In any family, measles are less contagious than bad habits.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) was an American journalist and aphorist best known for her wry, domestic-minded observations collected in her long-running “The Neurotic’s Notebook.” This remark belongs to her characteristic mid‑20th‑century mode: using everyday household realities—illnesses, childrearing, and family life—as a springboard for moral and psychological insight. In an era when measles outbreaks were a familiar part of childhood and family routines, the comparison would have landed immediately. McLaughlin’s point is less medical than social: within the close quarters of a family, behaviors and attitudes spread through imitation and repetition, often more persistently than any temporary childhood disease.

The aphorism contrasts a literal contagion (measles) with a figurative one (bad habits) to argue that the most enduring “infections” in family life are learned behaviors. Measles runs its course; habits—complaining, dishonesty, cruelty, anxiety, or unhealthy coping—can be modeled by adults, absorbed by children, and normalized across generations. By choosing a disease associated with childhood and household disruption, McLaughlin underscores how easily families focus on visible, short-term crises while overlooking the quieter transmission of character and conduct. The line is a compact warning about the power of example: what is practiced at home becomes, for better or worse, what feels natural.