" . . . ;a sense of humor can be a great help—particularly a sense of humor about (oneself). William Howard Taft joked about his own corpulence and people loved it; took nothing from his inherent dignity. Lincoln eased tense moments with bawdy stories, and often poked fun at himself—and history honors him for this human quality. A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done."
~Dwight D.Eisenhower
Who doesn't love to laugh? On adverage children laugh more than adults. Young kids can laugh an adverage of 400 times a day while an adult laughs about 20. It makes sense to use humor to talk kids now more than ever. I use humor with the kids. Young toddlers usually like slapstick humor (silly stuff-like, The Three Stooges) but preschoolers ages three and up tend to be more developmentally advanced when it comes to comprehending humor and jokes. A joke may not have simply gone over their head; a sense of humor is developed and has a lot to do with cognition, verbal skills, even culture.
Kids often say funny things without knowing it so I don't laugh out of respect. I had always felt it is rude to laugh at someone when they don't know what's going on and it tends to embarrass or end a conversation awkwardly. This happens to kids a lot...so unless they mean to be funny, I hold it all in.
With all things I have learned that there is a balance of knowing when to be serious. Since humor is part of who I am; how I look at my mistakes, life lessons, and especially myself...laughter comes easy. The best parts of my life include joy and laughter. For me, there is just no better way to add comfort to a situation than to make someone laugh.