We're not going to play favorites with you two.
How to Save Space on the Fridge
August 8, 2011 By 2 Comments
10 Year-Old Supermodel: At Least She’s Pulling Her Weight
August 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment
At least she's pulling her weight. All 43 pounds of it.
Relevant rules:
How to Make a Therapist Rich
August 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Cause you make me feel like a pony. So good, like a pony.
Rule #99: Encourage Your Daughter to Date a Carny
July 18, 2011 By 2 Comments
I'll always be there to hold your hair back as you puke after I spin ya on the Tilt-a-Whirl if ya know what I mean.
There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is you do not trust people from other states, much less people from Europe or “Europeans” as many are called by people who try to be all superior.
While you recognize that travel was an important part of your social development, especially the summer you smuggled cod and dope across the Canadian border in a Pinto, you do not have the funds to allow your child to experience “culture.”
What you do have, however, is the carnival in town. [Read more...]
Rule #89: Run Your Child’s Political Campaign at School
October 1, 2010 By 1 Comment
Lindsey will not be doomed to repeat my failure. Lindsey will NOT be doomed to repeat my failure.
In the harsh world of running for class president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer, there is little room for miscalculation.
Because, let’s face it, miscalculation leads to failure, and failure leads to mumbling to the lunch lady about how, if you’d just promised in your campaign speech to create an all-tater-tot lunch menu, things would have turned out differently back in the day.
But that was long ago, and you’ve learned from your mistakes.
And now it is time to turn those verbal and physical mishaps—especially the one where you soiled a perfectly nice pair of O.P. shorts—into victories for your child by becoming his or her campaign manager. [Read more...]
Rule #74: Tell People Your Child Has Special Powers
July 9, 2010 By 2 Comments
He slayed the shit out of a woolly mammoth in our backyard. No seriously, he did.
Naturally, you’ve mentioned to anyone who’d listen that your child is gifted and talented.
And you’ve also blurted out countless times that Tiffany plays travel soccer, travel lacrosse and has been recently selected for travel bocce ball.
But no one seems to give a shit. [Read more...]
Rule #72: Give Your Kid a Trophy For Everything
June 29, 2010 By 7 Comments
Sigh...
If you’re like most parents, you probably spend an inordinate amount of time wondering why the world hasn’t heaped more praise on your child.
After all, he’s amazingly special, what with the way he can talk without dribbling creamed corn down his chin—oh, and the way he remembers the sequence of Slurpee flavors on tap at 7-Eleven, or the way he can recite all the major plot points of the Twilight series without taking a breath.
Those traits require talent, and they’re almost as good than splitting the atom. [Read more...]
Rule #68: Strippers, Feel Free to Enjoy “Take Your Child to Work Day”
March 25, 2010 By 4 Comments
Just because we're staring, doesn't mean we're liking.
All right, all right, so you do a little dancing at a little club downtown run by a green-card carrying Russian who wears a red sweat suit. What’s the big deal? Seems like everyone is doing it.
After all, the Russian is a proud entrepreneur, and he’s built “Yurgi’s House of Shiny Poles” into a beacon of…well, shiny poles. He’s proud—and you should be damn proud, too.
Kids might be confused by the field trip to your “office,” but there are easy approaches to educate and energize the dark, cobwebbed part of their brains that find it unappealing to visit places that smell like a combination of bong water and mint dental floss. [Read more...]
Rule #54: Demand Special Treatment For Your Child
May 5, 2009 By 10 Comments
A private school bus may be lonely, but at least he won't come home covered with boogers.
Your loins have produced offspring so genetically perfect that the rest of the world—otherwise known as the woefully inadequate—better just get the hell out of their way (your children’s way, not your loin’s).
In school, in sports, in restaurants and even in personal grooming, never forget that, even if the rights and opportunities of others are trampled upon, you have to do what’s best for your child.
In fact, use that line as often as you can. It actually flows effortlessly once you get past its incredibly selfish tone. Go ahead, try it: “I have to do what’s best for my child…I have to do what’s best for my child…I have to do what’s best for my child…”
And…um, don’t say aloud the second part of this sentence, which is “…even if it means you, a common stranger or neighbor, along with your child get shit on in the process.” [Read more...]
Rule #52: Give Your Child False Hope
May 4, 2009 By 16 Comments
One day, you'll all be stars. Or baristas at Starbucks.
Everything in life begins and ends with false hope, wagging in our collective faces like the plump teat from which we suck vigorously—only to realize it’s the equivalent of an implant.
It is a fleshy mirage, and we feel like bitter fools after realizing our folly.
This is the stuff of life, naturally, but your child doesn’t know this yet. So that’s why it’s important to fill his little head with a range of opportunities and outcomes that give him false hope.
These daily episodes of delusion will keep him foolish, lazy and happy, making your life fairly simple because you’ll never have to do the hard parenting work of setting realistic expectations. [Read more...]
Rule #9: Boost Your Crappy Self Esteem Through Your Children
November 4, 2008 By 6 Comments
Your kid gets a trophy - and you get a boring story to tell. Ahh, vicarious living.
Sure, you never played sports, and you regularly get stomach cramps just from walking in circles muttering to yourself. And sure, your understanding of sports is kind of hazy, especially when it comes to rules and, well, how to actually play anything without looking like a wounded chimp.
Which is exactly why you should prop up your child as the athletic prodigy that you believe he or she truly is. It’ll make you feel better, almost like you’re the one wearing the nice uniform or scoring the winning basket or goal yourself. This is vicarious athleticism, and it’s a great position to be in. Better yet, all this attention will make your children feel even more important and talented than they really are, boosting their ego beyond all reasonable levels.
[Read more...]
Rule #106: Bring Beer to Back-to-School Night
Rule #105: Ignore Your Child’s Anger Issues
Rule #104: Feed Your Child Soap
Rule #103: Push Your Child to Join a Gang
Rule #102: Force Kids to Wear Sunblock Indoors
Rule #101: Use Your Children to Test Electrical Outlets
Rule #100: Blame Someone Else’s Child for Pool Poop
Rule #99: Encourage Your Daughter to Date a Carny
Rule #98: Blame Your Kids for Natural Disasters
Rule #97: Grow Weed With Your Children
Talk.