"Quality Time" lyrics - IRIS DEMENT

She's got a phone in one hand, a hairbrush in the other
And she says, "Life's too short to stay home and be a mother"
She says she can have it all because that's The New Deal
So God give her a hand, 'cause she needs one for the wheel
When he gets home from work, it's well after seven
But he drives a nice car so he thinks he's in Heaven
And his kids hardly know him but they've all got nice clothes
And in just a few hours more overtime he can pay-off that boat

[Chorus:]
And they've got nice big houses, and they've got nice big cars
And it looks, from the outside, like they're really going far
But there's trouble in the engine and we're junk-yard-bound
If some moms and some dads don't start hanging around

When they get around to dinner they're damn near half-dead
So they drive through McDonald's and put the kids off to bed
But they're upwardly mobile and everything is fine
Because when they do get together, it's quality time

[Chorus]

They want stickers on the music, they want the laws turned around
They want the cops to run Beavis and Butthead out of town
They say they care about their children, but it's just too damn hard
To turn off that TV or sell off that car

[Chorus]

There's a whole lot of people who can't make ends meet
And on the wages that they're earning, I know a family can't eat
But I'm talking about people who would sell their kid's soul
To keep up with the Jones', no matter the toll

[Chorus]

[Outro:]
When they do get together, it's quality time