own."  One of them
441
said, "So will you."
442
		-- Rodney Dangerfield
443
%
444
My family history begins with me, but yours ends with you.
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		-- Iphicrates
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%
447
My mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been one.
448
		-- Groucho Marx
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%
450
My mother once said to me, "Elwood," (she always called me Elwood)
451
"Elwood, in this world you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant."
452
For years I tried smart.  I recommend pleasant.
453
		-- Elwood P. Dowde, "Harvey"
454
%
455
My mother wants grandchildren, so I said, "Mom, go for it!"
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		-- Sue Murphy
457
%
458
My mother was a test tube; my father was a knife.
459
		-- Friday
460
%
461
My parents went to Niagara Falls and all I got was this crummy life.
462
%
463
My ritual differs slightly.  What I do, first thing [in the morning], is I
464
hop into the shower stall.  Then I hop right back out, because when I hopped
465
in I landed barefoot right on top of See Threepio, a little plastic robot
466
character from "Star Wars" whom my son, Robert, likes to pull the legs off
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of while he showers.  Then I hop right back into the stall because our dog,
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Earnest, who has been alone in the basement all night building up powerful
469
dog emotions, has come bounding and quivering into the bathroom and wants
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to greet me with 60 or 70 thousand playful nips, any one of which -- bear
471
in mind that I am naked and, without my contact lenses, essentially blind
472
-- could result in the kind of injury where you have to learn a whole new
473
part if you want to sing the "Messiah," if you get my drift.  Then I hop
474
right back out, because Robert, with that uncanny sixth sense some children
475
have -- you cannot teach it; they either have it or they don't -- has chosen
476
exactly that moment to flush one of the toilets.  Perhaps several of them.
477
		-- Dave Barry
478
%
479
Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be
480
tolerated until they acquire some sense.
481
		-- William Phelps
482
%
483
Never have children, only grandchildren.
484
		-- Gore Vidal
485
%
486
Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.
487
		-- Erma Bombeck
488
%
489
Never raise your hand to your children -- it leaves your midsection
490
unprotected.
491
		-- Robert Orben
492
%
493
Never trust a child farther than you can throw it.
494
%
495
No house is childproofed unless the little darlings are in straitjackets.
496
%
497
No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for
498
signs of improvement.
499
		-- Florida Scott-Maxwell
500
%
501
Nobody suffers the pain of birth or the anguish of loving a child in order
502
for presidents to make wars, for governments to feed on the substance of
503
their people, for insurance companies to cheat the young and rob the old.
504
		-- Lewis Lapham
505
%
506
	On this morning in August when I was 13, my mother sent us out pick
507
tomatoes.  Back in April I'd have killed for a fresh tomato, but in August
508
they are no more rare or wonderful than rocks.  So I picked up one and threw
509
it at a crab apple tree, where it made a good *splat*, and then threw a tomato
510
at my brother.  He whipped one back at me.  We ducked down by the vines,
511
heaving tomatoes at each other.  My sister, who was a good person, said,
512
"You're going to get it."  She bent over and kept on picking.
513
	What a target!  She was 17, a girl with big hips, and bending over,
514
she looked like the side of a barn.
515
	I picked up a tomato so big it sat on the ground.  It looked like it
516
had sat there a week.  The underside was brown, small white worms lived in it,
517
and it was very juicy.  I stood up and took aim, and went into the windup,
518
when my mother at the kitchen window called my name in a sharp voice.  I had
519
to decide quickly.  I decided.
520
	A rotten Big Boy hitting the target is a memorable sound, like a fat
521
man doing a belly-flop.  With a whoop and a yell the tomatoee came after
522
faster than I knew she could run, and grabbed my shirt and was about to brain
523
me when Mother called her name in a sharp voice.  And my sister, who was a
524
good person, obeyed and let go -- and burst into tears.  I guess she knew that
525
the pleasure of obedience is pretty thin compared with the pleasure of hearing
526
a rotten tomato hit someone in the rear end.
527
		-- Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"
528
%
529
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
530
		-- George Herbert
531
%
532
One of the disadvantages of having children is that they eventually get old
533
enough to give you presents they make at school.
534
		-- Robert Byrne
535
%
536
Only adults have difficulty with childproof caps.
537
%
538
Out of the mouths of babes does often come cereal.
539
%
540
Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn't have
541
much of anything to do with it.
542
%
543
Please, Mother!  I'd rather do it myself!
544
%
545
Reinhart was never his mother's favorite -- and he was an only child.
546
		-- Thomas Berger
547
%
548
Remember that as a teenager you are in the last stage of your life when
549
you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.
550
		-- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"
551
%
552
Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore
553
them long enough.
554
%
555
Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth
556
to a child.  She must be found and stopped.
557
		-- Sam Levenson
558
%
559
Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and, when they grow up,
560
they won't be able to edge a car onto a freeway.
561
%
562
Test-tube babies shouldn't throw stones.
563
%
564
That all men should be brothers is the dream of people who have no brothers.
565
		-- Charles Chincholles, "Pensees de tout le monde"
566
%
567
The average income of the modern teenager is about 2 a.m.
568
%
569
	The courtroom was pregnant (pun intended) with anxious silence as the
570
judge solemnly considered his verdict in the paternity suit before him.
571
Suddenly, he reached into the folds of his robes, drew out a cigar and
572
ceremoniously handed it to the defendant.
573
	"Congratulations!" declaimed the jurist.  "You have just become a
574
father!"
575
%
576
The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older
577
people, and greatly assists in the circulation of the blood.
578
		-- Logan Pearsall Smith
579
%
580
The fact that boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of a remarkable
581
Christian forbearance among men.
582
		-- Ambrose Bierce
583
%
584
The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half
585
by our children.
586
		-- Clarence Darrow
587
%
588
The full impact of parenthood doesn't hit you until you multiply the
589
number of your kids by thirty-two teeth.
590
%
591
The future is a myth created by insurance salesmen and high school counselors.
592
%
593
The good die young -- because they see it's no use living if you've got
594
to be good.
595
		-- John Barrymore
596
%
597
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
598
		-- Ashley Montague
599
%
600
The modern child will answer you back before you've said anything.
601
		-- Laurence J. Peter
602
%
603
"The only real way to look younger is not to be born so soon."
604
		-- Charles Schulz, "Things I've Had to Learn Over and
605
		   Over and Over"
606
%
607
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
608
%
609
The real reason large families benefit society is because at least
610
a few of the children in the world shouldn't be raised by beginners.
611
%
612
The years of peak mental activity are undoubtedly between the ages of four
613
and eighteen.  At four we know all the questions, at eighteen all the answers.
614
%
615
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
616
		-- C. S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia"
617
%
618
There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
619
		-- Dr. Who
620
%
621
There's nothing wrong with teenagers that reasoning with them won't aggravate.
622
%
623
Toddlers are the stormtroopers of the Lord of Entropy.
624
%
625
Troubles are like babies; they only grow by nursing.
626
%
627
	Two parent drops spent months teaching their son how to be part of the
628
ocean.  After months of training, the father drop commented to the mother drop,
629
"We've taught our boy everything we know, he's fit to be tide."
630
%
631
We are all born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized
632
before we are fit to participate in society.
633
		-- Judith Martin, "Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly
634
		   Correct Behaviour"
635
%
636
We are the people our parents warned us about.
637
%
638
What really shapes and conditions and makes us is somebody only a few of
639
us ever have the courage to face: and that is the child you once were,
640
long before formal education ever got its claws into you -- that
641
impatient, all-demanding child who wants love and power and can't get
642
enough of either and who goes on raging and weeping in your spirit till
643
at last your eyes are closed and all the fools say, "Doesn't he look
644
peaceful?" It is those pent-up, craving children who make all the wars
645
and all the horrors and all the art and all the beauty and discovery in
646
life, because they are trying to achieve what lay beyond their grasp
647
before they were five years old.
648
		-- Robertson Davies, "The Rebel Angels"
649
%
650
What's done to children, they will do to society.
651
%
652
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults.
653
		-- Brian Aldiss
654
%
655
When I was 16, I thought there was no hope for my father.  By the time I was
656
20, he had made great improvement.
657
%
658
When you were born, a big chance was taken for you.
659
%
660
Why do they call it baby-SITTING when all you do is run after them?
661
%
662
Why not have an old-fashioned Christmas for your family this year? Just
663
picture the scene in your living room on Christmas morning as your children
664
open their old-fashioned presents.
665
 
