Clearly not a joke. I, for one demand that my husband sacrifice a minimum of 5 children per holiday. For our anniversaries I require one child sacrifice per year of marriage or no sex for the following year. My roses must also be harvested by bloody hands or they are meaningless. I prefer there to be some blood on the thorns as proof. I should clarify that, as a feminist, these all need to be male children. After all, the female children are obviously more important than the male children and I would do anything (and by anything I mean write a blog post, or complain to my friends) to ensure that they have a high quality of life.

But to answer your question, sadly, no, it is not a joke. They are serious.