I have two budding comedic geniuses on my hands.
My two-year-old’s sense of humor isn’t necessarily verbal, but she’s a riot.
She runs on sleep, strawberries and “Peppa Pig.” She giggles while stumbling around in grownup shoes. She puts stuffed animals on her head and pretends to sneeze so they fall off. And whenever I ever set down my morning coffee around her (even for a second!), she’ll pick it up and hand it back to me with a chuckle and a “Thank-ooo!”
My six-year-old son is in a different stage of his comical development.
He’ll sing the ABC’s and crack himself up after replacing a few of the letters with “poop.” He’ll go to the playground and twist himself up in a swing as much as possible before letting go and yelling, “I’m a tornado!” He’ll pretend to burn his foot off in a rousing game of “floor is lava” and then jump around like a flamingo requesting medical assistance.
And for the past few weeks, after he does anything like this, he’s been following it up with the same question:“Daddy, is that silly?”
For me, the self-diagnosed “yes man,” it’s hard for me to stray too far from my instinctual response: “Absolutely, buddy! That’s super silly.” But sometimes, I have to.
Like if he throws his little sister off the couch onto a pile of pillows.
“Daddy, is that silly?”
“Not really, buddy. Be careful with your sister and don’t play too rough with her, please. She’s little!”
Or if he throws mulch on another kid at the playground after seeing someone else do it at school.
“Daddy, is that silly?”
“No, buddy! I know you’re trying to play, but that’s not how we do it. Can you ask them if they want to play tag or hide-and–seek instead?”
A sense of humor is not something we are born with, but actually a learned skill that children develop. And while the development of a sense of humor likely isn’t at the top of many parents’ list of important milestones (excluding clown parents, of course), the process is closely tied to a child’s progress in understanding the world.
Because when you think about it, isn’t humor really just another form of communication and connection? And isn’t that what parenting’s all about? Communicating? Connecting?
For example, my wife and I love to watch our kids watch a television show. Bluey or SpongeBob will do something outrageous, and we’ll just sit back and watch them connecting the dots. We’ll watch their little smirks start to form before a couple of giggles sneak out. And then they’ll look back at us to check and see if we’re giggling, too. I’ll tell you what — that’s the good stuff, y’all.
Kids have to learn how to laugh. That’s why I’m always laughing at mine. Kids have to learn what’s funny. That’s why I’m always happy to answer the question,“Daddy, is that silly?” And in this month of tricks and treats, you can bet the silliness will be turned up to eleven … and it’ll be a couple more years before they fully appreciate my bad puns and dad jokes.
