Right before I started my first job as a sixth grade teacher, I met with the teacher I was taking over for — my own sixth grade teacher (what a full-circle gift). I expected advice about classroom management or lesson plans.
Instead, she said this:
“Make sure you laugh every single day.”
Laugh with your students. Laugh at the ridiculousness. And if you go a day without laughing? That’s your cue that something needs to change.
That wisdom floated back to me this week…because I’m realizing it’s just as important in parenting as in teaching.
This week alone:
I found random play food in our dryer while folding laundry. (How? Why? When?)
We were jolted awake at an ungodly hour by devastating sobs… only to discover the tragedy was that the lava lamp wasn’t on.
Our almost two-year-old is in peak “toothbrush is my enemy” season.
We’ve had multiple “no more butt jokes” conversations.
There are toys scattered everywhere, dramatic heartbreak over invisible injustices, and “great ideas” that make you stop mid-step and question everything.
And it’s so easy for those moments to spark irritation, frustration, overwhelm.
But I’ve been trying something different.
Let the things that are truly big deals be big deals.
But don’t let the things that could be a chuckle turn into something heavier than they need to be.
Sometimes the play food in the dryer is just… funny.
Sometimes the lava lamp meltdown is a story you’ll tell later.
Sometimes the bedtime battle is your cue to catch your spouse’s eye and try not to laugh while brushing tiny, furious teeth.
Daniel and I are reminding each other not to take it personally. To laugh. To keep going. To hold the line…but also laugh.
Because if we go too long without laughing?
That might be our sign that something needs to shift.
So here’s your reminder this week (and mine too):
Find the humor. Let yourself laugh. Parenting is wild… and sometimes the only sane response is to chuckle and carry on.