My children do not always make me laugh.

There have been so many times when I have lost my sense of humour. It has completely dispersed itself into the atmosphere and is nowhere to be seen.

In the early years of having children, my sense of humour would disappear for days. I was so tired and cranky all the time. I was trying to keep everything in order, everyone lovely and everything under control, but to do this I sacrificed my sense of humour.

In recent years I have learned to relax a lot more. I still like having a tidy house and well-dressed children, my hair done etc, but if it’s not, I don’t get so bothered. I have learnt to keep hold of my sense of humour and it works (most of the time).

I have cleaned my lovely white kitchen to perfection and had someone decide to make a cup of tea and swing the dripping wet teabag around in the air like a helicopter to squeeze out all the excess water. POOF! Sense of humour flew out the window…or did it? In that moment I decided that I liked my sense of humour and wanted to keep it around. I grabbed hold of it before it got to the window, took a photo and posted it on Facebook and laughed with the rest of my friends. Then got the teabag swinger to wipe up the mess.

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Hours spent tidying the lounge room, I walk outside for a bit of fresh air and return to an architecturally designed, cushioned cubby house. Sigh. Photo opportunity – click! Sense of humour retained. (Most of the time my sense of humour goes AWOL it is usually something to do with cleaning…not my favourite pastime.)

The lovely white wall next to the staircase has become a lovely shade of “hand-print brown”. My husband and I are thinking of using this colour the next time we need to paint the house. Our furniture choices usually go by “is this easy to clean if someone vomits on it?”. It may not always be stylish, but our sense of humour sticks around.

My motto: If it’s not a life or death situation – just sigh and laugh.

I value my sense of humour, it’s important for my sanity.