Do you have Humour Impairment?

‘Being an adult can be serious business, but so many people have lost the sheer capacity for fun, joy and laughter- Even when the opportunity is there, we miss it.’

 

 

We have always told our kids to hang up the phone when someone odd calls.

We have been receiving many calls lately from non-english speaking folk on the other side of the world, informing us our computer is not working-a scam to steal all our money.

Our 11 year old son was in charge of the house for 5 minutes-I had quickly ducked out.

This is what happened when I was away.

‘Ring ring..Ring ring’

“Hello it’s X speaking”

“Hello X, I was wondering if your mum or Dad were home? If so, may I please speak with them?”-A lady with a strong accent queried.

X- “Nope!” -Clunk-He promptly hung up the phone.

‘That’ll sort HER out he thought, pleased with himself.

5 seconds later-

‘Ring ring, ring ring’

“Hello X, please don’t hang up this time. It’s Mrs K- the Principal of your School.”

X-Silence…panic…shock!

“Oooohhhhh- I’m sorry Mrs K, I didn’t recognise your voice, I’m soooo sorry, I’m home by myself and I thought you were a rip-off from Africa”

 

 

This story was re-told absolutely beautifully by my 11 year old, who has always been – ‘one of those people’ that has the rare ability to lighten my life.

His quick wit and his relentless natural humour, is a gift to me.

 

…

Below is an article that’s well worth the read if you think you are suffering from a condition by the name of ‘Humour Impairment’-I’m certain I have suffered from this in the past, and I am equally certain my husband suffers from it now!!

This article has been living on my study wall for a period of 6 years, sticky-taped and blue-tacked, yet if you had’ve asked me what was up there,  I probably would’ve responded with “nothing.”

It’s funny how something I see every day, can be wiped from my memory recall.

It’s entitled:

HUMOUR MAKES LIFE EASIER

-ANON

Humour can be a powerful and effective mechanism for coping with stress, especially when combined with other means of stress reduction. The real power of humour and laughter shows up when you learn to use it in stressful situations. It keeps things in perspective, helps dispel negative emotions, and puts you in a frame of mind that can help better cope with the situation. Combining stress management techniques with a more light-hearted outlook on life won’t make you stress-proof, but it can make the difficult things easier to endure.

If you’re willing to laugh at the little disasters in life, you’ll find that other areas of your life will also become easier. Laughter, especially when you laugh at yourself, does many important things:

 

• It empowers you. When you laugh at your setbacks, you no longer feel sorry for yourself. you feel uplifted and encouraged.
• It helps you communicate more effectively.
• It makes you likeable
• It helps you cope. “Nothing erases unpleasant thoughts more effectively than concentration on pleasant ones”-Hans Selye
• It provides perspective by removing you from your problems. Everyone makes mistakes, and we need to remember that-” I may not be perfect, but parts of me are excellent”-Ashleigh Brilliant
• People tend to be less threatened by you.

 

Using Humour effectively

You may agree that laughing will help with your stress but agreeing with this doesn’t always help when the kids fight, miss the bus, and leave you late for work.

Everyone has his or her own sense of humour. If you’re not attuned to yours, you’ll end up missing many opportunities to use humour skills to deal with life’s stressors. Being an adult can be serious business, but so many people have lost the sheer capacity for fun, joy and laughter. Even when the opportunity is there, we miss it. Many adults have this problem called ‘Humour impairment.’

–Simply defined, it means the inability to find humour even in situations that are funny to most people. Stress can cause humour impairment. Fortunately you can make the choice to change.

 

Finding the laughter in life

You don’t have to laugh out loud to find something funny, but you do need to recognise the types of humour you will be able to  use most effectively to manage stress. Do you life slapstick humour or verbal humour? Do you understand what kinds of humour offend you? Do you like jokes that focus on things you have in common with the comedian? Do you like to see props and gimmicks? Do you find humour in things that weren’t necessarily meant to be funny? Answering these questions will help you identify what humour to seek to help reduce stress and have more fun in life. You also need to ask yourself how long you hold on to misery before letting loose with humour.

 

I wrote an article recently on the benefits of using Humour over Anger in times of confrontation.

It’s difficult to do, but if you can master it over time, the benefits are enormous.

You can read it Here

 

 

 

 

Roaring Laughter-WordPress Daily Prompt

 

What is my favourite post today?

