Do you pretend your chidlren's jokes are funny?

[spidermama]

Do you feign laughter to please them? I feel they know I'm faking if I feign laughter, but I feel cruel if I remain poe-faced.

[Bugsy2]

how old are you children spidermama?

[spidermama]

6, 5, 3 and 5 months.

[spidermama]

sally.

[QueenEagle]

No, I remain po-faced. Which is usually more funny trying to do than the joke itself. It's a standing joke that I don't laugh but fail miserably to remain straight-faced. Their jokes get sillier and sillier until I can't hold it in anymore and collapse pmsl!!!!

[Marina]

Mostly I have no trouble finding something to laugh at. Really dire ones I reserve the right to stonewall.
Are you finding your two eldest are suddenly serving up AWFUL puns spidermama?

[spidermama]

Yes, the puns are coming thick and fast. Almost as hilarious as all the 'pooh' jokes.

[Sponge]

Dd hasn't really got the hang of jokes yet and tells "jokes" that just aren't funny, but we still try to laugh. To a 5 year old pooh is endlessly funny isn't it?
If we tell her she's funny she doesn't like it. She interprets "funny" as silly or strange - doesn't get yet that funny, in the right way, is good.
Mostly the things she says which do make us laugh are things which she says totally straight-faced and means seriously.

[jodee]

Yes, I laugh out loud and tell an equally non-funny one back, which ds finds hysterical.

[dot1]

Yes... at the moment when I ask ds1 what he wants for breakfast (he's 3.6) he answers something like "coco pops and ovens" instead of his previous "coco pops and Cornflakes". He thinks this is hysterical and I think it's pretty clever to be trying to make a joke so I laugh along - every morning...!!!

[AnnaInManchester]

With Ollie I pretend to find her jokes funny, then that makes her laugh even more, then she starts Leonardo off and Leo has this wicked laugh, he sounds like a furby, and in turn makes me laugh! Leonardo isn't quite old enough to be cracking jokes yet, although at the moment he thinks it's hilariously funny to poo in his undies when they're playing in their room, not tell me - although he's very capable of doing so -then smearing it all over the carpet and walls and putting it in his lovely timberland boots!

[AnnaInManchester]

sorry - I went a bit off topic there

[expatinscotland]

Absolutely!

[AnnaInManchester]

and I might have put ppl off their lunches!

[Bugsy2]

Always laugh, because somehow the fact that they think its funny makes me laugh. But then again, I laugh at poo, fart & wee stuff too!!!!

[expatkat]

No I don't, only because ds is desperate to understand what a joke is. He'll say something completely unfunny and ask "Was that a joke?" and I feel like I should be honest. But then once in a while he says something hilarious and I laugh til I'm almost sick, and he gets so much pleasure out of the effect he's had. So in our house I think it works for me not to pretend to find jokes funny, but I can completely understand why others do it.

[AnnaInManchester]

How old is your boy expatkat? I do it purely because of the reasons I put, plus self-esteem, to make them feel good.

[expatkat]

Anna, hids is 5 and a half. I completely think one should laugh at their kids' jokes no matter what, but I have this v. specific philosophical, questioning little boy who is seeking a definition of a joke. . .so in his particular case it makes sense to help him arrive at that definition, which means not laughing at non jokes. But with dd I intend to laugh at her jokesshe's a completely different type: more jovial, tending to seek a positve response from people. Ds is more "weird."

[Tortington]

i do the terrible joke groan and only laugh when genuinley funny

[AnnaInManchester]

Hi Kat...Your little boy seems really intelligent, bless him!

[spidermama]

Expatkat my 3.5 year old is doing the same. He says things like, 'an elephant drining all the rain - Is that funny mummy'?
It's kidn of hard though because humour is subjective.

[Miaou]

One of my abiding memories of my childhood was hearing a good joke at school, splitting my sides repeating it all day, dashing in to the kitchen when I got home to tell it to my mum and getting "oh, that's a really old joke, heard it years ago" - utterly deflating! I vowed then that I would always laugh at my kids jokes (and incidentally not spoil the punchlines because I know what's coming - that happened to me too!). To make other people laugh is a great joy and I refuse to spoil the experience for my kids!

That applies to "ready made" jokes really, but we apply a similar principle to the "pun" variety too. That's never been difficult with dd1 - she is a naturally witty child and can have dh and I in hysterics almost daily with her off-the-cuff remarks. dd2 is 17 months younger and struggles sometimes with humour, but she always gets at least a wry smile and never criticism.

Can you tell this is a childhood issue I've never quite got over?

[nooka]

ds and dd are always telling the same jokes. It can get really boring! However they always laugh at each other so it's not really a problem. I laugh if it's funny, or if it's new, but not when it's the 10th time that day! dd (4) hasn't quite got the hang of jokes yet, and often gets them muddled, but ds's (6) repertoire is growing.