Details | Last modification | View Log | RSS feed
Rev | Author | Line No. | Line |
---|---|---|---|
13 | reyssat | 1 | A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no |
2 | responsibility at the other. |
||
3 | % |
||
4 | A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. |
||
5 | -- Carl Sandburg |
||
6 | % |
||
7 | A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five. |
||
8 | % |
||
9 | A kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo, eventually. |
||
10 | % |
||
11 | A little kid went up to Santa and asked him, "Santa, you know when I'm bad |
||
12 | right?" And Santa says, "Yes, I do." The little kid then asks, "And you |
||
13 | know when I'm sleeping?" To which Santa replies, "Every minute." So the |
||
14 | little kid then says, "Well, if you know when I'm bad and when I'm good, |
||
15 | then how come you don't know what I want for Christmas?" |
||
16 | % |
||
17 | A young married couple had their first child. Their original pride |
||
18 | and joy slowly turned to concern however, for after a couple of years the |
||
19 | child had never uttered any form of speech. They hired the best speech |
||
20 | therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, all to no avail. The child simply refused |
||
21 | to speak. One morning when the child was five, while the husband was reading |
||
22 | the paper, and the wife was feeding the dog, the little kid looks up from |
||
23 | his bowl and said, "My cereal's cold." |
||
24 | The couple is stunned. The man, in tears, confronts his son. "Son, |
||
25 | after all these years, why have you waited so long to say something?". |
||
26 | Shrugs the kid, "Everything's been okay 'til now". |
||
27 | % |
||
28 | About the only thing we have left that actually discriminates in favor of |
||
29 | the plain people is the stork. |
||
30 | % |
||
31 | Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was, that they escaped |
||
32 | teething. |
||
33 | -- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" |
||
34 | % |
||
35 | Adopted kids are such a pain -- you have to teach them how to look like you ... |
||
36 | -- Gilda Radner |
||
37 | % |
||
38 | After watching an extremely attractive maternity-ward patient |
||
39 | earnestly thumbing her way through a telephone directory for several |
||
40 | minutes, a hospital orderly finally asked if he could be of some help. |
||
41 | "No, thanks," smiled the young mother, "I'm just looking for a |
||
42 | name for my baby." |
||
43 | "But the hospital supplies a special booklet that lists hundreds |
||
44 | of first names and their meanings," said the orderly. |
||
45 | "That won't help," said the woman, "my baby already has a first name." |
||
46 | % |
||
47 | And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower. "This," cried the Mayor, |
||
48 | "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 |
||
50 | greater amounts! So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!" Thus he |
||
51 | spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top, the lad cleared his throat and |
||
52 | he shouted out, "YOPP!" |
||
53 | And that Yopp... That one last small, extra Yopp put it over! |
||
54 | Finally, at last! From the speck on that clover their voices were heard! |
||
55 | They rang out clear and clean. And they elephant smiled. "Do you see what |
||
56 | I mean?" They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small. And their |
||
57 | whole world was saved by the smallest of All!" |
||
58 | "How true! Yes, how true," said the big kangaroo. "And, from now |
||
59 | on, you know what I'm planning to do? From now on, I'm going to protect |
||
60 | them with you!" And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "ME TOO! From |
||
61 | the sun in the summer. From rain when it's fall-ish, I'm going to protect |
||
62 | them. No matter how small-ish!" |
||
63 | -- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who" |
||
64 | % |
||
65 | Any father who thinks he's all important should remind himself that this |
||
66 | country honors fathers only one day a year while pickles get a whole week. |
||
67 | % |
||
68 | Anyone who uses the phrase "easy as taking candy from a baby" has never |
||
69 | tried taking candy from a baby. |
||
70 | -- Robin Hood |
||
71 | % |
||
72 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
73 | say in those awkward situations? Worry no more... |
||
74 | |||
75 | Are you sure you're telling the truth? Think hard. |
||
76 | Does it make you happy to know you're sending me to an early grave? |
||
77 | If all your friends jumped off the cliff, would you jump too? |
||
78 | Do you feel bad? How do you think I feel? |
||
79 | Aren't you ashamed of yourself? |
||
80 | Don't you know any better? |
||
81 | How could you be so stupid? |
||
82 | If that's the worst pain you'll ever feel, you should be thankful. |
||
83 | You can't fool me. I know what you're thinking. |
||
84 | If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all. |
