4 pieces of funny parenting wisdom from comedian Jim Gaffigan that's backed up by experts

Jim Gaffigan has been a stand-up comedy staple since the 1990s with many comedy specials popping up on television and online. Many of his fans know that Gaffigan’s jokes are mostly about two subjects: food and raising kids. As a father of five, Gaffigan has shared many perspectives on parenting that aren’t just jokes.

Whether it’s intentional or not, much of Jim’s perspectives on parenting may be made for humor and entertainment, but are also solid pieces of advice backed up by child care and parenting experts. Here are some of the few bits of parenting wisdom that Jim offers to the public through his stand-up comedy routines.

Sometimes kids have to learn through consequences.

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Jim discusses a story about how his kid rebelled against Jim’s advice to take a coat with him during a walk with the dog when it was cold. After some barbs against his kids’ bratty behavior, he reminds the audience that children don’t understand consequences at such a young age. Some child experts think that Jim allowing his son to walk out without his coat might actually be a good thing.

While obviously a parent should intervene if a consequence would put a child in danger, allowing children to see the cause and the effect of their choices can help them make better ones in the long term. While obviously parents would prefer if their child listens to them the first time or learns about consequences through positive outcomes like “keeping your room clean allows you to find toys more easily,” many kids learn lessons the hard way by being cold when they refuse to take their coat, a toy getting broken after rough play, or missing a fun activity because they didn’t finish their homework earlier.

Plan a vacation after going on vacation with your kids.

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While most parents want to show the whole world to their kids if they could, Jim knows that traveling with children can make you want a vacation for yourself immediately afterward. Wrangling young children, managing their luggage, covering expenses, and doing activities on top of that? Sounds like anything but relaxing.

This is why for the sake of the parents’ sanity, it's recommended to incorporate days of rest and recovery on the back end of your vacation when you return. This allows mom and dad to actually rejuvenate themselves after traveling by watching movies, playing games, and relaxing in comfy clothes for a couple of days to veg out a bit after a long trip. Doing this also helps young kids ease back into their routines and bedtimes before returning to school, too.

You cannot always influence your child’s personality.

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Jim jokes about how each of his kids develop their own personality and interests, much to his chagrin since it’d be easier to keep track of it all if all five of his kids liked and disliked the same things. They also each could have different behaviors and reactions to various situations such as just sitting at the dinner table like regular humans.

While parents certainly have a role to play in a child developing their personality, many will form their own likes, dislikes, abilities, and aversions. Experts agree with Jim that you just have to spend quality time with them, listen to them, and in general get comfortable with them being different than you pictured them. You may celebrate and support how they are, even if they don’t want to play basketball like their brother does.

Your kids will make you feel dumb and you’ll become smarter thanks to it.

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“What’s an antennae?” asked Jim’s kid. Jim didn’t know so he just said it was a stick. Makes him feel dumb, right? Well, initially, but it could lead to more knowledge about our world.

Make no mistake, the “mom brain” does exist for mothers and even fathers. However, a Dutch study is showing that having a baby actually makes a mother’s brain stronger and smarter in the long term. Along with that, raising a child tends to make parents smarter as they raise them. Parents are consistently being fed newer, updated information from their kids through their teachers, they are asked questions by their children which motivates them to look up some answers (“What actually is an antennae?”), and are being refreshed about lessons, logic, and information they learned long ago through their child’s fresh experience.

Raising kids is a challenging experience that can also be rewarding in terms of developing lifelong bonds, great memories, and finding wisdom from even the most auspicious sources. Yes, that includes stand-up comedians.