666
Your 11-year-old son: "What the heck is this?"
667
 
668
You:	"A spinning top!  You spin it around, and then eventually it falls
669
down.  What fun!  Ha, ha!"
670
 
671
Son:	"Is this a joke?  Jason Thompson's parents got him a computer with 
672
two disk drives and 128 kilobytes of random-access memory, and I get this 
673
cretin TOP?"
674
 
675
Your 8-year-old daughter: "You think that's bad?  Look at this."
676
 
677
You:	"It's figgy pudding!  What a treat!"
678
 
679
Daughter: "It looks like goat barf."
680
		-- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts"
681
%
682
You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have,
683
for instance.
684
		-- Franklin P. Jones
685
%
686
"You can't expect a mother to be with a small child all the time," Margaret
687
Mead once remarked, with her usual good sense, but in 1978 she shocked
688
feminists by snapping that women don't really have children to put them in
689
day care twelve hours a day, either.
690
		-- Caroline Bird, "The Two Paycheck Marriage"
691
%
692
You can't hug a child with nuclear arms.
693
%
694
Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine.  You
695
need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion
696
picture star.  If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use
697
the word "collectible" as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified
698
success.
699
		-- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"
700
%
701
Youth is such a wonderful thing.  What a crime to waste it on children.
702
		-- George Bernard Shaw
703
%
704
Youth is the trustee of posterity.
705
%
706
Youth is when you blame all your troubles on your parents; maturity is
707
when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation.
708
%
709
Youth.  It's a wonder that anyone ever outgrows it.
710
%