||
85 | % |
||
86 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
87 | say in those awkward situations? Worry no more... |
||
88 | |||
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. |
||
93 | When I was your age... |
||
94 | I won't love you if you keep doing that. |
||
95 | Think of all the starving children in India. |
||
96 | If there's one thing I hate, it's a liar. |
||
97 | I'm going to kill you. |
||
98 | Way to go, clumsy. |
||
99 | If you don't like it, you can lump it. |
||
100 | % |
||
101 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
102 | say in those awkward situations? Worry no more... |
||
103 | |||
104 | Go away. You bother me. |
||
105 | Why? Because life is unfair. |
||
106 | That's a nice drawing. What is it? |
||
107 | Children should be seen and not heard. |
||
108 | You'll be the death of me. |
||
109 | You'll understand when you're older. |
||
110 | Because. |
||
111 | Wipe that smile off your face. |
||
112 | I don't believe you. |
||
113 | How many times have I told you to be careful? |
||
114 | Just beacuse. |
||
115 | % |
||
116 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
117 | say in those awkward situations? Worry no more... |
||
118 | |||
119 | Good children always obey. |
||
120 | Quit acting so childish. |
||
121 | 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? |
||
124 | 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? |
||
127 | Oh, grow up. |
||
128 | I'm only doing this because I love you. |
||
129 | % |
||
130 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
131 | say in those awkward situations? Worry no more... |
||
132 | |||
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 |
||
136 | cry about. |
||
137 | What's wrong with you? |
||
138 | Someday you'll thank me for this. |
||
139 | You'd lose your head if it weren't attached. |
||
140 | Don't you have any sense at all? |
||
141 | If you keep sucking your thumb, it'll fall off. |
||
142 | Why? Because I said so. |
||
143 | I hope you have a kid just like yourself. |
||
144 | % |
||
145 | Are you a parent? Do you sometimes find yourself unsure as to what to |
||
146 | 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. |
||
157 | Bored? If you're bored, I've got some chores for you. |
||
158 | Shape up or ship out. |
||
159 | % |
||
160 | Article the Third: |
||
161 | Where a crime of the kidneys has been committed, the accused should |
||
162 | enjoy the right to a speedy diaper change. Public announcements and |
||
163 | guided tours of the aforementioned are not necessary. |
||
164 | Article the Fourth: |
||
165 | 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 |
||
167 | face should be accepted as an opinion, not as a declaration of war. |
||
168 | Article the Fifth: |
||
169 | Babies should enjoy the freedom to vocalize, whether it be in church, |
||
170 | a public meeting place, during a movie, or after hours when the |
||
171 | lights are out. They have not yet learned that joy and laughter have |
||
172 | to last a lifetime and must be conserved. |
||
173 | -- Erma Bombeck, "A Baby's Bill of Rights" |
||
174 | % |
||
175 | Beat your son every day; you may not know why, but he will. |
||
176 | % |
||
177 | Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us. |
||
178 | -- Henrik Tikkanen |
||
179 | % |
||
180 | Billy: Mom, you know that vase you said was handed down from |
||
181 | generation to generation? |
||
182 | Mom: Yes? |
||
183 | Billy: Well, this generation dropped it. |
||
184 | % |
||
185 | Breast Feeding should not be attempted by fathers with hairy chests, |
||
186 | since they can make the baby sneeze and give it wind. |
||
187 | -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac" |
||
188 | % |
||
189 | Catching his children with their hands in the new, still wet, patio, |
||
190 | the father spanked them. His wife asked, "Don't you love your children?" |
||
191 | "In the abstract, yes, but not in the concrete." |
||
192 | % |
||
193 | Catproof is an oxymoron, childproof nearly so. |
||
194 | % |
||
195 | Children are like cats, they can tell when you don't like them. That's |
||
196 | when they come over and violate your body space. |
||
197 | % |
||
198 | Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every |
||
199 | effort to teach them good manners. |
||
200 | % |
||
201 | Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're |
||
202 | going to catch you in next. |
||
203 | -- Franklin P. Jones |
||
204 | % |
||
205 | Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. |
||
206 | Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. |
||
207 | -- Oscar Wilde |
||
208 | % |
||
209 | Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for |
||
210 | word what you shouldn't have said. |
||
211 | % |
||
212 | Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives. |
||
213 | -- Maya Angelou, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" |
||
214 | % |
||
215 | Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling |
