Dwyane Wade

They say laughter is good for the soul. So, I fill my life with lots of laughter. Some days I make humor of my own as I hear a joke and then share it with teammates. Other times, I’ll re-tweet a funny post on Twitter and cap it off with my signature “L2MS,” which simply stands for Laughing to Myself. But on most days, the humor of my life is found through my boys.

I’ll never forget the time when I got “posterized” during a competitive playoff series against the Chicago Bulls, basically got dunked on by an opposing player. I came home only to have my oldest son, Zaire, slam dunk on me with his Nerf basketball hoop and scream, “You just got posterized!” Clearly, he was poking fun at the event that occurred on the court just hours before. I couldn’t help but to laugh. This is just the kind of humor that finds me through my energetic boys who have nothing short of a sense of humor. But it’s not just those moments from the court that we find humor in; we laugh during our day to day activities while we wrestle with each other, sing songs off the iPad — and laugh when we get the lyrics wrong, call each other funny names like bird or chicken (my boys are pretty skinny and so I call them birds) and after taking a loss at another video game, I’ll playfully call out my son for cheating. Yeah, at home, they’re the champs and they won’t have it any other way. Funny.

I’m happy to have kids who make the most out of their days by finding those opportunities to laugh and embrace humor. As parents, it’s important that we step away from our serious and busy worlds and laugh along with them. I encourage you to do the same. Children are different; not every kid finds the same thing to be funny, but every kid loves to laugh. Pay attention to what makes your kid laugh and giggle. If you notice they laugh at a line from their favorite TV show, encourage them to tell you what just happened in that scene. You may just have unleashed the joke of the week for your kids and for you as well.

Laughter is good for the soul, but I’ve also learned that it is good for the home. “What did you find funny today?” may just be a question your kids would love to hear after asking how their day went. When they share a joke from school that day, share one of your own. A kid’s laughter is a beautiful sound, and as a father, I strive to hear more of it every day. What do you and your kids do to incorporate humor in the home? Share those funny stories and jokes with me here. Humor me.

Get the full story on this all-star father at www.dwyanewade.com.

---Dwyane Wade