When life is uncertain or your normal way of living has changed suddenly, it’s time to bring laughter at home as medicine for the family. This medicine is free, available to everyone and should be administered liberally. In fact, I think it’s best when kids are the ones dishing out this kind of vaccine.
Laughter at home.
Phil Strong
It’s essential medicine.
Here’s a short snippet from a story I told in my book, Building a Strong Family.
“Four of us cramped into the Toyota was never comfortable, but we didn’t have to suffer like this every night. I struggled to get settled, but once I was asleep I was out like a light, only noisier.
Maybe it was the angle of my neck, maybe it was the cheese pizza, maybe… who knows why, but apparently I snored like a runaway steam train. Kathy and Grace were awake and not very happy with me. No amount of coughing or whacking stirred me from my slumber so they were left to suffer and complain to deaf ears. And then lack of sleep kicked in and suddenly they saw the humour in the situation. They began to laugh. (Even that didn’t wake me up!)
What makes this story a family laugh opportunity was the video they took in the middle of the night. We have footage, albeit dark and blurry, of Kathy and Grace having a conversation in the car in the middle of the night in competition with my dulcet tones. Years later we are still laughing at the ridiculous notion of their midnight conversation with a snoring father. I was the focus of the laughter, but I don’t mind as I can definitely appreciate the funny side of the story.“
What’s the key?
Laugh at yourself all of the time and your children some of the time.
When you’re camped inside at home, and possibly crammed in, there’s a tension that builds that can quickly turn into negativity. Left to fester, this can quickly turn into personal attack. My best idea in this area is to find a way to introduce laughter into your day. As a parent you may flip-flop between “adulting” and choosing not to. The good thing about the Laughter Medicine is you don’t have to be adulting to do it… but you do have to do it on purpose.
What are some ways to initiate this that may work in your house?
Games.
Kids of all ages love to play games. Board games, acting games, even technology games. When you do it together you can lower the tension and allow the laughter to flow.
Years ago we used to play a game called “Rock Band” on the PS2. surprisingly, our kids loved the 80’s rock songs and quickly became adept at mastering the instruments. Jackson proved himself to be a bit talented and was levels ahead of me, but we could still play it together. We had long sessions of family challenges, usually with laughter at how “useless” mum and dad were. But we were doing it together!
Stories
This is a key to unlocking laughter for us. We tell stories about funny times in our family and it always makes us laugh. What contributes to that laughter is not every version of the same story reveals the same information! It doesn’t matter, what’s important is to let the storyteller be free to express themselves.
Some family members will be better storytellers than others. My brother tells stories like you wouldn’t believe… and now he’s in his forties the stories are longer!
Performances.
Nothing unlocks laughter like a game of Pictionary or Charades. If you have younger kids they might like to prepare a short play for other family members. If they’re a little older they may even like to write the script. Costumes, make-up and video production are all possible with what you have in the house… let your imagination be freed!
As much as I love to be on stage I really don’t like these kind of games. But, for the sake of my family I am willing to let go of my personal preference for the sake of the greater good. And the resulting laughter is always good for me.
Wherever you find yourself, whatever the weather, however long you’re captive in your home during this season of restriction, find ways to release the vaccine of laughter at home.
- This is the first message in a series prepared to support you to build a strong family while you’re stuck at home. Check here for other messages.
- You can grab a free preview of my book here.
- If you want to access my book, Building a Strong Family on Kindle, click here.
