You never know what you're going to get, and children have their own personalities immediately. I was watching little kids on a carousel. Some kids were jumping on the horses; some kids were afraid of the horses; some kids were betting on the horses.

Rudner’s line uses a quick observational setup—watching children on a carousel—to argue that individuality shows up almost instantly. The humor comes from escalating differences in behavior: from exuberant play, to fear, to the absurdly adult act of “betting on the horses.” Beneath the joke is a point about unpredictability in parenting and in human nature more broadly: temperament isn’t simply taught or molded; it often arrives fully formed in surprising ways. By placing adult logic into a child’s setting, Rudner highlights how early people display distinct risk tolerance, imagination, and social scripts, suggesting that “what you’re going to get” with a child is not a blank slate but a unique person.