My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'

The speaker recalls a father's reply to a mother's complaint about the damaged lawn: the family isn't cultivating grass but children. The humour lies in prioritising play and upbringing over neat turf. Wear on the yard becomes evidence that the boys are being properly raised.

Context reviewed 29 September 2026