“Wow, that guy looks just like the Fonz from Happy Days!” Dad says, as he takes his two almost-teenage daughters for ice cream. In perfect unison, a rare occurrence for sisters this age, they respond with a smirk, “Who is the Fonz?” This sparks laughter and chuckles about “living in the day” and the age of their father. Then come the snide comments about the jeans mom wears and the music she listens to in the car. While mom is gardening, wearing her faded and trusty Bon Jovi t-shirt, she gets laughed at by the same girls who have no clue who Bon Jovi is. To them, Lady Gaga rocks.
The Funny Things Kids Say
Kids are curious creatures. No matter how badly we want to mesh them into our grown-up worlds, they just don’t fit. While this is probably a good thing in many cases, their differences are evident in the funny things they say—some of which make perfect sense. From toddlerhood to the teen years and beyond, the funniest things are the zany questions they ask. Their favorite question? Why, why, why? Some kids take it further, offering crazy logic that only makes adults stop and wonder. They don’t understand why grown-ups “taste” the pages of a book when they read, or question the stork in Dumbo, or wonder why the world can’t be just like it is in Dora the Explorer.
Even funnier than what they say is how they say it. Many kids say “fire frucks” and twist their words into hysterical phrases that live on in the memories of parents everywhere. Other funny moments stem from the sheer honesty of innocence, which is only prevalent in children under 8. Since they don’t associate human flaws with negativity, they aren’t afraid to call a perfect stranger fat or comment on their stinky breath. It isn’t until parents enforce hushed tones that children begin to control this honesty. In many ways, life would be easier and funnier if we all lived that way. Imagine expressing yourself with the raw emotion of a toddler the next time someone upsets you—just reaching for their hand and biting them as hard as you can, because you’re mad and they were being mean. Sadly, there’s a good chance that person would think twice before being “mean” to someone else again.
Some of the funniest things kids say are simply truths of being. It’s easy to see why children, whose world is fuzzy and protected by the adults around them, can’t understand why mom and dad don’t just kiss and make up after a fight. Ask a child where money comes from, who the president is, what mommy does all day, or whether their teacher is good or bad, and you’ll likely get insightful responses. Recently, a child asked what to do about the oil spill in the Gulf and wanted to know why we were drilling in the sea. Another believed that an American was anyone who lived, worked, or had a family in the United States. Yet another, when asked about Obama being the first black president, responded with a quizzical look and boasted that he was the first black boy to go up his slide at school.
Real Life Examples
A preschool class was asked several questions about their mothers, and the responses were laughable, heartfelt, and honest. When asked why God made mothers, answers ranged from “to help clean the house” to “because she’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.” When asked what moms needed to know about dads before marrying them, the responses included his last name, if he was a crook, whether he made $800 per year, and if he said NO to drugs. When asked why their moms married their dads, answers (clearly tainted) included: “Because she didn’t have her thinking cap on,” “Because she was too old to do anything else,” and “Because he makes the best spaghetti in the world!”
Other funny moments arise from misunderstandings. When a child hears the word benign, they think it refers to the age you are after you turn eight. In fact, ask a child what any big word means, and you’ll be in stitches over their responses. Ask them about love, marriage, or how to fix the world’s problems, and you may be surprised by how candid and spot-on their answers are. If you’re ever in doubt about what to do at a crossroads in life, hand it over to a child and see what they think. While their answer might be funny, it will likely also be heartfelt and sobering.
The funny things kids say—whether accidental or on purpose—should be enough to make any adult pause and wonder what happened to their own honesty and humor. More interestingly, look at these moments under a microscope and you’ll see just how much influence your words and actions have on their lives. Children are like sponges, absorbing everything from the world around them. While some of the things they say may be funny now, they can also be indicators of what kind of parents we are. When a child sees the world, they see it with optimism and love. But soon, this humor and optimism will deepen into negativity and rebellion, and suddenly, they’ll be laughing at the things you say and do—like your Bon Jovi t-shirt!
Send Us Your Funny Statements
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