Communication Begins With A Laugh
There’s nothing funnier than the person who isn’t amused.
Ordering someone not to laugh is a guaranteed way to make the thing even funnier.
And trying not to laugh? Forget it.
The harder you fight it, the funnier it gets.
Once, when one of my boys was little, I got an indignant call from a teacher.
Apparently my son had burst out laughing when a tumbleweed blew past the classroom window.
She wanted me to have a talk with him.
Seriously?
That kind of talk guarantees that tumbleweeds will become the funniest thing on earth.
But yes, she was serious.
My kid, she said, had been disruptive.
“Did you ask him to be quiet?” I asked.
“I did.”
“And did he quiet down?”
“He did.”
“Well then,” I said, “maybe just let it… blow over?”
She didn’t laugh.
So I sat my son down for the most serious, most-non-funny, most-don’t-you-dare-laugh-about-tumbleweeds conversation of my life.
As expected, tumbleweeds became the biggest joke for the rest of that year.
Which brings me to the 6–7 trend.
You know – the loud one with that goofy hand gesture every teacher is trying to outlaw.
Many teachers are frustrated by it and have banned it in their classrooms.
Which, naturally, turns it into the holy grail of inside jokes.
Now that it’s forbidden, it’s become hilarious.
If you really want to get a kid to stop doing something, don’t ban it.
Join in.
There’s nothing less cool than Mom or Dad or Teacher trying to do the cool thing.
Beat them to the punchline.
Do the gesture first.
Laugh louder.
Recruit other adults.
In other words, don’t fight the laughter.
Outlaugh it.
That’s how you win.
Laughter doesn’t disrupt communication.
It is communication.
Liz Brenner
Everyone has a story to tell.
Even you.
Especially you.
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