It’s 10 pm. Have you laughed with your kids today?
No?
Why not?
If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane. -Robert Frost
I don’t imagine that Mr. Frost was talking about parenting specifically, but he might as well have been. I walk the line between calm and collected and completely bat s**t crazy nearly every day.
I’m exaggerating. It’s not nearly every day. It was like that today.
So, what keeps me from falling into the guano?
Laughing.
When the day gets out of hand, when it seems like nothing is working even though you’re trying harder than ever, when the kids are melting down around you and you find yourself holding back tears of frustration or tears of surrender because you can’t possibly do any more than the 150% you are currently giving, we all have a few options.
a. Hide in the closet.
b. Lay on the kitchen floor and sob uncontrollably.
c. Act like an idiot and make everyone laugh. Chances are, if you need to laugh, they do too!
Here are my top 10 ways to make my kids laugh so we can all feel better:
- Dance around the kitchen gangam style. Don’t worry if you can’t do the moves. The sillier you look, the better.
- Speak with a foreign accent. Better yet, speak only in pig latin and see if they can figure it out.
- Pretend you’re a robot and follow them around the house threatening to capture them. Remember, robots move slowly.
- Walk into walls. I do this often (not intentionally). They think it’s hysterical.
- Talk to them in rhyme. Keep it up as long as you can.
- Follow the cat around and narrate her thoughts out loud.
- Make them square dance with you in the kitchen.
- Sing a cheesy 80’s song using a hairbrush as a microphone.
- Pretend to be a ninja while you sweep the floor. (This may not make them laugh, but it will definitely distract them from arguing with each other to stare at you).
- Lie on the floor kicking and screaming begging them to play with you now, now, now!
My ideas may not work for everyone. They require you to be willing to make a fool of yourself. Clearly, I have no pride. These are just my little suggestions. You must have a few of your own, right? Can you share them in the comments and help a mother out?
Laughter is essential to your happiness (and survival) as a mom.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.” Dorothy Parker
