If you follow Heather at Creative Family Moments, you have probably noticed the great sense of humor her kids have.  They are witty and funny!  The whole family seems to have a blast and laugh a lot.  I’m so excited to have Heather guest posting today as she shares about raising funny kids.

My kids are growing up in a house of laughter.  On purpose.  It seems to be working because half the time, they instigate the giggling. The average child laughs between 300-400 times per day.  Here are a few tips to grow their sense of humor so they can hit their recommended daily dose!

Bring out your inner silly.  I would do just about anything to get a baby to laugh.  I’d make funny faces, coo ridiculous noises, and even put a pair of baby pants on top of my head and do the hula.  In moderation, it’s good for their brains.  If they are laughing, that usually means they’ve figured out that something is out of the ordinary.

Explain why things are funny.  Our eldest daughter frequently mispronounced words as a toddler.  The computer was ‘the complicator’; the refrigerator was the ‘fridgeforlater’’; Parmesan cheese was ‘FarmerJohncheese’.  And we’d laugh so hard.  But before she could get upset that we were laughing at her, we explained that what she said was so clever because it made more sense than the correct word.  We praised her for her cleverness and then she could laugh along with us.  Be aware that when you start explaining this, they will be on the lookout for ways to make you laugh.

Point out rules of humor.   Once they strike comedy gold you will likely hear the same knock-knock joke, pun, or story again and again.  Let them know that for something to be funny more than once, the listener will have to forget the joke first.

For instance, I used the drive-thru at the bank. Looking down at my purse, I thought I pushed down the driver side window, but as soon as I heard a muffled “May I help you?” I looked up to see I had actually rolled down my preschooler’s window.  Before I could move, Anabelle said, “Yes! We’d like some lollipops.” She paused half a second then said, “I’ll wait here.”

The bank employees burst into laughter.  Knowing she’d done something funny, Anabelle tried to repeat this scenario every time we were in the bank’s vicinity.  “Nope. They haven’t forgotten it yet,” I reminded her.  “You’ll just have to think of something else to make us laugh.”

Avoid sarcasm. This is a tough rule, but until the children are old enough to understand the difference between truly witty sarcasm and disrespectful/hurtful sarcasm, it’s best to steer clear.  Many shows aimed at children (like Good Luck, Charlie on the Disney channel) often give the kids one-liners that, in real life, would earn them a severe consequence.  So if children see others laughing at this material, don’t be surprised if they want to try it out in real life.  If you think your child is sassing you often, check what they’re watching and possibly how you’re interacting with adults.

Dinner Games.  We play many dinner conversation games.  Mad, Sad, and Glad gives the chance for each person to share 3 elements of their day.  Often on ‘glad’ they will try to come up with something to make us laugh.  This gives us the opportunity to teach them to ‘know your audience.’  Our kiddos know that things that would make kids their own age laugh won’t necessarily make their parents laugh.

Finally, share your own funny stories.  The more laughter is a regular part of your life, the quicker it will become a regular part of your child’s life.