1. You count the sprinkles on each kid's
cupcake to make sure
they're equal.
2. You want to take out a contract on the
kid who broke your
child's favorite toy and made him/her
cry.
3. You have time to shave only one leg
at a time.
4. You hide in the bathroom to be alone.
5. You child throws up, and you catch it.
6. Someone else's kid throws up at a party,
and you keep eating.
7. You consider finger paint to be a controlled
substance.
8. You mastered the art of placing large
quantities of pancakes
and eggs on a plate without anything touching.
9. Your child insists that you read Once
Upon a Potty out loud
in the lobby of the doctor's office, or,
better yet, in the
lobby of a Grand Central Station... and
you do it.
10. You hire a sitter because you haven't been
out with your
husband in ages, then spend half the night
talking about and
checking on the kids.
11. You hope ketchup is a vegetable because it's
the only one
your child eats.
12. You cling to the high moral ground
on toy weapons, while your
child chews his toast into the shape of
a gun.
13. You can't bear the thought of your
son's first girlfriend.
14. You hate the thought of his wife even
more.
15. You donate to charities in the hope
that your child won't get
that disease.
16. You find yourself cutting your husband's
sandwiches into
unusual shapes.
17. You fast-forward through the scene
when the hunter shoots
Bambi's mother.
18. You use your own saliva to clean your
child's face.
19. You obsess when your child clings to
you upon parting during
his first month at school, then obsess
when he skips in without
looking back the second time.
20. You can't bear to give away baby clothes
-- it's so final.
21. You hear your mother's voice coming out of
your mouth when
you say, "Not in your good clothes!"
22. You stop criticizing the way your mother
raised you.
23. You read that the average five-year-old
asks 437 questions
a day and feel proud that your kid is
above average.
24. You say at least once a day, I'm not
cut out for this job,
but you know you wouldn't trade it for
anything in the world.