How often do you laugh with your kids? Do you consider it unimportant? A new study finds that laughing with your children is good medicine!
Research
According to this research, choosing laughter over anger could save your sanity while building more robust, positive relationships with your children.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, admits that 71.8% of participants agreed that humor can be an effective parenting tool. However, it’s not just about cracking jokes or pulling silly faces. The research suggests that parental humor could be a secret ingredient in fostering cognitive flexibility, relieving stress, and promoting creative problem-solving and resilience in parents and children.
Humor can relieve stress and promote creative problem-solving and resilience.
Survey Results
Researchers surveyed 312 individuals between 18 and 45, asking about their experiences of being raised with humor and their thoughts on using humor in their own parenting.
Furthermore, of those who reported that their parents used humor, 50.5% said they had a good relationship with their parents, and 44.2% felt their parents did a good job raising them. In stark contrast, among those whose parents did not use humor, only 2.9% reported a good relationship with their parents, and a mere 3.6% thought their parents did a good job.
Examples
Humor can help diffuse tension and hierarchy and help both parties feel better about a stressful situation. Making a bedtime routine a game or making vegetables into funny creatures goes along the laughter line. Everything does not need to be work and toil.
With school starting and the added stress of schedules, curfews, and homework, laughter at home is just the medicine for everyone.
