The Importance of Humor

Bombeck outright cites the importance of taking a humorous look at life in order to survive the times when there are problems and heartaches. She presents this in an interesting way in the epilogue, one of several parodies used in the book. In this section, Bombeck describes at length a series of days in which nothing goes wrong—the children do not need anything ironed at the last minute, she does not miss a bus, gets the word from the dentist that she has no cavities, and balances her bank book. After several days, Bombeck is crying and her husband seeks to comfort her. It is while they are talking about the fact that this cannot continue and that it is a good thing to have some good times in order to fully appreciate the bad times that one of the children drives the...