Ways you have made children laugh

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What things have you done or said that made children laugh (yours, or others)?

My niece howled with laughter at the way I read Thomas the Tank Engine in a "serious" voice. "The bucket was old, and it had five holes, so they had to lower it into the river, and empty it into Thomas's tank as quickly as they could."

I tend to say "stupid stupid!" in annoyance if I make a mistake. Again, this has caused a few young laughs: I think children are told never to call anybody "stupid" nowadays.

I made a rod for my own back by "accidentally" singing the alphabet letters in the wrong order. It went on for what felt like years, and not once did I get it right.... 😂

My daughter likes to be tickled and will roar with laughter. Sounds bizarre but she finds it hilarious when I pretend to be mad at her when I do it.
She’s quite sensory driven. She’ll giggle if I put my face close to hers and bat my eyelashes so she can feel it on her cheeks.
She also finds it funny when I give her soft toys different voices and make them talk to her.

DS nearly died laughing in Ikea when I said we needed a new socktopus.

I did the voice for a squirrel we were watching hide nuts.

My DH used to bounce our DS on his knee aged about 18 months singing You don’t win friends with salad from the Simpsons. He thought it was hilarious. It was a regular pastime in our house. He’s 26 now so not so much these days :)

My mum used to do the eyelash thing with us and we called them butterfly kisses.

My insistence that salmon are secretly training to take over the world by hiding tiny bikes and gym equipment on riverbanks made youngest ds cry with laughter, as did my plan to ensure the dog would be with us forever by stuffing him after death and making him a hydraulic leg for realistic weeing on "walks". We are, on reflection, quite strange.

DS used to cry with laughter when Sam Smith came in the radio and I would sing along in an over the top whiny, nasal voice as Sam Smith is so damn whiny!

Oh and the more he’d laugh, the more OTT I’d get. I miss those days!

Ahh my 3yr old laughs at anything and everything I do or say lol she’s a character and she’s always making me laugh doing funny faces or voices. Anything to do with poopoo or wee wee she thinks is hilarious 😂

we have been doing the elf each Xmas and she was asking if it was coming back this year and I said it might draw on daddy’s face. Well she was hysterical at that lol

my older kids laugh AT me, especially when I’m trying to use phrases they use, or when I tell funny stories about when they were little they love that!

Repeating something I had been told as a child: your trainers will walk away without you if you wear them without socks. (I was sockless while I said it.)

When DS1 was about a year or old we were out walikng witbh him on DH’s shoulders. I accidentally tripped off the edge of the kerb and did a daft ‘oof’ noise. That gorgeous bubbling sound of a toddler laughing - I did have to repeat it about twenty more times though.

I can make a popping sound with my finger in the side of my mouth. My small nephews think it is hilarious, then spend ages trying to do it.

I was reading Harry Potter to my daughter and instead of saying “you’ve got the wrong man” I shouted “you’ve got it wrong man!” Causing hysterical laughter on both sides when I realised my mistake.
We bother still laugh about this many years later 😂

I work with little kids and experience this joy every day! Getting words wrong in a song is usually a big hit. Using a kids name in a rhyme or a song always gets a good reception too.

I'll never forget the first time baby DS saw a ball bounce. He couldn't stop laughing! he loved plastic rolling balls and played with them every day. Then he saw a rubber one roll off the table and bounce back up and he was in a state of shock. Then he started laughing and couldn't stop, he was eventually overwhelmed and got upset. It was so sweet though, bless the innocent days.

There is a footpath with manhole covers at regular intervals, through which rushing water can be heard. My niece liked to stamp on these, because they made a nice satisfying sound, and I did the voice of an angry troll who lived underneath, who would threaten to climb up and eat her up, or sail away in his little boat and never be seen again.

In my childhood, there was also a poem my dad liked about a baby going down the plughole in the bath; of course, this was recited at bath time. And if I put my feet too close to the open fire, they would be burnt off, as happened to Pinocchio (in the book, not the Disney film).

DS finds daddy's hiccups the most hilarious thing ever. He's only 6 months though, so a spoon is also hilarious

My kids LOVE it when I voiceover nature - especially when I ‘do’ the story about when a magpie got into our living room and the conversation between it and the magpie outside

🤣 that is funny!

My adult DDs still laugh now when they recall all the voices I used to do in stories. I’d even add in my own characters who would do a sort of commentary on the story.

My niece (then nine years old) laughed for a good minute at my party trick of making her "apparate" from one end of the garden to the other, like Harry Potter, and she asked me to do it with some of her friends. (I invented this trick, I haven't seen it anywhere on the internet.) I pointed out a low stool, near the house, and a hoop on the ground at the bottom of the garden, and told her I was going to make her apparate from the stool to the hoop. In the middle of the garden, I blindfolded her and spun her round, led her to the stool, helped her to stand on it, and got her to feel the wall of the house. Then I told her to jump off the stool, and she would apparate into the hoop. When I took off her blindfold, and she saw that she had "apparated" to the bottom of the garden, her face was wide-eyed amazement, and she laughed so hard.

(She didn't say so, but I think she did work out how the trick is done. Here is how: you need a secret helper. Make sure the child sees the stool and the hoop in situ before you blindfold them. While you're spinning them round, your helper moves the stool to near the hoop. Lead the child to the stool, and help them to stand on it. As for getting the child to feel the wall of the house, I held a single brick, and got her to feel one surface of it. That part is optional, but makes it more convincing. Warn them not to take off the blindfold, otherwise they might get Splinched. Then tell them to count to three, and jump off, so they land in the hoop. Your helper then quickly moves the stool back to where it was, while you keep talking to the child to keep them distracted. When your helper has hidden themselves away, take off the blindfold.)

2 almost guaranteed ways to make children laugh:

1. Best with toddlers or a little older - make a noise like a telephone and use their foot like a phone. Lift it to your ear (or bend down!) and say "hello. Hello? I cant hear you. Is there anybody there?". Then "hang up" It's hysterical apparently especially if you do it a few times in a row and then complain about silly calls.

1. I love doing this one but you have to know how long the child will find it funny for. It has only once not got at least a giggle. Most children properly laugh.

Child: it's my birthday! Me: how old are you? Let me guess. Hmm. (Then look all thoughtful whilst looking them up and down and on the top of their head etc but not too long). I think you are... 31! Then: No! I'm 6! Me: No you're not! You are at least 27. Them: No! I'm 6! Me: Are you sure? Them: Yes! Me: well happy 14th birthday! Them: I'm 6! Me: Happy 6th birthday!

My daughter at a few months old found it hilarious when I ripped up some paper infront of her she was very easily please at that age

When our daughter was a baby she laughed and laughed and laughed at “peepo” with Teddy popping up from under the table!