STORY 46
HELPING WITH HUMORTherapeutic Characteristics
Problems Addressed
■ Feeling sad
■ Seeing someone you love feeling sadResources Developed
■ Communicating about humorous experiences
■ Relating with stories
■ Looking at the funny side
■ Helping others when they are sadOutcomes Offered
■ Positive communication skills
■ The benefits of humor
■ The joy of helping another
Jodie’s mom was feeling sad when I first met her. I guess we all get sad at times. Moms and dads
can get sad. Boys and girls can get sad. We are also happy at times, excited at times, or playful at times.
Sometimes it helps, if we are feeling down, to know what we can do to feel better.
Jodie’s mom told me a story about how that had happened for her. I suppose Jodie knew her
mom was feeling down. I’m not sure she knew how much one simple question she asked, while they
were eating supper, could help her mother feel better. I think Jodie was just curious. Maybe the kids
at school had been talking about it. What Jodie asked her mom was this: “Tell me a story about me
before I was born.”
Jodie’s mom thought for a while as she remembered back over her pregnancy, the time when
Jodie was still in her tummy. “There was one day,” she said in a short while, “in fact, the day you were
due to be born. You weren’t in any hurry, a bit like now when it’s time for you to go to school. Your
dad was at work and we lived on a little hobby farm where we grew our own vegetables and had our
own chickens and ducks. Well, somehow the ducks got out, and I couldn’t just leave them. What if
the foxes got them while I was in the hospital? I had to round them up.
“I had a big fat tummy and was waddling around like an old duck myself. I tried to corner them
against a fence, but I could hardly bend over to pick them up and they’d scatter in all directions,
quacking as though they were laughing at me. Each time I got close they’d flap their wings or just
waddle off. As I was chasing them around the five acres, I felt some pains. You decided it was time
to be born. I couldn’t leave the ducks out so I went and got an old sack, cornered them one at a time
and threw the sack over them.” Jodie was laughing out loud at the thought at her big fat mom wad-
dling around, chasing the ducks.
When her mom told her the next bit, Jodie’s laughter became louder. “As I was carrying one of
the ducks back,” she said, “it did a poo all down the side of my dress.” Jodie could hardly contain her
laughter and Jodie’s mom was laughing at the memory, too.
MANAGING EMOTIONSManaging Emotions 131