Improv Ninjas
Why We're Afraid of Doing Improv With Our Kids
Okay, I know why so many of you are afraid of improv with your kids. They're improv ninjas. They're so much better at it than us, and it's our worst nightmare they’ll skewer us in ways we can't control.
Take Jenna Bush Hager’s nine-year-old Mila. Mila visited the Today Show to talk about the adorable kitten she’s set to adopt. Sounds all sweet and lovely, doesn’t it?
When Hoda Kotb asks Mila if she’s exactly like her mom, Mila shakes her head. No, she's very different, her bright blue eyes tell us.
Hager coos, "How are you different, little missy?"
"Because I'm better!"
"Dude!!!" Hager sighs as Kotb erupts into laughter.
No comic could match this savage yet playful barb, but it's just the start.
Sidestepping into seeming safety, Hoda tells Mila how much she loves Jenna. Crisis averted!
Until Mila blurts out, "One time she was laughing in our living room, and she peed her pants!"
The crew is audibly laughing now, but thankfully, Jenna Bush Hager is too. A tell-tale sign of a parent with emotional range and improvisational prowess, she delights in her daughter's capacity to be so clever, sharp, and knowing. Isn't to know someone to love them after all, even in their silly eccentricities?
Showcasing an openness to all shades of experience, Mila describes how her mother cries at the end of movies, and Jenna Bush Hager shares how they all did after Charlotte's Web, illustrating again how important it is to model how the seemingly messy feelings are all part of going with the flow of the improvisational mode and can still be lovely.
Mila wasn’t trying to embarrass her mother, it was her playful way of sharing how much she knows and appreciates her unique personal dimensions, what we're all aiming for with improvisation.
The coup de grace came as Jenna finally realizes she better shuttle this kid off set. Of course, Hoda and all of us watching were just loving it.
And that's when Mila confesses a little family secret: her mother doesn't like to wear underwear! As if to showcase her own triumph as an improv ninja, she concludes with the zinger: "she's not wearing it right now!"
Hilarious, embarrassing, and playful, this wonderful interchange is saved by how lovingly Jenna Bush Hager notes this as the best of her daughter: a capacity for emotional and intellectual range only a fellow improviser can appreciate. Even Hoda recognizes that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
In this newsletter, I’m going to hone in how to make these improvisational interchanges more fun for you and give you the tools to give your kiddos a playful run for their money so they are laughing and peeing their pants too.
Check out the adorable video of Miss Mila above!