What April Fools Does For A Child…

…actually there is only one word to use….. “nothing”

Children are often subjected to the whimsical humor of adults by being the “butt” of a joke. Children’s sense of humor is much different than an adults. Unfortunately, you would think that everyone would say “well, duh, of course it is”, but yet, on “funny days” like April Fool’s, children don’t laugh when they are made fools of, only the adult laughs.

Case in point, a kindergarten teacher thought it would be fun to spray paint some ordinary rocks, “gold”. Then she handed the “gold nuggets” out to her children and told them she found gold and wanted to share it with her class. My son came home (we had been gold panning, and he knew what gold nuggets meant) and was SOOOO VERYYY excited that his teacher gave him gold nuggets, and we were rich now. The heartbreak when we had to tell him, that his teacher was playing a trick on him, was horrific. He was 5 years old. He trusted his Kindergarten teacher….his FIRST teacher! He didn’t understand her “joke”.

Fast forward to 2013, now he is ten. The first day back to school after the spring break. Excited to see his teacher, his friends and to be back at school. His teacher told the class that they would get brownies today. Big brownies…each student. Oh, they were excited. But they had to wait a little bit, after another subject, of course, the anticipation grew. Later in the day, when the teacher began handing out the “brownies” it turned out to be brown construction paper cut out in the shape of the letter ‘e’ (brown – ees), the children’s heart’s sank. My son said, she just stood there “cackling at us”. All the students were upset, and none of them understood why she would have done that to them.

The humor of practical jokes, is a sense of humor that is developed over time. As we mature, and begin to understand that “no harm is intended”, we begin to accept that sometimes it’s okay to laugh at ourselves. Some adults, and we all know many, who still cannot ‘laugh’ at themselves.

But children are different. They trust us to guide them, support them and most of all be honest with them. And when we break that trust, we take away a little bit of their childhood, and force them to grow up faster and face the “reality”.

Some people might argue that stories of Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, little green elves and tooth fairies is the same thing, that we are playing a practical joke on the children when we tell them these stories of fantasy. My arguement is this: Once the child figures out there is no Easter Bunny, adults don’t stand and cackle at the child because they believed, and thus the child can grow up at their own pace when they are ready to face reality.

IF you want to play a practical joke, play it on an adult who understands that a practical joke is just for fun. You wouldn’t do a practical joke on an adult who “couldn’t take it”, why are you doing them on children who don’t know “how to take it”. It teaches them nothing by cynasism.

photo credit: Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire via photopin cc
photo credit: yum9me via photopin cc