Have you ever caught yourself telling you children to stop laughing?
I remember when my boys were younger that the noise level of the laughter in our home seemed to exceed the sound barrier. Occasionally, I would have had my hormonal noise level limit and I’d “Shhhhhh” the laughter right out of them. As I look back from an empty nest I can’t help but think I would love to hear those little laughs echoing through my halls once again.
Proverbs 17:22 tells us that a cheerful or joyful heart does good like medicine.
Laughter is good for the heart, good for the heath and good for the home.
In a world where life is hard and expectations are high, laughter brings a sweet relief to life.
So, is you home a place where laughter fills the air? Do you hush your children’s laughter or join in?
The M.O.M. Initiative wants to encourage you to laugh hard, to laugh out loud and to laugh like crazy with your kids. So today, we’re sharing 10 ways you can get their giggle boxes going and hear the sweet sound of laughter in your home.
1. Have a joke night. Buy some wholesome joke books and pass them around around the room as everyone takes turns reading the jokes.
2. Play ‘safe’ practical jokes on each other. Whoopee cushions are always fun and a fake bug on the rug is silly, but it’s good for a good belly laugh. Laugh, giggle and ROFL. Be careful not to laugh at your children – only laugh with them.
3. Friday Night Game Night. Turn the television off and the let the games begin. Play Twister, board games, card games or games like Pictionary. Play for fun. Make the games much more laughing out loud than who wins or loses.
4. Have a Goofy Movie Night every month. Find movies that you and your kids think are funny and designate a family “Goofy Movie” night every month. When our children were young we would put The Three Stooges in the VCR (yes… I said VCR. For those too young to know what that is, it came before DVDs :-)) or watch recorded reruns of Family Matters.
5. Take a trip to play miniature golf or go bowling for a day. Make plans for your family to spend the day doing something you love to do. Play backwards, roll the ball from under your leg, play one-handed miniature golf. Make if fun.
6. Framing your funny faces and making funny movies. Grab the camera and take pictures of all the funny faces you and your family can possible make. Then take a quick trip to the local photo center, print them out and make a collage of your funny faces. It will keep you laughing for years to come. Want to do do it more? Make a funny movie. Write the lines or just ad lib but make it as funny as you can and then spend hours of fun watching it together.
7. Water balloon toss. Great summer fun for the family. Fill balloons with water and toss them back and forth as you back up away from each other. Be sure to toss and not throw or someone can get hurt and ruin all the fun.
8. Have a Wii night fun fest. Be silly. Dance. Exercise. But whatever you do, has as much fun as you possibly can without hurting yourself.
9. Playing at a park. Play kickball, dodgeball, flag football, soccer or just create your own scavenger hunt. But the goal is not to win, it’s to see how much you can make your children laugh.
10. Surprise the kiddos with a clown. Can’t afford one? Then be one. Dress up like a clown and act as goofy as you can. Kids love extreme drama so have fun being funny. Try your hands at juggling or riding on a tricycle. Clown around and your children will get a laugh out of it all…and so will you.
Life is too short and too hard to not make your home a haven of joy… a place where laughter fills the air and joy fills the heart. Laughter is fun for the whole family. Don’t take yourself so seriously that you can’t enjoy life. Laugh a lot, laugh out loud and laugh like crazy. It will bring health to your heart, to your children’s hearts and to your home.
What do you do to make sure your home is filled with laughter?
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