Irritation, Aggravation, and Frustration  

A boy asks his father to explain the differences among irritation, aggravation, and frustration.

Dad picks up the phone and dials a number at random. When the phone is answered he asks, "Can I speak to Alf, please?"

"No! There's no one called Alf here." The person hangs up.

"That's irritation," says Dad.

He picks up the phone again, dials the same number and asks for Alf a second time.

"No -- there's no one here called Alf. Go away. If you call again I shall telephone the police." End of conversation.

"That's aggravation."

"Then what's 'frustration'?" asks his son.

The father picks up the phone and dials a third time:

Education is something you get when your father sends you to college. But it isn't complete until you send your son there. (Unknown)

When a father, absent during the day, returns home at six, his children receive only his temperament, not his teaching. (Robert Bly)
(That's why we need to leave our work and outside thoughts tucked away before going home.)

It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father. (Pope John XXIII)