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The Importance Of Being Silly
Dec 13 2011

I think one of the main ways to survive parenthood (and life) is to have a healthy appreciation of being silly.  Of course there is also the importance of being earnest.  For some reason last night my kids were being extra silly.  I had the opportunity to watch the 15+ kids in my son’s after school care program yesterday so the teachers could have their holiday party.   I don’t know how teachers deal with all the different personalities.  Just the few short hours I was there, I could pick out the bully, the insecure one, the mean one, etc.  Over dinner, I expressed to my kids the importance of being understanding & kind as well as how much I appreciated them…of course they thought that was weird.  Somehow that digressed into a discussion of very tall people and some other potty talk not appropriate for the blog but funny nonetheless, and understandable if you have kids.

My son wondered if a tall person never stopped growing (after a rousing discussion on the tallest person in the Guinness Book of World Records) what would happen if his bones kept growing after he died.  He wondered out loud would happen if after this tall person disintegrated (don’t know how he knew this word) his bones kept on growing until the world was all dust.  I told him that was impossible but quite an interesting story.

My daughter told a story about penguins.   She said “Once upon a time, there was a penguin.  And then the penguin turned into an ice cube.  And then another penguin turned into an ice cube. While the penguins were ice cubes, they never stopped p**ping and the other penguin was never happy again because the penguin was so angry that he exploded.”

My son then told a story about a person who had very long hair who never stopped going to the bathroom (#1) and his hair fell in the toilet and was eaten by a crocodile so he became bald.  But I told him that was highly inappropriate for the blog.  Of course, they were laughing hysterically.  I kept thinking how lucky I am to have such story telling kids.  If they choose to write or blog, I’m sure they will be much better at it than I am.

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2 Comments on “The Importance Of Being Silly”

  1. 1 Nalini said at 9:58 PM on December 19th, 2011:

    Dear Aruni, Thanks for sharing the blog. This one is the best. 🙂 ..it reminded me of my days with Pranay when he was that age.He used to call me the nibbler whale and I was supposed to swim on the bed or run around it chasing him, trying to eat him and he would run round and round the bed. 🙂 These are the best years, innocence, imagination, magic – all up close and personal available only to us Moms. We are blessed.
    ~ Nalini

  2. 2 Aruni said at 9:37 PM on December 27th, 2011:

    Hi Nalini – I just fished your comment out of the spam filter. 🙂 Yes, I know I’ll one day miss these days when they don’t mind goofing around with mom!