Let's see, you've just taken delivery of your first bundle of joy, are up to your elbows in baby-care guides, still a bit punchy from the two a.m. feeding and have just discovered a nice round wet circle on your new tie. Sound familiar? Well, take heart, Gary Lautens did it all before you and managed to keep a sense of humour and still answer the most pressing (and pungent) of all questions: "Is there life after diaper pails?"
Or maybe one of yours is going through that difficult stage known as "The Terrible Twos ... and Threes ... and Fours" and has discovered the neat trick of trying to plug the cat's tail into a wall socket. This book tells you how to retain your sanity, confident that they'll grow out of it.
Perhaps someone at your house has advanced to that age where the skin gets blotchy and the telephone line is never clear. Fortified by Gary's advice, you can, with some resolve, let them know that "Zits are the creator's way of saying 'Get off the phone!'"
However, if all these great moments in child rearing are now firmly part of your past, you can read Take My Family ... Please! with fondness, recollection and a sigh of relief. Because no matter what your relationship to children is -- mother, father, grandparent, favourite uncle, teacher or permanent babysitter -- you'll recognize or remember something in these pages that will make you smile, chuckle or laugh right out loud.
Here are the funniest recollections of living, loving and surviving it all with a wife, three children and a dog by one of Canada's favourite humorists, Gary Lautens.