My mother's wisdom: Having children.

When I saw my mom over Christmas, she asked me how my one friend who runs the integrated homelessness / domestic violence shelter was doing, since she's now pregnant with her 2nd child.

I said I thought fine, but I said I could text and check, and since my mom was interested, I did.

As it turned out, the hormones that relax your ligaments in your body so you can give birth are all out of whack with her and she was having to remain in a lying position, otherwise her hips went all out of joint, and she had to see some sort of specialist doctor about that the upcoming week.

"How awful," my mom was like.  "But that's children: they make you suffer, they never thank you, and then they leave."

I texted that to my friend, and it made her laugh.