A Mother’s Dictionary

  • Amnesia
    A condition that enables a woman who has gone through labor to have sex again.
  • Bottle
    An opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2am to do the feeding
  • Defense
    What you’d better have around the yard if you’re going to let de children play outside.
  • Drooling
    How teething babies wash their chins.
  • Dumbwaiter
    One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.
  • Family
    The art of spacing your children the proper planning distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster.
  • Feedback
    The inevitable result when the baby doesn’t appreciate the strained carrots.
  • Full Name
    What you call your child when you’re mad at him.
  • Grandparents
    The people who think your children are wonderful even though they’re sure you’re not raising them right.
  • Hearsay
    What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.
  • Impregnable
    A woman whose memory of labor is still vivid.
  • Independent
    How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.
  • Look Out!
    What it’s too late for your child to do by the time you scream it
  • Prenatal
    When your life was still somewhat your own.
  • Prepared
    A contradiction in terms, especially in terms of childbirth
  • Puddle
    A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.
  • Show Off
    A child who is more talented than yours.
  • Sterilize
    What you do to your first baby’s pacifier by boiling it and to your last baby’s pacifier by blowing on it
  • Storeroom
    The distance required between the supermarket aisles so that children in shopping carts can’t quite reach anything.
  • Temper Tantrums
    What you should keep to a minimum so as to not upset the children.
  • Top Bunk
    Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.
  • Verbal
    Able to whine in words
  • Weaker Sex
    The kind you have after the kids have worn you out.
  • Whodunit
    None of the kids that live in your house.
  • Whoops
    An exclamation that translates roughly into “get a sponge.”