Check out this fabulous story below.

It’s well written, natural, and has a simple, soft voice.

My Favourite Post today.

 

 

 

The last big Saturday night I had?-It’s been archived!

‘My rocking party occurs when I can hear a pin drop and I’ve managed to clear all 3 of them out for the day.’

The last big Saturday night that I had?

Let me just delve into the depths of my mind in an attempt to retract this memory.

Nope, nothing.

I’m sure there must have been one in the past, but all memory of it has obviously been stored off campus-as THAT volume was closed long ago.

More recent records of Saturday night events are digitally stored, but consist mainly of cooking children dinner, cleaning up after swimming carnivals, walking the pooch,  and refereeing various shouting matches between husband and children when they exercise their apparent ‘teenager’ rights.

For me, Saturday nights resemble Monday nights, and Tuesday nights, and Thursday nights.

My rocking party occurs when I can hear a pin drop and I’ve managed to clear all 3 of them out for the day.

 

Saturday Night-Wordpress Daily Prompt.

SANDALS, FARTS AND BALD HEADS

🍀

The younger generation of today are not afraid to express their opinion.

Is this a good thing?

Well that very much depends on the recipients view, now doesn’t it?

I personally love it when a child puts in their best effort to talk to an adult other than their parents, and express themselves confidently.

However, there can be times when their free expression is frighteningly honest, and you wish they’d have kept their right little trap shut.

EXAMPLE # 1

I had bought some lovely new bed sheets from Myer at the Boxing Day sales-60 percent off and a bargain, I’m telling you.

I made our bed for the night with these lovely fresh, new sheets, tucked them in, creases all ironed out, hospital corners given delicate attention, when my son waltzes on in and announces the following:

“Ooooooooh, lovely sheets mum, are they dog flavoured?”

“Well you must be delirious Xav because the dog is never on the bed”

 

 

EXAMPLE # 2

We were all preparing for a night out at the Basketball, brushing hair (Boys in front of mirror for many minutes, doing what I don’t know), sorting ourselves and my husband walks into the lounge room as proud as punch with a smile from ear to ear.

CHILD # 1-“Are you serious Dad?”

“What?”

CHILD # 2-” Are you serious Dad?”

“Deadly. What’s the problem?”

I sat speechless, unable to find words

“You can’t wear them”-CHILD # 1

“Why not? They’re my new shoes. I found them today, an absolute bargain six bucks, and they’re comfortable”

“But Dad, they’re sandals”-CHILD #1

“What’s wrong with sandals?”

“Only grandpa’s wear them”

“Look at the bright side Flynn, at least he’s got shoes on”-CHILD # 2

Child # 1 sits down slowly dangerously close to fainting from the shock, pallor appearing on his otherwise tanned skin.

“What is WRONG with you kids, mum likes them…don’t you babe?”

I instantly felt my blood pressure drop.

“Oh…

I do…

indeed…

I do…

Yes….I do…They’re great, I mean what’s not to like-right? I mean they have plenty of ventilation, right? That’s important…and they’re…they’re…they have plenty of space if your feet need to grow…”

“Dad…mum hates them” -Child # 2

Needless to say, they have come in very handy as ‘home shoes’ never to be seen in public for when I hang out the washing and the concrete burns the soles of my feet.

 

 

 

EXAMPLE # 3

“Did you smell the dog last night? He had the doofs. It was like sleeping in a gas chamber.”-M

“Oh…..” I thought long and hard trying to remember

“Oh yeah, I smelt it…the dog had a foul naught”

I looked at Jasper and he appeared as guilty as sin

“No, that would’ve been mum dad, she farts all the time” -CHILD # 1

-and just for the record-it wasn’t me

 

 

EXAMPLE # 4

Michael grabbed the opportunity to have a number 1 haircut while I was at work. He always does that. He waits until I go to work and he does all of these weird things. Any excuse to have no hair at all.

It’s not I’m THAT opposed to it, it’s just he has such lovely dark wavy hair.

It was VERY short. I’m not joking, only one rung above a shiny dome.

He loved his new do.

Reinforcement also came quickly in the form of his mummy who saw it on Skype.

“Ohhhhh very handsome” -all chances of convincing him to keep his hair long were now zero.

