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by Rosemary Lee Potter, Ed.D.
Special to Tropical Breeze
About now, many families are thinking,
“What happened to summer?” While there may be a few
more days to squeeze in travel or vacation, many folks are through
with that summer phase and even back to buying school clothes and
supplies, to be used in the upcoming fall semester.
Still there is time for some important
experiences for children. Laughter is a good place to start.
It’s not so simple nor appropriate any more to just start
simple, physical tickling. Children have become sure commercial
targets of all the media’s so-called comedy that can be aimed
at them — if not through silly animal or animated
commercials, then through numerous TV shows with stupid, rapid-fire
and often mean joking around. This was a summer bonanza of supposed
must-see, big-screen humor. And yes, children laugh, usually at the
prescribed moment, just like the audience track heard cackling
away. Children come to find short speeches with punch lines one of
their favorite comedy styles most likely to amuse them. If you
listen to real children talking, they often have adopted that
conversational style.
I remember once when visiting New York
City, a number of tourists, I one of them, were asked to watch a TV
pilot and hit a button every time we thought some element was
funny. This was to determine where the audience laugh track would
be edited in.
What happened to laughter with, rather
than laughter at or the joke’s on her. I’ve seen
students accidentally trip over their books or their own feet, only
then to endure howls of laughter from classmates. Much of this
sudden reaction is also learned from those media experiences. Of
course, clowning is supposed to be funny — on screen. Some
people like jokes about the bathroom and its use and laugh away,
other people off-camera in real life actually find such humor low.
We’re different, Each family finds its own laughables.
However, some children need to be told that it is hurtful to laugh
at someone having trouble, say, who is obese. When asked to stop
finding pleasure in someone else’s difficulty, the response
from the teasers or ones making the poor joke is “We were
only joking.” Sure they were!
Check your children’s humor
standard. Really funny or inappropriate response?
Here are some suggestions gleaned from two
different families about humor. Both families are known as
“smiley” people and enjoy funny things together. One
family consults the public librarian and comes home with tried and
true joke books. Family members take turns reading the jokes aloud
and laughing together. They also learn some silly poetry together
(See the late Shel Silverstein’s works.) They even have a
“can you top this knock-knock joke?” session. After
each joke most people smile and also moan at the answer which
usually is a play on words.
The other family suggests that somewhere
in the late summer scramble to get ready for school, shopping,
doctor check-ups, make a deliberately funny video together. Often
the result of such a video is a lot of laughter — both doing
it with some silly plot line or script — and then afterward
seeing it in the family room together breaking up laughing and
munching popcorn. This family becomes filmmakers every August
— now a humorous tradition!
Hear the latest? Laughter is not only the
best medicine, but also human action which actually improves
health. Best — it’s free. Not laughing at all or
laughing at others’ misfortunes is truly no laughing matter.
Parents need to encourage good, acceptable humor in their children
— that is, parents smiling and sharing acceptable humor.
Laughing is quite catching. Try not laughing if other people are.
Feel how relaxed your body is as you give way to hearty laughing!
What a good experience for you and kids too.
Once long ago my parents took my sister
and me to see a French film, nearly silent, except for the sound of
the water lapping on the beach and murmurs of people in the
background. Funny? Hilarious! …Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.
The movie vignettes all starred the late Jacques Tati as a
well-meaning, but bumbling tourist at a French beach resort
In the theater we laughed until we cried.
So memorable were the continuous funny events in the movie, that we
just had to mention the film almost anytime we were driving around
together. For weeks it would always trigger gales of laughter!
People in cars next to us at stoplights looked over curiously to
see all of us laughing, smiling — heartily, to say the least.
Once my dad had to pull over he was laughing so hard as we
redescribed certain scenes.
We will never forget the film, the
experience, and., oh, the laughter. It feels good even now
remembering and smiling. What a fine family experience. My sister
and I laughed about the movie again just the other night! We saw it
years and years ago. We remember the fabulous family moment. We
always say we had a “good” laugh over it!
Making time out for a good laugh, as they
say, with your children is a wonderful way to show that your family
matters!
© 2007 Rosemary Lee Potter. All
Rights Reserved.
Rosemary Lee Potter, Ed.D., has been a
teacher since 1960, including 21 years at Safety Harbor Middle
School, and is now a reading teacher at Carwise Middle School, Palm
Harbor. Contact her at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or by mail in care
of Tropical Breeze, P.O. Box 585, Safety Harbor, FL 34695.
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