I had a conversation today with a coworker about installing a sense of humor in your kids. He and his wife have taught their twin one and a half year olds to fart on them. Yes, they walk up to their parents, sit on them, and fart. It both reminded me of this story and made me feel better about it.
Once when my niece was younger and in diapers, before she could talk, so maybe she was one and something – she had this dirty diaper that reeked and she was avoiding being changed. So my mom, my sister, and I were indicating that she smelled, by saying “eeew!” and waving our hands in front of our noses, and the kid stopped and started taking it all in. She looked at me, sitting on the kitchen floor, she looked back at my mom, and back at me again. And she toddled over to me, went around to my back, toddled around so we were back to back, and proceeded to rub her poopy-lumped pants up and down on my back. Now, she was all covered up, so it wasn’t like I was getting dirty, but I was so grossed out by the feel of the poop, that my reflexes kicked in (and I’m not proud of this) but I elbowed her away – right into the kitchen cabinets. I immediately felt horrible and kind of caught her, and stood her back up again, and started apologizing and asking if she was ok, but she already had her eyes back on her target – my back – and toddled back around behind me and did it again.
To me, this was hilarious – plus, I knew that even though she couldn’t talk, she was going to have a sense of humor! One like mine! My sister and my mother, on the other hand, were so horrified that they won’t let me talk about it, even to this day.
But the best part was, you know how sometimes you torture your siblings just for fun? My sister and I have always been pretty different - what I find funny, she finds "weird". It's almost like a game - as in, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m going to make your kid more like ME! So take that!”
Score 1 for me.
But this is a work in progress. I've never been to visit them since they moved away over a year ago. So this week I decided to pick up and go, and paid too much for a last minute ticket. There is work to be done people, and sick senses of humor to be cultivated. She may be a mom, but she'll always be my little sister. And if I can't be there to annoy her, then at least I can give her daughter some pointers.
