Kids' Naughty Behavior is Really Funny Sometimes

Alternate title: my 5-year-old bought a "premium farts package" on Amazon

Baby CHH!

Everyone tells you about the challenging parts of parenthood: the sleep deprivation, the constant slog of diapers, or the irrational sibling fights over toys that nobody really likes that much. But one thing I don’t see anyone talking about is how hard it is to keep a straight face when your child has done something naughty that also happens to be objectively very funny.

Kids love attention and validation, and they especially love knowing they made adults laugh. Not in a “Oh, haha, good joke” way, but in a “I might actually wet my pants way.” If your kid sees you laughing—genuinely laughing—about something they did, they are guaranteed to do it again, probably multiple times. Even if you never laugh at it again, they will continue, convinced that at some point you’ll resume laughing. If you want your kid to stop doing something naughty, it’s imperative that you DO NOT LAUGH AT IT.

Unfortunately, as I learned yesterday when my husband had to utter the words, “No more fart noises in this house,” in a completely serious tone, sometimes children do naughty things that are genuinely extremely funny.