Parenthood: That state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.

Cox’s quip treats “parenthood” as a reversal of the usual social script: instead of parents supervising children, children (through their needs, schedules, and constant presence) end up supervising adults. The joke hinges on the old-fashioned idea of a “chaperone” policing courtship and propriety; once you have children, your freedom is curtailed even more than it was under premarital social constraints. Beneath the humor is an observation about the loss of spontaneity and privacy that often accompanies raising children, and how parental identity can feel like a permanent public-facing role—watched, accountable, and rarely off-duty.