this is hilarious

my friend Brandon sent me this and it's funny enough to share...


HOW TO PREPARE FOR BECOMING A PARENT

Lesson 1
Go to the grocery store. Arrange to have your salary paid
directly to their head office. Go home. Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple
who already are parents and berate them about their: Methods
of discipline. Lack of patience. Appallingly low tolerance
levels. Allowing their children to run wild. Suggest ways in
which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep
habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it, because it will be the last time in your life you
will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
To discover how the nights will feel... Walk around the living
room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing
approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or
some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. At 10PM, put the
bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up
at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag,
until 1AM. Set the alarm for 3AM. As you can't get back to
sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off. Sing songs in the dark
until 4 AM. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5
years. Look cheerful.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out... Smear
peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a
piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all
summer. Stick your fingers in the flower bed. Then rub them
on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does
that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems. Buy an
octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh. Attempt to
put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang
out. Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of
paint, turn it into an alligator. Now take the tube from a
roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape and a piece of
aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle.
Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty
packet of Cocoa Puffs. Make an exact replica of the Eiffel
Tower.

Lesson 7
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you
can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family
cars don 't look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone
and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a
dime. Stick it in the CD player. Take a family size package
of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Run a
garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.

Lesson 8
Get ready to go out. Wait outside the bathroom for half an
hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come
back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back
up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road
for five minutes. Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6
questions about every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing
gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way. Retrace
your steps. Scream that you have had as much as you can stand
until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go
back into the house. You are now just about ready to try
taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9
Repeat everything at least (if not more than) five times.

Lesson 10
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest
thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full- grown goat
is excellent). If you intend to have more than one child,
take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without
letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the
goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this,
do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 11
Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend
it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a
bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the
swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until
half the Cheerios are gone. Tip half into your lap. The other
half, just throw up in the air. You are now ready to feed a
nine - month old baby.

Lesson 12
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney,
Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on
T.V. for at least five years.

Lesson 13
Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down
about halfway and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a
day for at least two years.

Lesson 14
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly.
(Important: no more than a four second delay between each
'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet
is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go
for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long
trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else
continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow
while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 14 above. You
are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there
is a child in the room.

Bernard Arthur