Sometimes, it takes time to make things humorous

By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
Isn't it amazing how time makes things better? Time can heal wounds both physical and emotional. Time also helps parents deal with the sometimes difficult situations that often happen when children are around. Time can even make some situations funny.
I received an e-mail the other day that had a picture of two little boys covered in paint. Also covered in paint was the TV, the carpet, the sofa, and the coffee table. Now in a few months or years those parents will probably laugh about it. I had a friend whose 3-year-old son poured sand in their house paint. He thought his sand would look pretty in that color.
I had another friend's son who had seen his dad teasing his mom with the water hose. My friend's husband would threaten to spray the water hose at my friend through their open kitchen window. Well, their little boy decided it would be funny to really get mommy wet. By the time he stopped spraying my friend through her open kitchen window, her entire kitchen was flooded with about two inches of water. After several months these parents could laugh about the above events.
There have been situations that even a little later in the day made me laugh when I think about them. For example one morning early in the school year I had a very frustrating conversation with one of my daughters. It sounded something like this: "Mom, have you seen my shoe?"
"Which shoe?" I reply.
"My shoe," replies my daughter.
My frustration level rising I say, "Which one of your shoes are you missing?"
"My left one."
Now I'm really beginning to get upset, "I mean, what shoe? You have four pairs of shoes. Which ones are you looking for?"
"My favorite ones."
I'm not really a morning person and this child is pressing her luck, "Which ones are your favorite ones?" I ask between clenched teeth. "And why didn't you lay them out last night?"
"I forgot and I want my brown ones."
"Did you check under your bed, in the bathroom, in the sunroom, and under the computer desk?" All the places she generally leaves her shoes.
"Yep."
I look up and she's just standing there looking at me as if her shoe is going to magically appear in my hand. At the time this isn't funny. Of course, to me not much is funny before about 9 a.m. However, by noon I can see some humor to it.
Actually, I think one of the reasons our Heavenly Father gives us humor is so our children survive. For example, when one of our adopted children first came to us she had some obsessive compulsive tendencies. She couldn't help it, but her behaviors could be very frustrating. One such time we were going to visit my parents which was about a three-hour drive from our home in Kentucky. Our little OC child starting repeating the same sentence over and over and over. "The dog is brown." "The dog is brown." "The dog is brown."
She was using different voices, emphasis on different words, and different volumes. Any way that the sentence, "The dog is brown." could be said; she tried it. Unfortunately, she was sitting directly behind my husband. It only took her saying it about 20 times before he was ready to scream.
By the time she had said, "The dog is brown." 40 or 50 times, my poor husband was really getting hot under the collar. He began by asking her to stop. Well, OC children often can't stop their OC behavior. She got quieter, but was still saying, "The dog is brown."
I have to admit I wasn't much help. I was so accustomed to her doing things like that I just tended to block it out.
Finally, in exasperation, my husband turned the radio up very loud and to drown out her voice! The three-hour drive to my parents turned out being one of the longest three hours I've spent in a van!
Although I found humor in the situation quickly, it took my husband several months before he could see any humor in it. Since then if our little OC child starts an annoying behavior, we'll look and one another and say, "The dog is brown." It reminds us that probably what she's doing will be funny . . . Eventually.
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