||
216 | the walk before it stops snowing. |
||
217 | -- Phyllis Diller |
||
218 | |||
219 | There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years |
||
220 | the dirt doesn't get any worse. |
||
221 | -- Quentin Crisp |
||
222 | % |
||
223 | Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's |
||
224 | beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning |
||
225 | them at birth. |
||
226 | % |
||
227 | Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. |
||
228 | -- Robert Heinlein |
||
229 | % |
||
230 | Fertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children, |
||
231 | neither will you. |
||
232 | % |
||
233 | For adult education nothing beats children. |
||
234 | % |
||
235 | For children with short attention spans: boomerangs that don't come back. |
||
236 | % |
||
237 | FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #5 |
||
238 | |||
239 | "And, and, and, and, but, but, but, but!" |
||
240 | -- Mrs. Janice Markowsky, April 8, 1965 |
||
241 | % |
||
242 | FORTUNE REMEMBERS THE GREAT MOTHERS: #6 |
||
243 | |||
244 | "Johnny, if you fall and break your leg, don't come running to me!" |
||
245 | -- Mrs. Emily Barstow, June 16, 1954 |
||
246 | % |
||
247 | Get Revenge! Live long enough to be a problem for your children! |
||
248 | % |
||
249 | -- Gifts for Children -- |
||
250 | |||
251 | This is easy. You never have to figure out what to get for children, |
||
252 | because they will tell you exactly what they want. They spend months and |
||
253 | months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning |
||
254 | cartoon-show advertisements. Make sure you get your children exactly what |
||
255 | they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices. If your child thinks |
||
256 | he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right Off, you'd |
||
257 | better get it. You may be worried that it might help to encourage your |
||
258 | child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not seen antisocial |
||
259 | tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that he or she did not |
||
260 | get the right gift. |
||
261 | -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide" |
||
262 | % |
||
263 | Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters |
||
264 | needs pounding. |
||
265 | % |
||
266 | Give your child mental blocks for Christmas. |
||
267 | % |
||
268 | Having children is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain. |
||
269 | -- Martin Mull |
||
270 | % |
||
271 | How sharper than a serpent's tooth is a sister's "See?" |
||
272 | -- Linus Van Pelt |
||
273 | % |
||
274 | "Humpf!" Humpfed a voice! "For almost two days you've run wild and insisted on |
||
275 | chatting with persons who've never existed. Such carryings-on in our peaceable |
||
276 | jungle! We've had quite enough of you bellowing bungle! And I'm here to |
||
277 | state," snapped the big kangaroo, "That your silly nonsensical game is all |
||
278 | through!" And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "Me, too!" |
||
279 | "With the help of the Wickersham Brothers and dozens of Wickersham |
||
280 | Uncles and Wickersham Cousins and Wickersham In-Laws, whose help I've engaged, |
||
281 | You're going to be roped! And you're going to be caged! And, as for your dust |
||
282 | speck... Hah! That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil!" |
||
283 | -- Dr. Seuss "Horton Hears a Who" |
||
284 | % |
||
285 | I BET WHEN NEANDERTHAL KIDS would make a snowman, someone would always |
||
286 | end up saying, "Don't forget the thick heavy brows." Then they would get |
||
287 | embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and |
||
288 | they'd get mad and eat the snowman. |
||
289 | -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988. |
||
290 | % |
||
291 | I called my parents the other night, but I forgot about the time difference. |
||
292 | They're still living in the fifties. |
||
293 | -- Strange de Jim |
||
294 | % |
||
295 | I did some heavy research so as to be prepared for "Mommy, why is |
||
296 | the sky blue?" |
||
297 | HE asked me about black holes in space. |
||
298 | (There's a hole *where*?) |
||
299 | |||
300 | I boned up to be ready for, "Why is the grass green?" |
||
301 | HE wanted to discuss nature's food chains. |
||
302 | (Well, let's see, there's ShopRite, Pathmark...) |
||
303 | |||
304 | I talked about Choo-Choo trains. |
||
305 | HE talked internal combustion engines. |
||
306 | (The INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE said, "I think I can, I think I can.") |
||
307 | |||
308 | I was delighted with the video game craze, thinking we could compete |
||
309 | as equals. |
||
310 | HE described the complexities of the microchips required to create |
||
311 | the graphics. |
||
312 | |||
313 | Then puberty struck. Ah, adolescence. |
||
314 | HE said, "Mom, I just don't understand women." |
||
315 | (Gotcha!) |
||
316 | -- Betty LiBrizzi, "The Care and Feeding of a Gifted Child" |
