Humor Makes Parenting Easy

Raising a child is not an easy task. It doesn't matter if you are a first-time parent or an experienced one. It still requires parental skills and a lot of hard work, psychology, and of course, creativity.

In the old days, parenting skills were learned from the extended family, such as the the parents of the couple having a new kid, the grandparents, aunts, and uncles. If these relatives don't live in the same house, they usually live within the vicinity, making them available to impart valuable wisdom to the next generation on the subjects of pregnancy, chilbirth, and raising children.

In today's modern world, however, having an extended family within the same state is a rarity. We now live in a transient society where everything is fast-paced and based in technology. Thanks to the Internet, information on parenting can be accessible at the click of a mouse. It's up to us to filter through that information based on our own standards of morality, sensibilities, and personalities to make them work for our own families.

Experts believe that when it comes to parenting, humor can help motivate children where more negative tactics fail. For example, instead of snapping, “Come here right now!”, you can humor the kid with “I'm going to get you, here I come!” Creating a playful scenario keeps the situation from becoming a battle of wills.

According to parenting guru Jane Nelsen, EdD, the author of dozens of books, including Positive Discipline and, with H. Stephen Glenn, Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World, humor is a key tool to successful discipline.

“Humor takes us to a whole different level of consciousness,” Nelsen said. It helps break the negative mood not just for children, but for grown-ups, as well. When moms or dads issue angry commands, kids of all ages tend to dig in their heels and resist where no one benefits in the end. Thus, humor helps parents get themselves out of a reactive state.

Creative parents make use of common distractions, such as tickling, chasing, or animating stuffed toys as strategies. For example, using a stuffed toy to say, “It's time to go to bed. Let's sleep” is more likely to generate a positive response than an attempt at resistance. Humor can help parents and kids find the lighter side to work together toward the shared goal.

By: Mark Christian Walters