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DON’T BE BOSSY
It’s true that you’re the parent and you’re in charge of your children until they turn 18. That’s how you protect them and guide them. But when it comes to fostering creativity, exerting your authority in abundance will stifle the very thing you’re trying to grow. External constraints, like curfews for safety, are necessary to a point, but beyond that, try not to worry about your kids. If they don’t want to build the LEGO set according to the instructions, then they don’t have to. If they want to color outside the lines, then let them go for it. If they want to play with the neighbor kid down the street, then give them that freedom. Kids can make a lot more healthy decisions for themselves than some might think.
DON’T REWARD CREATIVITY
This seems to go against everything else on the list, but it’s important to remember. Incentives interfere with the creative process and reduce the quality of responses to creative stimuli. The flexibility of thought processes is stifled when the focus is on the reward at the end rather than the activity at hand. Allow your child to develop a mastery of the creative activities that they’re most naturally drawn to rather than try to motivate them to be creative doing things you’d like them to do. For example, instead of rewarding your child for playing the piano, even though they don’t enjoy it, ask them what they’d enjoy doing more. It’s often something like drawing, playing sports,
or attending a summer camp. As long as they want to take part in something creative, there’s no need to force them into activities they don’t enjoy. When it comes to creativity, the possibilities really are endless. Even though no two children are the same, the healthy ways we can encourage kids to discover themselves and the world around them are universal. It’s all about having an open mind, enthusiasm, and a lot of love.
KNOCK KNOCK! WHO’S THERE? The Wacky Evolution of the Knock-Knock Joke
as we can tell, they actually evolved from another kind of joke: the “Do You Know” joke. This style of joke was popular in the early 1900s, and according to an Oakland Tribune article NPR dug up, this was a typical one: DO YOU KNOW ARTHUR? Arthur who? ARTHURMOMETER! Not very funny, is it?Well, over the years this style of back-and-forth jesting evolved into knock-knock jokes. The popularity of the“knock knock”bit of the joke could harken back to Shakespeare, who BestLife credits with“the first-known occurrence of a knock knock, who’s- there dialogue” in Act 2 of “Macbeth” (though it likely wasn’t intended to be funny), or it could be a reference to 1936 vice presidential hopeful Frank Knox, whose name made“knock knock” irresistible wordplay for the radio.
KNOCK KNOCK! Who’s there? THERESA. Theresa who? THERESA CROWD!
Whatever the reason, knock knocks were all the rage in the 1930s, to the extent that people formed knock-knock clubs, businesses held knock-knock contests, and orchestras set them to music. However, the heyday was short-lived. In the following years, people started getting sick of knock knocks, and even psychologists turned against them. According to NPR, “people who loved knock-knock jokes were said to have social problems.” Today, knock-knock jokes are still around, but they’re mostly considered a game for kids or demoted to the realmof “bad dad jokes.”Maybe you think that’s warranted, maybe you think it’s tragic—either way, odds are the format will continue to evolve and probably outlive us all!
Unless you’re living under a rock, odds are you’ve laughed, grumbled, or groaned in response to a knock-knock joke. You may have even told a few yourself before you realized knock-knock jokes had gone out of style in favor of sarcasm and memes. That’s because at their core, knock-knock jokes are a quintessential American experience — and the perfect homegrown fodder for International Joke Day, which falls on July 1. But where did they come from, and why do so many people knock the knock-knock joke today? Well, according to NPR, knock-knock jokes have had a roller coaster of a history. Near
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