When I was being ridiculous growing up, I remember my dad would just laugh at me. Not always, but at the right moments. It would diffuse the situation because he wouldn’t engage. He would laugh and help me realize that I was really being an idiot about the whole situation. This normally occurred when I was being dramatic. Guess what, I have a dramatic daughter. Yesterday, she had a vent put into her room. We needed to get a new furnace, and this meant a new vent. She fell apart. It doesn’t happen too often with the oldest anymore, but this threw her into a fit. She liked the room the way it was and didn’t want any changes. I told her she was allowed to be angry, but she’d have to do it in the other room to not disturb anyone else with her anger. So, she sat upstairs and threw a fit. When she was under control (still with weepy eyes) she came down and proclaimed, “You are ruining my life!” Oh, how I dread the Junior High years with this one. I just had to laugh. It was so dramatic and over an air vent. I have wanted to do this job so right that I take every offense so seriously. I realized a while back that sometimes to diffuse a situation, I needed to just learn to laugh. So, I did. Kids are going to mess up. Literally! I got a reminder yesterday at Bible Study from a wise woman that I shouldn’t expect my kids to “arrive.” They won’t be somehow complete and easy once they hit 5. That won’t happen once they turn 18. After all, I’m 37, and God’s still doing a huge work on me. I will never “arrive,” so why do I expect it in my kids? Laughing sometimes is the best remedy for a situation. Choosing the right situations in which to laugh is the trick.