||
317 | % |
||
318 | I hate babies. They're so human. |
||
319 | -- H.H. Munro |
||
320 | % |
||
321 | I know what "custody" [of the children] means. "Get even." That's all |
||
322 | custody means. Get even with your old lady. |
||
323 | -- Lenny Bruce |
||
324 | % |
||
325 | I love children. Especially when they cry -- for then someone takes them away. |
||
326 | -- Nancy Mitford |
||
327 | % |
||
328 | I opened the drawer of my little desk and a single letter fell out, a |
||
329 | letter from my mother, written in pencil, one of her last, with unfinished |
||
330 | words and an implicit sense of her departure. It's so curious: one can |
||
331 | resist tears and "behave" very well in the hardest hours of grief. But |
||
332 | then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window... or one notices |
||
333 | that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed... or |
||
334 | a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses. |
||
335 | -- Letters From Colette |
||
336 | % |
||
337 | I tell ya, I was an ugly kid. I was so ugly that my dad kept the kid's |
||
338 | picture that came with the wallet he bought. |
||
339 | -- Rodney Dangerfield |
||
340 | % |
||
341 | I told my kids, "Someday, you'll have kids of your own." One of them said, |
||
342 | "So will you." |
||
343 | -- Rodney Dangerfield |
||
344 | % |
||
345 | I used to think I was a child; now I think I am an adult -- not because |
||
346 | I no longer do childish things, but because those I call adults are no |
||
347 | more mature than I am. |
||
348 | % |
||
349 | I was born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know |
||
350 | anything else ... I was not a Child Prodigy, because a Child Prodigy is |
||
351 | a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up. |
||
352 | -- Will Rogers |
||
353 | % |
||
354 | If a child annoys you, quiet him by brushing his hair. If this doesn't |
||
355 | work, use the other side of the brush on the other end of the child. |
||
356 | % |
||
357 | If parents would only realize how they bore their children. |
||
358 | -- G.B. Shaw |
||
359 | % |
||
360 | If pregnancy were a book they would cut the last two chapters. |
||
361 | -- Nora Ephron, "Heartburn" |
||
362 | % |
||
363 | If the very old will remember, the very young will listen. |
||
364 | -- Chief Dan George |
||
365 | % |
||
366 | If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent. |
||
367 | -- Bette Davis |
||
368 | % |
||
369 | If your mother knew what you're doing, she'd probably hang her head and cry. |
||
370 | % |
||
371 | Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids. |
||
372 | % |
||
373 | It is better to remain childless than to father an orphan. |
||
374 | % |
||
375 | It is no wonder that people are so horrible when they start life as children. |
||
376 | -- Kingsley Amis |
||
377 | % |
||
378 | It is so soon that I am done for, I wonder what I was begun for. |
||
379 | -- Epitaph, Cheltenham Churchyard |
||
380 | % |
||
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 |
||
383 | starts asking questions is promptly packed off to bed. |
||
384 | -- Arthur Binstead |
||
385 | % |
||
386 | It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father. |
||
387 | % |
||
388 | It's never too late to have a happy childhood. |
||
389 | % |
||
390 | Kids always brighten up a house; mostly by leaving the lights on. |
||
391 | % |
||
392 | Kids have *_____never* taken guidance from their parents. If you could |
||
393 | travel back in time and observe the original primate family in the |
||
394 | original tree, you would see the primate parents yelling at the primate |
||
395 | teenager for sitting around and sulking all day instead of hunting for |
||
396 | grubs and berries like dad primate. Then you'd see the primate |
||
397 | teenager stomp up to his branch and slam the leaves. |
||
398 | -- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly Do" |
||
399 | % |
||
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. |
||
407 | % |
||
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" |
||
413 | % |
||
414 | Maturity is only a short break in adolescence. |
||
415 | -- Jules Feiffer |
||
416 | % |
||
417 | May you have many beautiful and obedient daughters. |
||
418 | % |
||
419 | May you have many handsome and obedient sons. |
||
420 | % |
||
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. |
||
432 | % |
||
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. |
||
445 | -- Iphicrates |
||
446 | % |
||
447 | My mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been one. |
||
448 | -- Groucho Marx |
||
449 | % |
||
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!" |
||
456 | -- 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 |
||
467 | of while he showers. Then I hop right back into the stall because our dog, |
||
468 | 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 |
||
470 | 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 | % |