Parents

Baby: Hop gla blah blah.
Mother: Stop it, or I'll leave you on this train!

–E Train

Dad walking and holding hands of nine and ten year old daughters: Do you know what the abyss is? It’s when you stare into nothing and nothing stares back at you.
Daughters: [bewildered silence].
Dad: Do you understand? I want you to see that it’s a state of mind.

–E 4th St near 1st Ave

Overheard by: Dan

Eight-year old boy, barely audibly: Do you have any kid's shoes?
Middle aged clerk: Do I have sex? (pause) Well…
Eight-year old boy, slightly more audibly: Naw, do you have any kid's shoes?
Middle aged clerk: Kids? Yes. I've got one 24 and one 19. I know they're not really kids, but they still seem like it to me.
Eight-year-old boy: Naw, naw! (loudly) I said “do you have any kid's shoes?”

–Shoe Store, Brooklyn

Overheard by: Eremi

Little tourist kid: Daddy, I want to go ice skating!
Tourist dad: I swear to god, you can go ice skating back in El Paso!

–Rockefeller Center

Overheard by: liag

Out-of-town girl: Is this a musical?
Parents: No… (mutters something unintelligible)
Out-of-town girl, flipping through Playbill: There's not even one song…

–Studio 54 Theater, Waiting for Waiting for Godot to Start

Overheard by: Jil

Blonde white girl to another: And I was all like, "I'm not throwing the baby over the fence!"

–Spring St

Overheard by: Maria Emma

Girl to mother: Oh, look at daddy with the baby in one hand and the bottle of bourbon in the other. And in the morning, too!

–Williamsburg

Condom vendor: Obama and McCain election special condoms! 3 for $10 and 1 for $5, all cheaper than a baby!

–Times Square

Overheard by: Aalok

Mom with stroller to friend: She's incapacitated already, so she might as well have his baby.

–6th Ave & 4th St

Queer #1 on cell: Hey, Dad! Yeah, I’m at the hotel in Midtown right now… Yep, it’s just me… I think a couple of girls are coming over later… Haha, yeah, you know how I roll with them. I’ll talk to you later, Dad [hangs up].
Queer #2: Liar, liar, pants on fire!

–Broadway & Broome

Overheard by: django

Girl to friend: She has a Shakespeare quote tattooed on her body, so she must be smart.

–Bleecker St

Overheard by: Lyssa

Middle aged dude to another: That fucken bitch, man. I wish I had her on a t-shirt instead of on my chest and back.

–Prince & Lafayette

Slightly ghetto white girl on cell: What happens when a bug bites you on your tattoo?

–D Train

Overheard by: 4-dumb

Tourist grandmother to eight-year-old granddaughter: Do, do you like mommy's new neck tattoo? (pause) Yeah, me neither.

–Times Square

Overheard by: Jas

Guy hitting on girl: So where are you from?
Disinterested girl: New York.
Guy hitting on girl: No, where are you originally from?
Disinterested girl: My parents.

–East Village Bar

Preppy girl #1: So my mom was like, “I’m serious, stop being a retard or I’ll send you back.”
Preppy girl #2: Really? She’d send you back?
Preppy girl #1: Yeah, for being a retard. What the fuck.
Preppy girl #2: I dunno, man. What the fuck.

–Barnard college

Overheard by: Alix Griffith-Rand