The best medicine

Personally, I’ve never been much for taking medi cine. I have no ideologi cal objection to it and don’t exactly pursue homeopathic alternatives; it usually just doesn’t occur to me to take some Tylenol when I have a headache. There will probably come a day when I’ll need an advent calendar filled with daily doses of various pills, but for now I’ll just keep powering through.

Our kids are a little bit the same way as me, but they mostly abhor medicine because they don’t like the way it tastes. Of course we lie and tell them it doesn’t taste that bad because we try to be good parents, but oftentimes it’s a fight.

More and more though, I’ve found that the old adage “Laughter is the best medicine” holds true a lot of the time. And not just because the Reader’s Digest said so, authoritative as that publication may be; it’s in the Bible too. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like medicine,” and with kids it’s especially helpful.

The thing about kids that few people mention is they’re usually very easily tricked and distracted, which makes taking their mind off of negative things can be a lot easier than you think.

I can’t tell you the number of times a headache has been cured by my asking if they’d like me to stomp on their toe so they’ll forget about their head. And the sillier the question, the faster the remedy. Before they know it, they’re laughing about the thought of whatever ridiculous, hypothetical situation I’ve conjured up and totally forget about their problem.

And laughter’s contagious too. My daughter was watching Reba with me one day, because we’re that cool, and she was laughing hysterically at all the jokes. At five she barely even knows what they’re talking about, but when that laugh track kicked in, she was absolutely rolling.

Of course, I’m not suggesting you skip your blood pressure pills, but I guarantee you that watching a corny sitcom with a childlike mentality isn’t going to make your blood pressure any worse.