When you have a child You learn it's a serious business to have a little fun You give grace and get forgiveness Not seven times seventy but seven times seventy-one And when you have a child Those four walls you call a house Take on a life of its own when you bring 'em home You will cry and you will laugh When they hurt it cuts you in half, it's your flesh and bone *Chorus* And year after year Pictures fill page after page They never really grow up Still your baby at any age And the first time you hold 'em, it's like you see God smile When you have a child And then boy meets girl And perfume and gasoline rain on your perfect world
Curfews are often broken, thank yous aren't spoken He's got the keys to that old Dodge, and she's wearing a corsage and her mama's pearls *Repeat Chorus* You pray that phone call never comes And if God forbid how would you live How could you go on and on and on and on And year after year close the chapter and turn the page Blue ribbons and losing season, flipping ta**els on the stage Oh but you don't need a photograph You've got at least a million pictures of that smile Oh when you close your eyes When you love a child Oh when you love a child