Feeling totally expression free, child # 1 walks in and informs me

“I tried to tell the lady mum, but Dad just said ‘nope, cut it all off’ -he turned to his Dad, rubbed his head and said-

“But anyway, it’s actually quite good because now you look a lot less bald”

🏡

💚Heart Story-N.A.Martin

Freedom is

 

~N.A.Martin

 🌀

limiting thought to only one road

 the wind in the treetops and nothing else

a rose petal in perfect pink, balancing on a broken stem

being in love with the scar on her face

a veggie garden with fresh earth and new sprouts

a unicorn cloud dancing in the sky

 moving forward

clearing the gutter of autumn leaves, so that the rain may flow

a heavy breath that floats away

laughter, hopscotch, marbles, undone shoelaces, grazed knees- and not a care in the world

sketching stick-figure people

observing the ladybird scurry to her den with joyous intensity

having the courage to live outside of ones mind and throw away the key

opening one’s heart to the troubled soul

excitement for the now

being able to say -“I love you”

indifference when you lose the game

a happy heart for the smiling victor

forgiveness despite their hatred

a dog’s heart

accepting honey, when you are jam

bidding fear farewell to make room for possibility

self love

❤️Heart Story-N.A.Martin

It’s wise to be suspicious when it comes to an 11 yr old

‘I received an e-mail from my youngest SON this morning.

I have never received one from him before by the way, he’s 11, and he’s at school as we speak.

I hope.

Please see below

What has he done this time

Hang on, no. They’ll call me to fetch him

Phew, I’m safe

Bye Bye, Son

Please tell me he didn’t just say that

OMG….Michaeeeeeelllllllllll

This is the Story, I have been believing all day, for I have no reason to doubt my 11 year old do I?

I wondered how I was going to get the blood out of his white shirt, and pondered my approach.

I arrived at school for pick up-unusual as I am usually working- and along he prances, toward the car with his hands over his shirt.

“Show me” I demanded, suspiciously-I am ALWAYS suspicious.

He showed me with a smile from here to Texas.

Before I had the chance to open my mouth, he blurted out the following:

“Ha!!!! Pranked you. It’s fine mum, it’s tomato sauce.”

He appeared to be quite pleased with himself, but I was furious. It was worse than first anticipated.

I could see a small patch of white in his shirt, but it was mostly red. Tomato sauce covered it’s entire frontage.

“Are you serious Xavier?”

“Yep. Deadly. It’s only tomato sauce”

“I can see that. What I mean is, what the heck happened…and why….and YOU are so washing it yourself sunshine”

He wasn’t perturbed in the slightest.

“It’s a long, long, story”

I was happy for him to keep it to himself, but he launched into a detailed description, whether I liked it or not.

“You wouldn’t believe what happened. I was walking along, and I found a $5-00 note on the ground, so I thought..’sick’…and I ran to the tuck shop and bought some junk. A saussage roll and a drink, which I gave away because it wasn’t my money anyway, and you’ll see that’s why I haven’t eaten my lunch”

“You what? Why? It costs me money to make your lunch”

“Nope, I didn’t eat any of it, none of it. Not the carrot and not the salada’s…oh but I ate the chocolate cookie….and so I was eating my saussage roll and W kicked the soccer ball at me and ‘Whammo’, tomato sauce splashed everywhere. I only had two mouthfuls. That’s the second time that’s happened with tuck shop. The last time he kicked the soccer ball it also knocked my saussage roll all over the chair….so he owes me two saussage rolls now”

He said all of this with a huge smile through his gappy teeth, not at all fussed about what I would say.

“You should have seen our class today. It is the naughtiest class in history”

“Well that’s not good Xav”

“Yep. I don’t know how the relief teachers make it through the day, and poor Mrs G”

“Well I hope you’re not one of them”

“I am. I was a little bit cheeky, and I was kept in at lunch”- smiling

“Why are you happy about that?”

“Oh that’s nothing. I’m cheakier with L at swimming. She kicked me out of the pool once”

FLYNN pipes up-

“Are you stupid Xavier? You are completely incriminating yourself. You’re not even trying to lie”

ME:”I don’t know what to say, but trust me. I’ll think of something”

“And K got hit in the head with a ball 6 times today. So I was tomato head, and she was ball magnet”

“I feel like I’m in a strange mood. Do you think I’m in a strange mood mum?”

“No. The thought never crossed my mind…..and Xavier…”

“YES MUM?”

“You are so washing that shirt tonight”