Even though they often make us cringe, experts say dad jokes might be an example of good parenting.
In a new study, researchers from Penn State University demonstrated that parents who use humor have better relationships with their children.
"Humor can teach people cognitive flexibility, relieve stress, and promote creative problem-solving and resilience," said Benjamin Levi, professor of pediatrics and humanities at Penn State College of Medicine and senior author of the study.
While aspects of humor and play have been studied across various settings and in child development, the use of humor in parenting hasn't been formally addressed, the researchers said.
"My father used humor and it was very effective. I use humor in my clinical practice and with my own children. The question became, how does one constructively use humor?" Levi added.
First author Lucy Emery, who was a medical student at Penn State College of Medicine at the time of the research and is currently a pediatrics resident at Boston Children’s Hospital, said there's an interesting parallel between business and parenting, which are both hierarchical.
In business, humor has been shown to help reduce hierarchies, create better environments for collaboration and creativity, and defuse tension.
So while the average parent-child relationship is way more loving than its corporate counterpart, stressful situations still happen, and humor can help defuse that tension and hierarchy and help both parties feel better as well.
The team surveyed 312 people between the ages of 18 and 45. They also found a correlation between a parent's use of humor and the way their children, who were then adults, viewed the way they were parented.
Of those who reported that their parents used humor, 50.5% said they had a good relationship with their parents and 44.2% reported they felt their parents did a good job raising them.
On the other hand, of those who said their parents didn't use humor, only 2.9% reported a good relationship with their parents and just 3.6% said that they thought their old folks did a good job parenting them.
While it's not that surprising that loving parents would use more humor with their children, Levi said that such a stark difference between the two groups was still unexpected.
For more witty puns, check out our older publications on Dad Says Jokes. Who knows, maybe they will finally give you the tools (and by that I mean the one-liners) you need to finally one-up your own father!