My blog has felt a little bleak recently. I can’t help it. I’m more busy than usual, and my mind is preoccupied with lots of stuff to do. I’m counting on the fact that things will settle down in the next couple of weeks and we’ll be able to fall into a joyful summer routine (a.k.a. a strategy that keeps us occupied enough so that I don’t harm my children).
So, a couple funny things in the last few days. I was driving the boys to the primary activity on Saturday (which, by the way, turned out really great I thought. Your ideas you shared triggered ideas of things I could do with the materials we had on hand, and the kids all had a fun time.), Clark blurted out from the back seat:
“Mom! I saw something on TV that daddy’s really going to want, but it’s too, too expensive.”
“Really? What was it?”
“It’s this thing that if you put it under your knees and bend around, it makes your fat turn into skinny!”
“Wow. (stifling snorts) That sounds really cool.”
“Yeah, when you twist, your fat falls off. But it’s too expensive even though daddy would really like it. It’s in the double digits, mom.”
I’m just glad he pegged Matt for it instead of me, because I wouldn’t be laughing.
I pulled this out of an old blog file and wanted to share it because I’m curious what keeps you laughing with your kids.
Elder Boyd K. Packer said, “Find happiness in ordinary things, and keep your sense of humor.” My husband works full time and goes to law school at night, so I don’t get as much adult conversation as I would like. Sometimes things happen during the day that I need to laugh about, so I have to call him or call my sister just so I can give my punch line and hear someone laugh. And sometimes I just laugh to myself. And on the days that you’re missing a little well-needed laughter in your life, here are a few suggestions that have worked for me:
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Tickling. Nothing can break up a kid’s boo-hoo moment like a good tickle.
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Rhyming. Sometimes at lunch while the kids are eating, every time they say something, I will make up a funny phrase that rhymes with what they said. They think I’m very clever (and I am). “Mom, can I have a drink?” “Clark, will you eat the sink?”
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Rule vacation. Occasionally, I’ll let the “no jumping on the bed rule” slide, but I pretend like I’m kind of mad about it so I chase them around the bed and try to knock their feet out from under them and they flop on the bed. They think this is hilarious because they relish their temporary naughtiness.
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Self-adulating jokes. While you’re driving in the parking lot, say: “Lean forward if you think mom is cool!,” and then slam on the brakes.
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Be stupid. Apparently, for a 4-year old, it’s a real gut-buster if your mom sings the lyrics wrong to a song you know. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the toilet paper aisle…”
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Maybe it’s just my kids, but they absolutely love to see pictures of themselves, so sometimes we’ll take lots of pictures of them making funny faces and they die laughing when they check them out on the computer. (Mac’s program Photo Booth is awesome for this.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no holly-jolly-happy mom with a constant twinkle in my eye. There are plenty of days that I’m in such a bad mood, an army of circus clowns couldn’t chisel a smile on my face if they tried, but it’s nice to have a few strategies in place. What works for you when you need a good laugh?
(p.s. I got released as the Primary president the same day as the activity. I got called as a counselor in the Stake Young Women’s presidency. How’s that for a good laugh?)
Diapers and Divinity 
At least you went out with a bang! I’m glad the activity went well!
Oh boy. What an exciting new calling!
And what keeps me laughing with my kids? Jumping on the bed, doing puppet shows for each other, reading silly books. Laughing is much better than fighting, isn’t it?
I get a smile out of my kids (or I used to before most of them grew up to be too cynical) by saying, “No smiling today!” (and sometimes, “no laughing!”) Pretty soon, the corners of their mouths started twitching and I started “yelling” at them to stop smiling, and they just loved to disobey that rule in a big way.
I second the photo ops with goofy faces. Thank goodness for digital photography, huh? My Matt likes to take pictures of his Lego creations. I let him have the camera for nearly an hour and I was “rewarded” with several hundred pictures of blurry Lego Star Wars characters balanced on a video cassette box.
Thank you for your service as Primary President. It’s a big job, a sometimes thankless job, and one that leaves a person very tired at the end of the church block. You will be missed. But you will do well in the Stake YW presidency!
First off, congrats on the calling! You have YW written all over you. You’ll rock it, I know.
We do pretty much everything you mentioned, but we’re big singers as well. They love making up songs – or, rather, ME making up songs. They’ll give me a subject, and I’ll make up a song about that word on the spot. I use pre-fabricated tunes like Twinkle twinkle little star, or Jingle Bells, and they almost never rhyme. It’s funnier that way. (Or at least that’s what they think!)
I have a hard time instigating the laughs when I’m in a bad mood, but my 3 year old is a pro. The best is when she doesn’t want to listen to her sister, so she starts yelling, “I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE ETERNAL FATHER….” It’s hilarious!
And yes, they say it was “I” instead of “We.” As my daughter puts it, “Because it’s just me talking, Mom!” Haha.
Man, I meant with. They say it WITH an I. Sorry. I’ll stop being a comment hog now. 🙂
You are going to be AMAZING in that stake calling, Stephanie!
And it is so fun to laugh with your kids. As much as I go on about raising teenagers (and of course, it’s all exaggeration — it wouldn’t be funny if it were accurate!) I absolutely LOVE listening to them joke with each other. They’re so smart and so clever, and we get some serious belly laughing going around the dinner table.
You’re having fun now, no doubt. But wait until they’re out-punning you, and quicker on the uptake than you ever thought possible. It really is one of those payoff experiences!
(BTW, I’ve been reading your recent posts, but I haven’t been commenting as much on anyone’s blogs lately. Just wanted you to know I’m still here and loving you!)
The tickling is the main tactic employed around here for sure. Funny voices and changing lyrics to well known songs too.
As for the calling – out of the frying pan and into the fire? Or a blessed relief? I would love to be released from my Primary President calling, but I’ve only been at it for a year, dang it.
Good ideas…I’ll need them this summer! Sometimes I turn on some dance music and we all dance around to the beat. There’s nothing funnier to my boys than to watch me dance/awkwardly convulse around the room. 😉
Holy cow, we could be twins! Right down to the rhyming and making up lyrics.
You could add to that list, “Quote silly lines from movies with odd accents”. Such as the line from the original Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther, “Dat….is not…. my dahg.” Makes my kids crack up every time! (Okay, so if you’re not familiar with that movie, you sort’a had to be there, but we quote Kung fu Panda, Wall-E, whatever comes to mind!)
I’m so using the self adulation joke. SO using it! My kids love to see pictures of themselves too.
I usually start singing whatever song is on the radio to them…badly. They hate it and love it at the same time.