the jokes

Sparky and I call the offspring the seven jokes.  Maybe this doesn't sound very complimentary, but it actually is.  First of all, it's an allusion.  Allusions are always complimentary.  Its almost like you daren't say it, it's so complimentary.  If you don't get the allusion, just read the Narnia Chronicles.  Then you might get it but probably not.  I'll just tell you.  It'll be less obtuse.  Allusions can be so obtuse sometimes that they are no longer fun or intriguing.

There is a scene in the Magician's Nephew where the world is first being created.  A Jackdaw, after making a fool of itself asks Aslan, "Aslan!  Aslan!  Have I made the first joke?   Will everybody always be told how I made the first joke?"

Aslan responds:

"No, little friend," said the Lion.  "You have not made the first joke, you have only been the first joke."

From there, we concluded that our children were there for us to laugh at. The jokes, as it were. And the jokes were on us. Not laughing unkindly, of course, but as a sort of comic relief from the seriousness and pressures of the day to day life.  Irony rears its head here because children are the comic relief and they are the reason we need comic relief.

"A joke is a very serious thing."
Winston Churchill