When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out.
Interpretation
The quote humorously expresses the need for parents to manage their children's behavior while also emphasizing the importance of personal space.
Erma Bombeck's quote reflects the often chaotic nature of parenting, where children can become excessively energetic or unruly. The metaphor of a 'playpen' symbolizes a safe space for children to express their wildness, while the parentβs eventual departure from the playpen signifies the need for parents to balance their roles and find respite from the demands of parenting.
In practice
Sharing this quote at a parenting seminar to lighten the mood.
We've got a generation now who were born with semiequality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attache' cases and our three piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before they join in fighting the battle.
You hear a lot of dialogue on the death of the American family. Families aren't dying. They're merging into big conglomerates.
Making coffee has become the great compromise of the decade. It's the only thing "real" men do that doesn't seem to threaten their masculinity. To women, it's on the same domestic entry level as putting the spring back into the toilet-tissue holder or taking a chicken out of the freezer to thaw.
Not everyone is comfortable with the kissing ritual. My husband is one of them. Her refuses to press lips with anyone except his wife, mother, and dog. If someone wanted to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he would refuse until he had been formally introduced.
There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
Maybe age is kinder to us than we think. With my bad eyes, I can't see how bad I look, and with my rotten memory, I have a good excuse for getting out of a lot of stuff.
I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy
When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing.
Workers should have Sundays off because Sunday is for the family. Calling for Sundays to be a holiday.
Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.
My grandmothers are full of memories, smelling of soap and onions and wet clay, with veins rolling roughly over quick hands, they have many clean words to say, my grandmothers were strong.
My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough.
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