Monday 30 May 2011

From laughter comes tears

Recently I overheard a granny telling a mom she better go check on the kids (who were playing/roughhousing upstairs) as they were laughing to much so soon someone was going to be crying.

My first thought was why are you getting involved and my second was so what?

Of course I remember hearing the saying "tears follow laughter", or was that "from laughter comes tears", from many different grown ups when I was little and yes more often than not their predictions came true.

But does that mean we should stop kids from laughing in the first place? I mean, really?

OK ok it's parental instinct to want to protect your offspring but are we being true to them if we are always stepping in to rescue them? Trying to protect them from pain or sorrow is futile because at some point they are going to run smack bang into it.

As much as I remember the saying I remember the fun and laughter we enjoyed as kids but for some reason the teary bits are pretty blurry. Because that's the beauty of tears... you can wipe them away.

So let your kids play till they cry, pick them up dust them off and before you know it the owey is all but forgotten and laughter will fill the house once more.
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