RULE 8

It’s normal to want to escape

Hey, let’s talk taboos. Death, drugs, morris dancing … or how about one of the biggest of all: admitting that there are times you wish your kids would just clear off?

Of course it’s strictly forbidden ever to admit that your little darlings can be little toerags. You can joke about it self-deprecatingly, but you can’t actually let on seriously that there are times you just want to escape from them. How could you? Your job is to love them and, if you love them, it follows that you love everything about them. You’re supposed to smile indulgently when you’re expected to read the same tedious story every night for three months, gaze adoringly as they shriek gratingly while racing around wildly, and laugh with ...

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