Laughing When Others Get Hurt- Gives us Sense of Power

My daughter said, "I'm stuck" with a start when I hugged her when she awoke suddenly when I needed to leave her side to use the washroom. I laughed, and then I remembered how she laughs the same way when I fall and takes delight into seeing me get hurt. Why? Aware parenting says that this is called empowerment and it helps children gain their sense of freedom after the times we make them feel powerless. And I applied this to my own laughing at her crying that she is "stuck." Yes she says it cutely, but it goes deeper than that. I feel relief from the stress of having to always be powerless in having to give in to her all the time. I finally get a sense of "power" when she gets hurt. It sounds sadistic, but it is really the reason so many people laugh when others fall or get hurt suddenly. It is a "safe" way to let out their relief of others not being powerful and over them.. How profound.

Yes it is not right to laugh when others get hurt. But if we understand ourselves, we will know what provokes this reaction. We truly feel small and powerless over others. When they get hurt, it makes us feel a little better.

My father in a nursing home feels very small. I call him weekly because I can no longer visit due to the distance, and he sounds very small. But he always answers and does need my care. So I treat him like a child and just tell him things in life that I do, and he seems to relish in the detail. It teaches him how to be productive too, when he sees my example, just like a child. I do not act needy of him for anything, and just try my best to encourage and uplift him. He appreciates that, because his mother was not a mother to him in a loving sense, so he lacks belief in himself... And feels like two cents. Therefore, if someone else is strong and talks to him it makes him feel good. Yes he is narcissistic, but I feel good doing my part in being kind to him as it doesn't hurt me. I know who he is.