Parenting & Family Quote by Paul Reiser

It lands because it’s a confession most people won’t make out loud: the pre-parent version of you quietly judges the chaos parents haul through airports and prays you’ll never become That Couple. Reiser’s line is built on the delicious cruelty of observational comedy - the way a stroller becomes a rolling symbol of lost freedom, and the overhead bin turns into a shrine to other people’s life choices. The “please Lord” phrasing is key: it’s mock-prayer, but also real bargaining, a little flash of existential dread disguised as a joke.

The intent isn’t simply to dunk on babies. It’s to dramatize the fantasy of adult control: travel as sleek, frictionless, self-directed. Babies interrupt that fantasy loudly and publicly. Airports are the perfect stage because they’re already stressful and performative; everyone is watching everyone else fail at being composed. By placing himself and his wife among the onlookers, Reiser invites the audience to recognize their own private thoughts - then laugh at the pettiness of them.

The subtext also gestures toward the before-and-after divide that parenthood creates. Even without stating it, you can feel the foreshadowing: life has a way of drafting you into the very scenes you once pitied. That’s the comic engine - not just “babies are annoying,” but “we’re all one twist of fate away from eating our smugness at 30,000 feet.”